The route stars in Bellagio on the classic Ghisallo climb. The first few km are around 14% gradient. As the road flattens a bit (everything is relative) take a right turn to San Primo.

Stresa to Alpino is around 10km with 600 meters of climbing. The section out of Stresa is somewhat steeper than the final ride along to Alpino with some hard ramps on the way.

My orginal plan had been to try and cycle up the quarry road from Candoglia but the road is guarded by a gate with security cameras.

Hot, damn Hot. It wasn't too bad to Plan Lachat but at 4k from the summit I didn't feel great. Very shakey on reaching the col and had to lie down.

A trip to the "communist" resort of les Karellis. We'd not been here before and so it was a bit of discovery.

General DescriptionBois Barbu (Villard du Lans) is linked with Herbouilly and Corrençon in the Vercors. Together they constitute the three access points of the Haut Vercors nordic ski area.

We ruled out south aspect slopes due to the poor weather forecast and the risk of crust, that seems like a good move.

Our first trip up to St Hilaire this season. There had been around 50cm of snow the last week but very little below 1100 meters. Fortunately there is snow making lower down.

After a bit of XC skiing I toured from the Col de Porte pistes to the bottom drag then continued down the path at the end.

General DescriptionLes Karellis is located in the Maurienne valley in the French Savoy department.