The Col

Finally, on our last day of skiing, we find Col de l'Isèran, which we rode over on bicycles, way back in 1985. It's the highest paved pass in the Alps (at 2770 meters… just a few meters higher than Passo Stelvio in the Italian Alps, which we also rode that year.) The memories came back little by little. This was the last pass on one of the longest days of the 1985 Super Tour of the Alps, a day which had over 200 km with 5 big passes that totaled more than 4000 meters of climbing. We passed by this bleak outpost with the little chapel at the top late in the day and rode the long winding descent down through Val d'Isère, finally ending the day at Bourg St. Maurice.

Today we skied by the same pass, with the same bleak little chapel on the windswept pass. But the sun was out and the snow was good, so we skied down and took a few more runs and finish off the afternoon of skiing on the other side of the mountain in La Daille. What a week!

Col de l'Isèran, 2770m, highest paved pass in the Alps.

View down the pass to the north (the road is there somewhere under the snow).