Salève via Mont Sion and St. Blaise
By Will • Nov 29th, 2008 • Category: Climbs, Cycling, SnowI love having a mountain in my backyard!
The back way up Le Saleve - the mountain overlooking Geneva to the south - is a fantastic winter climb.
Starting from home, usually I cycle around Mont Sion, but today decided to go over it on steep, quiet farm roads past the Croix de Vin. On to Charly, past Col de Mont Sion and up to St Blaise.
In winter, from St Blaise, the road climbs another 10 kms on cleared roads. It’s a beautiful ride primarily through the woods. The route is ploughed just until the little Grotte du Diable auberge at about 1300 metres of altitude.
Continuing past Col des Pitons, for the next 4 or 5 kms the road is shut and snow covered. While hard going at times on the bike, it’s generally flattish as it’s along the top of Le Salève. A truly fantastic stretch with views of the Alps on one side and views of Geneva below and the Jura mountains on the other. On sunny winter days, it’s paradise.
Reaching Croisette the road is ploughed again as there is a single tiny ski slope, cross-country skiing, and most popularly tobogan slopes - at the scene of my early-season broken nose. 
To finish, I descended the super steep route down to Le Coin and back home again. Yikes, my brakes need changing.
I think below was the photo of the day. View of the Juras just peeking above the Geneva clouds as I started the descent:
I expect I’ll due this winter loop several times over the next few months.
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Will is Happiest while cycling uphill. More enthusiastic than talented, his 2008 Challenge is to (again) cycle 160,000 metres of vertical ascent.
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What are “tobogan slopes”?
was it my poor spelling or the fact that you live where snow is rare?
toboggan :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toboggan
Yes… you have the right to brag! Beautiful pics… great climb. Did your nose quiver when you started that sketchy decent? Good brakes or not… I guess if you hit a slick spot there’s not much you can do.
You know what the problem with your blog is Will? The pictures are so amazingly beautiful that my brain goes mush. I have to read each article three times before my slack-jawed expression is diminished
Eternally jealous of your location…