Chartreuse Alps Col Hunting

A fun 6 Col loop. The beautiful Chartreuse (Alps) Massif lies between Chambéry and Grenoble.

Starting from dowtown Chambéry, my goal was to mountain bike up into the massif through a little gap at Col du Mollard, on a forest trail/road — while visiting a bunch of Cols.

For quite a few road biking routes in the Chartreuse Alps see here.

I started near the Université de Savoie – who would have guess it was built on a hill? Almost immediately I was in the countryside, winding up a steep little paved road. After 6 or 7 kms the paved road ends and became a stony, gravel path.

The trails is very rocky and at times steep, so it’s hard going. Until near the first three cols it is all ride-able, but then at times is too steep and slippery to ride. It’s very peaceful, almost entirely through a fairly thick forest.

The last half kilometre to Col du Planet is very steep, and I mainly bike-pushed.

Don’t bother with the little detour I took up to Col des Fontanettes. It is completely unride-able, but being a col-hunting fool I pushed my bike up a very steep trail (too steep to even descend on bike).

After Col du Mollard, the forest ended and I found myself well inside the Chartreuse Alps, with nice views of cliff massives in every direction. The road is briefly unpaved, but I soon joined the paved road near Col de la Cluse.

I road up to the Col and then took another unpaved path for less than a kilometre just to visit an old friend: Col du Cucheron (don’t mistake with Col du Grand Cucheron).

near Col du Mollard

Moo

Descending Col de la Cluse

In the woods

The rest of the route is fully paved. I descended down to Entremont-le-Vieux and climbed up To Col du Granier. Finally, I descended 15 kilometres down and back into Chambéry.

A fun, quiet, 6 Col loop.