A very steep, deserted forest road in the Swiss Jura mountains. It’s very close to the better known and also outstanding climb to La Barillette – see here.
Starting from La Rippe, the route soon enters the forest and heads up. The entire climb is in Switzerland but it is rarely more than a few metres from the French border. After reaching the top I explored a few little farm roads, but after getting a flat tire I decided to cut the ride short as I had no more spares.
To make a loop, you can take a short gravel path into France to Col de la Vattay, and descend yet another steep, paved forest road. This link has a map showing the climb via Col de la Vattay, and a descent down La Baudichonne.
2 Comments
Hi Will,
Thanks for posting this – I’m planning my second stint of “altitude training” round Geneve in early June, hence all the information on Jura’s climbs is, obviously, very welcome.
My first “altitude training” in mid April was a success – thanks to fantastic weather and also your blog. Col de Croix Fry, Aravis, Forclaz du Montmin (had to turn around 1 km to the top, as this was my 3rd climb on the 1st day in the mountains, and re-attempted following morning – success! Cret de Chatillon + Mont Revard loop to Annecy was fantastic and very highly recommendable to even relatively unfit cyclists as myself. The view from the top of Mont Revard and those paragliders gliding just a few dozen yards away from you in quick succession – very impressive indeed! Descending via Col de Plainpalais was a bit rough though, but I kept cheering myself that descending Oude Kwaremont would surely be worse. Col de Joux Plane was again a fantastic time spent on a beautiful day, but, alas, without descent to Morzine (I have tried few hundred metres, till I hit the first snow on the road and had a very sobering walk back up:) The gem of it all was Col de Forclaz + Barrage D’Emosson on a sunny and warm Saturday morning. The view of Mont Blanc massif from the top of Barrage was just beyond belief! So majestic and yet so close! I bet the view was most certainly as good all the way up Forclaz, but there I was fighting gallons of sweat getting into my eyes and making them feel quite uncomfortable. I now realize that your wearing a bandana probably isn’t just to emulate Il Pirata…And, yes, I discovered that I have a fear of tunnels, even short one’s, particularly going up…
Thanks to you again for keeping up a good work in helping us to enjoy cycling uphill.
By the way, which way you go for Jura climbs from Geneve? I tried quite a busy road via Fernay-Voltaire to Gex several times – not particularly fun. Any better suggestions to get to Gex, Rippe, Gingins, Biere?
Cheers.
Rokas
Rokas,
Wow, that is a quite a list in a short period, well done. I agree, Emosson in nice weather is about as good as it gets.
I’ll send you a map with a better way to exit Geneva on that side of town