Cormet de Roselend and Col des Saisies
The climb up the Cormet de Roselend is also starting from Bourg Saint-Maurice and it’s definitely more challenging than the Bernard.
And it’s more traveled too, as it is the shortest route to Beaufort (I guess).
It offers some spectacular views while ascending and even more spectacular while descending from the summit towards Beaufort, past the lake.
However, it was quite cold and windy and the descent was not easy, or at least it wasn’t for me.
After passing through Beaufort, I had a short break at the foot of the Col de Saisies. I should have paused in Beaufort, because between there and here, I found nothing (open) offering a nice respite.
I then went up the Col des Saisies, which can be divided in two parts, as there’s short descend near le Praz. The second part is slightly harder, with a stretch of over 11%.
However, it’s an even climb, averaging 6.4% which is nearly friendly…
There was not much to be seen/had at the summit, other than that it was more crowded since the caravan of the Critérium du Dauphiné would pass, coming from the other end (Flumet).
So, I turned around quickly, wanting to descent back before I would have to stop and wait it out. I managed to descend half way – to le Praz again, where a gendarme would not let us go any further.
So, we had to wait almost an hour for the bunch to pass, but we did shoot some great pictures of them :-)
My plan to take on the Col du Pré as well, evaporated during my forced cool down, but also drowned in the rain – on the other hand, I admit I wasn’t feeling too sorry about that…
I took the route via Hauteluce back to Beaufort, where we did have a longer break, before returning to Bellentre – by car.
Trip: 83 km / 2,224 m elevation gain (Garmin).
