The Colle Fauniera, a.k.a. Colle dei Morti (“Mountain of the Dead”) is part of the Colli di Cuneo, a range of high mountain passes in the Cottian Alps.
With its summit at 2,481 meters, it also owns a top 10 spot in the list of highest paved passes in Europe.
The rather ominous name Colle dei Morti stems from a fierce battle which occurred in the area during a 17th century clash between Franco-Spanish and Piedmontese troops.
The Colle Fauniera was fully asphalted in 1999, to allow the Giro d’Italia to pass over it, after which it became more popular to the (cycling) tourists.
The scheduled passage in 2001 was cancelled due to the entire stage – 18 – being cancelled after police raided the team hotels the night before.
I doubt that a lot of maintenance has been done on the road since.
I’ve experienced first hand that in the upper part of the pass it is – besides narrow – in bad shape and possibly “deadly” too if you’re not careful, especially during a descend…
Generally speaking, this pass is not very much traveled.
It is not that widely known and the state of the road doesn’t attract as much traffic as for instance the Stelvio.
There are also no attractive hairpin sections, but this is more than compensated by the views.
These are wild and wide open, its green meadows – filled with a variety of alp flowers – home to a large population of marmots.
Pantani Forever
At the summit you will find yet another monument dedicated to the late Marco Pantani, in memory of his epic climb during the Giro of 1999.
I’m not sure how many “Pantani Forever” monuments there actually are, but I’ve cycled passed four of them so far: on the Mortirolo, my favorite, on the Galibier, on les Deux Alpes and this one.
It’s a little ‘creepy’ if you’re all by yourself on a gloomy day, like me during my trip up this beautiful mountain.
The statue really fitted the wild desolation of the summit…
The Communal Council Castelmagno (officially) renamed the mountain to “Colle Pantani.”
However, ratification from the Institute of Military Geography of Italy has not been given and it may never come to that either.
But, it would be an unprecedented event if it did since there is no known cyclist in the world that has a certified mountain – i.e. showing on official maps and road signs – named after them.
Note that the monument has, besides Pantani’s name, Col Cuneo written on it – if anything, this would be the place to formalize the name…
Profiles
There are three possible routes to climb the Colle Fauniera on a road bike, all of them with an average grade of 7% or more.
Starting from Demonte, the ascend is 24.7 km long.
Over this distance, the elevation gain is 1,721 meters, which puts the average grade at 7%.
This is the road I took during my Tour de France 2014.
The views higher up were overwhelming and because the passage at the summit turned out to be blocked by snow, we had the road even more to ourselves than usual…
At the time, I was so impressed by the beauty of the landscape, that this climb is high on my ‘most beautiful’ list, next to more famous ones like the Stelvio, Iseran or Galibier.
Report of my trip here and I found a video on YouTube by Simon Tange.
Starting from Ponte Marmora, the ascend of the Colle Fauniera is 22 km long.
The elevation gain is 1,567 meters, which means the average grade is 7.1%.
Since I have never cycled this end, there’s not much I can add to that 🙂
However, you might enjoy the video from Bike the World.
The profile from Valgrana is shown here, but starting from Pradlèves, the ascend is 22.4 km long, with an elevation gain of 1,689 meters.
Which – at an average grade of 7.5% – makes this the toughest climb, mathematically and on paper anyway.
During the Giro’s of 1999 and 2001, the Colle Fauniera ascend from Pradlèves was included in a stage.
In 2001 it was also the scheduled Cima Coppi, but the stage was cancelled.
Video from the Col Collective from Pradlaves.
