Col de la Madeleine
	Height	Climbing height
	1993m Sign 2000m	1573m (from the D97 road) 1552m (La Chambre)
	Difficulty	Beauty
	4 (5)	3 (5)
How to get there	This is one of the more well-known of the French mountain passes, much because of the frequent visits by the Tour de France over the years. It is almost like a archetypical mountain pass, with almost equally long hard climbs from each side culminating with the summit placed between high mountain peaks – these are also almost equally high on each side. The north climb has a slightly lower average gradient but is more irregular and therefore ultimately the harder side to climb. It starts at around 420m from the small D97 road. From the south the climb starts in La Chambre (441m).
Other comments	The valleys are nice on both sides. There is a bar at the summit. There is an alternative road up on the south side via Montgellafrey to west, which is more narrow and maybe a little harder (it joins the main road at the ski resort Longchamp (1650m) before the last part to the pass). There used to be an alternative road on the south side via Doucy, but it was so utterly destroyed in a landslide that it is not likely to open again. There is an odd, but interesting way to get to the pass from the south by going from near St. Jean de Maurienne (Pontamafrey) over the Col de Chaussy (1533m). The serpentines up through Montvernier are fantastic. The road is more or less unpaved for 1-2 kilomteres only after the pass, but then it is a very good road down to the road up to Col de la Madeleine. (Or one could possibly continue straight on a gravel road to Longchamp.) [73-1993;o192]