Colle del Nivolet
	Height	Climbing height
	2612m Sign 2617m	1999m (Locana) 2198m (Cuorgné)
	Difficulty	Beauty
	4 (5)	4-5 (5)
How to get there	This is a giant climb from Locana (613m) (the road starts even lower down at Cuorgné (414m)). Just after Noasca (1058m) it starts to get really steep and the tunnel soon thereafter is one of the steepest tunnels in the Alps I know of, with gradients of around 12-14%. It is only paved on the south side and the road on the north sie will apparently not be finished in the forseeable future as some people in the Aosta valley are afraid of too much traffic (which seems rather unlikely). The paved road goes down to a café on the north side. From there it is only a path, and as I have heard it is as well to strike off the gravel road as quickly as possibly as it will only get more problematic to go down/up from it further north (it is the unfinished road that goes to nowhere). The path down to/from Pont (1960m) in the Valsavarenche valley is fairly easy walking and much of it could be cycled with an MTB. The walk takes 3 hours. There is a steep section just above Pont, where some care is needed, but the path is wide. The road up to Pont from the Aosta valley is fine.
Other comments	The battered old hotel at Noasca is not very good to stay at and I am not sure about the places up at Ceresole Reale. So try and think of some place earlier to stay the night at (maybe Locana or Cuorgné have some accomodation, but it was not all too obvious). Water should not be a problem to find on the way. Around Ceresole Reale (1620m) it is really very beautiful and the road is almost flat for a couple of kilometers. I managed to fall down the steep section when walking down to Pont and fell without control and damaged some ribs. (This was because I was walking with racing shoes with only covers for the Look cleats and as the shoe sole is hard an not flat it was dangerous with loose bigger stones on the path. Try MTB shoes or sandals instead.) [IT-TO-2612;o196]