You either start in Demonte (780m) (Valle Stura) to the southeast; from Ponte Marmora (944m) (Valle Maira) to the north; or from Pradleves (822m) (Valle Grana) to the east or further down at Valgrana (638m). No matter what your choice is, this will be a very hard and rewarding climb. The road was fully asphalted first in 1999 for the Giro d’Italia and has since been used another time (2003), which surprised me as it was nearly not usable on the Ponte Marmora side in 2002 when I was there (and this side they descended), but the road was probably improved here since then.

You cannot go from Pradlèves to Ponte Marmora or vice versa and pass either Colle dei Morti; Colle del Vallonetto or Colle di Valcavera – they require just another kilometre or two in the direction of Demonte to include in the climb. Colle di Valcavera (2416m) is 900 metres before the pass coming from Demonte and Colle del Vallonetto (2439m) is 400 metres before the pass from the north side. Only Colle d’Esischie (2366m) (900 metres further north at a bend) will be climbed by going directly between Ponte Marmora and Pradleves. The average steepness exceeds 7% on all the climbs, but it is never extremely steep, just a very long way to climb!