Grand Colombier: One of the Hardest Climbs in France, and the Jura's First Hors Catégorie

Required Activities

• Take the Culoz road, 18.3 km at 6.9 %, from the junction at 244 m, and find the sign on the cliff section that reads 14 % — then use the two kilometres of near-flat at 3 % that follow, just before the Anglefort road joins at 878 m, as the only rest the mountain gives you

• At the col, cross the cattle grids that stop the herds walking out onto the road and look for the summit cross they announce, then work out from the pass which of the four roads that meet here — two from the west, two from the east — you would least like to have come up

• Walk both tops from the col: 500 m south to the true summit of the Grand Colombier at 1,531 m, and 300 m north to the Croix du Colombier at 1,525 m, and judge from the ground which of the two feels higher

• From the top, pick out the Rhône valley 1,250 m below you, the Lac du Bourget beyond it, and — harder — the point where the Rhône breaks out of the gorges of the Val du Fier, then turn east and name the Alpine summits on the skyline