Col de l’Izoard
	Height	Climbing height
	2360m	1015m (Château-Queyras) 1156m (Briançon)
	Difficulty	Beauty
	3-4 (5) South; 3 (5) North	5 (5) South; 2 (5) North
How to get there	From the south the road takes off up the pass near Château-Queyras (1345m). From Arvieux (1563m) it is sometimes quite steep on the south side with up to 14%. From the north side the climb starts right in the town of Briançon (1204m). The surface is perfect on the north side, but not nearly as good on the south, so it makes sense going from the south over this pass and all the nice views are on this side, like the famous Casse Deserte landscape.
Other comments	The south side is dramatically different from the north side of this pas and as many have said this pass is good for separating the South French Alps from the Northern Alps. Here you can experience both worlds on the same climb. However, the northern Alps are usually much nicer than this north side and the south side is exceptionally beautiful among the southern passes. The Casse Deserte – the strange, coulorful and stony landscape on the higher reaches of the south side is a major tourist attraction. It is very hard to understand the proportions because it looks as the mountainside has all slided down with some rocks an trees still standing here and there. The road goes down a little here on the south climb. This ”slided” landscape goes all the way up to the pass itself. [05-2360;o270]