Colle di Sampéyre/Sampeire/Col d’Sampeyre
	Height	Climbing height
	2284m	1357m (Ponte Marmora via Elva); 1349m (Bassura di Stroppo) 1329m (Sampèyre)
	Difficulty	Beauty
	4 (5); Elva road 4-5 (5)	4-5 (5)
How to get there	From Valle Máira in the south there are two roads to the pass. One goes from Bassura di Stroppo (935m) and is evenly steep and very well paved. It is steep and around 9% most of the time. The road choice from near Ponte Marmora (927m) is the more spectacular and the one used by the locals in the village of Elva. It is very steep however, with gradients up 15% on a slightly dangerous road that is often marked as closed (but the people of Elva apparently always have a shovel with them in the case of stones on the road). They have a warning for falling stones higher up which comes across a bit ironic when he whole road is filled with stones at times. The road from the north starts in Valle Varáita at the village Sampèyre (955m) and is also steep – around 9% most of the time with not so good surface.
Other comments	This is a very lovely pass with fine views in most directions at the top. The Elva road is recommended but is very hard (up to around 15%) and long and you have reasons to fear it for this and the risk of falling stones. The road also has some nice tunnels. See the photos at the Virtual Alps web site! I am not sure about water on this pass and you better bring with you from below. There were some annoying flies on the green pastures near the top. There is an interesting ridge road at the top which crosses the paved road. To the west it ends eventually, but is cyclable for the most part. To the east you could eventually, after collecting many passes on the way, get to a paved continuation taking you down the mountain ridge. This road may be possible to ride much of with a racer (slowly) in fine weather. [IT-CN-2284]