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Classic climb: Passo Gardena, a breathtaking climb in the Italian Dolomites
Towers of rock pierce the blue sky like ancient battlements. Pine forests cling precariously to the slopes below. A tantalising sliver of tarmac beneath your wheels leads through green meadows festooned with wildflowers towards the swirling climb ahead.
The Passo Gardena is surely one of the most enchanting climbs in the Italian Dolomites, with every switchback revealing glorious picture-postcard views. But this Giro d’Italia classic – which looms above the town of Corvara in the Alta Badia region – has a dark secret.
Although less well known than the neighbouring Passo Sella and Passo Pordoi, which along with the Passo Campolongo form the four passes of the famous Sella Ronda ski and bike loop, the Passo Gardena is known among local riders as the toughest of the quartet. The average gradient is a reasonable 6.5%, but this ascent packs in flurries of hairpins that hit 7-10%, and it serves up a maximum leg-sapping gradient of 12%.
With the accompanying lack of oxygen, the 2,121m-high Gardena is much harder than the fairytale pictures suggest. Italian legend Vincenzo Nibali has knocked it out in 22min 28sec, but we’d recommend you budget a lot more time – and grab an extra shot of espresso too.
History and legend
The Gardena climb has featured in the Giro d’Italia 18 times, from its first appearance in 1949 to its most recent in 2017. Famous riders to have crested the pass first include Fausto Coppi (1949, 1954), Gino Bartali (1950), Charly Gaul (1958), Laurent Fignon (1984) and Lucho Herrera (1989).
On the Giro’s last pilgrimage here, Stage 18 of the 2017 race, Spanish pro Mikel Landa crossed the Gardena first on his way to winning his only mountains classification jersey at a Grand Tour.
This year the race will return to the Val Gardena region for a finish in nearby Santa Cristina Val Gardena on Stage 16, and for a start in Selva di Val Gardena on Stage 17. Although the Gardena pass itself will not feature, amateur riders will be flocking here in their thousands.
The Passo Gardena connects the Val Gardena in the west with the Val Badia in the east. A route was first built over the pass in 1915 during the First World War, but the first paved road was built in the 1960s and it ushered in a wave of tourism, with hikers, bikers and skiers now descending on the region throughout the year.
But this is an ancient landscape. Findings from the Stone Age dating to 6,000BC have been made on the Gardena, and the collection of arrowheads, needles and tools represent the oldest finds in the Dolomites.
The geological history that gave rise to the region’s unique jagged turrets of rock is just as fascinating. This landscape is an ancient underwater terrain. Two hundred and fifty million years ago, the Dolomites were part of a coral reef in the primordial ocean of Tethys, but years of tectonic activity and volcanic eruptions shaped the reef into the twisted peaks that now lure cyclists and mountaineers.
Those white-grey pinnacles take their name from the carbonate rock dolomite, which is named after the 18th-century French mineralogist Déodat Gratet de Dolomieu, who was the first to describe it.
Garden of suffering
The Gardena can be climbed from Corvara in the east or from Plan de Gralba in the west. The Plan de Gralba ascent is much shorter, with 250m of climbing over 5.9km, an average gradient of 4.2% and the steepest section at 7.1%.
This is the direction taken in the Maratona dles Dolomites gran fondo. But the Corvara climb is a longer and harder drag, with 599m of ascent over 9.6km, an average gradient of 6.2% and those vicious aforementioned stabs at 12%.
This is also the most aesthetically pleasing direction in which to climb the pass, and the one used in the twice-yearly Sella Ronda Bike Day sportive, which draws cyclists from around the world for some glorious traffic-free climbing.
From Corvara, a cluster of wooden chalets, cafes and hotels nestled around the Church of Santa Caterina, you begin your ride into the jaws of the mountains. The opening kilometres are a long, straight dash through a forested valley, beneath imposing peaks that encircle you as you ride towards them.
When you approach the village of Colfosco, you take the first few long, swirling bends of the day. It’s a beautiful start to the climb as you pedal through lush meadows dotted with chalets, towering pine trees and piles of firewood.
A few kilometres further along, a sharp cluster of hairpins saps leg muscles. This is where the climb kicks up to those 7-10% gradients and you have to earn those magical views. Beauty has its price.
The final stretch of the climb offers close-up views of the Sella massif, coated in slabs of snow and ice, which rears up like a crashing wave. The pass is not far from here, but with so many switchbacks it seems tantalisingly beyond reach. Then as the climb switches direction for the final time, and you edge towards the pass, you can drink in glorious views of the mountain road you have just conquered.
When finally you crest the summit you enter a stunning mountain kingdom, surrounded by the fortress-shaped Sella Group to the south and the lizard-like spine of the Pizes de Cir to the north, but the drama hasn’t finished yet. Spin over the top and you can enjoy views of the colossal kilometre-long slab of 3,000m-high rock known as Sassolungo – ‘long stone’ – on the other side of the pass.
So high the road beneath never sees sunshine, the wall of the Sassolungo perfectly completes the feeling – you’ve truly ridden through the garden of the Dolomites.
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