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Col St Martin
Mountain passes, running in an east-westerly direction,
connect all the high major canyon drainages north of Nice.
Col St Martin connects the Vesubie Canyon with the Valley of
the Tinee. It is interesting to compare Col St Martin with
the D32 Utelle summit,
which also crosses between these two drainages. But the D32
summit does this further down stream, just before they both
merge into the Vars Valley. Of course Col St Martin is a
higher climb. Like the D32 Utelle summit, the area below Col
St Martin is rich in medieval clustered towns. But the first
impression of Col St Martin involves ski areas and modern
condo high rises.
From East. The profile includes all of the Canyon de Vesubie as approach. It starts getting a little steeper somewhere around Lantosque. Other sources consider the approach of the pass to start in St Martin Vesubie. Once the road starts climbing past St Martin, three peaks over 3000 meters are in good view. They are Cime de Gelas, Mt Clapier 3045m and Cima de Brocan 3045m. When the road leads through the short tunnel the views disappear. On top there is a rondell, several high rise condo buildings, at least one restaurant, ski shop and lifts, a pony ride business and no views. From West. (described downwards) This side is the
quieter side of the two. The landscape has a more pastoral,
soothing effect too. The many different parts of Valdeblore
contain many hotels and several gites. But I didn't check how
open they were. I also included the entire approach of the Tinee
valley in the profile. This side is marked with signs directed
towards cyclists, marking "current altitude",
"remaining altitude to be climbed", and "average
remaining slope" statistics. The eastern side is not.
Dayride: Col St Martin x2: out and back ride from Lantosque <> St Martin in Vesubie <> Col St Martin <> turnaround point at 750m, maybe a km below turnoff to Rimples The last summit point with different start and end points on this Extended Tour is: D32 Utelle s(u)
towns along the approaches
to Col St Martin: back to Cycling Passes in Europe 
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Approaches
