The Colle del Nivolet, at 2,612 m in the heart of Gran Paradiso National Park, is one of the few great Alpine passes where you ride (almost) car-free: since 2025 motor traffic has been capped by a booking system, while cyclists remain free to climb at any time.
A climb between glacial lakes and high pastures
From Ceresole Reale (1,620 m), it’s 18.5 km for 1,000 m of elevation gain, averaging a fairly deceptive 5.4%: the first kilometres below the Serrù dam are the hardest, with sustained ramps of 10 to 15% through tight hairpins. Past Lago Serrù (2,275 m), the gradient eases and the road runs alongside Lago Agnel (2,300 m), two lakes of glacial origin enlarged by hydroelectric dams, before opening onto the Piana del Nivolet, a wide plateau of pastures and peat bogs — the highest peat bog in Europe — where ibex and chamois graze right up to the foot of the pass, at 2,612 m.
A road (almost) given back to bikes
Since 2025, the provincial road up to the pass is no longer simply closed on Sundays as it used to be: it now runs on a quota system instead. Between July and the first weekends of September, car and motorbike access to the final stretch (from Lago Serrù to the Piana) is capped at 350 vehicles a day, bookable online via the NivoletCard (€10). Bikes face no restriction whatsoever and always ride freely. Two days each summer even see the road fully closed to private traffic for soft-mobility events — making for a climb to the Nivolet in a calm rarely found on such a spectacular pass.
Getting the ride right
The pass tops out at 2,612 m: even in high summer, wind and cold set in as soon as you leave the lakes behind, and a windproof jacket folded into a pocket makes all the difference on the descent. Afternoon thunderstorms are common in the high mountains in summer, so an early start from Ceresole Reale is the safer bet. The long ramps below the Serrù dam call for generous gearing.
When to go
The road is generally open from mid-May to mid-October depending on snowfall — in 2026 it only reopened on 19 June. June to September remains the safest window to climb, with July and August preferred, once the lakes and pastures are fully clear of snow.
Good to know
Ceresole Reale, a village on the shore of its own lake, offers a simple but sufficient choice of accommodation for a stop before or after the pass. Gran Paradiso National Park, created in 1922 out of the former royal hunting reserve of Vittorio Emanuele II, is home to one of Europe’s largest populations of Alpine ibex — good reason to keep a camera within reach on the slopes of the Nivolet.
