Off Road and On Snow on Mont Ventoux

Matt Boullin

This was a nice day’s trip designed to enjoy the clear skies, crisp air and snowy mountains. I had planned to cycle up the road via Chalet Reynard and then come down the off-road route on the south side through the Massif des Cèdres. However on approach the signs were telling me that the col was closed so I decided to reverse the route so that I could sneak up to the col without being turned back.

The rough landrover track up the south side is certainly rideable all the way up with plenty of switchbacks to kill the gradient where necessary. It was about 5 degrees at the bottom but I soon warmed up once I started climbing. The wind was pretty strong so I cooled down pretty quickly when I stopped for a break.

At one point I stopped for a sandwich and a photo and the wind was strong enough to blow my sandwiches away. However the views were getting better all the time. At about 1100m elevation I realised that I could see the sun glinting off the Mediterranean. That’s about 40 miles away. I was very impressed as the previous times I had been up Mont Ventoux I had not seen so far. I guess it was because the sun was so low in the sky even at midday. On reaching home I checked on the map and it was actually the Etang de Berre that I could see just separated from the Med by a strip of land.

As I got near the top the road starts to work its way around to the west and then finally onto the north face where it joins the road coming up from Malaucène. As it comes around the mountain it leaves the warmth of the sun and snow started to appear on the ground. On reaching the road I also reached the barrier saying that the road was closed.

Passing the barrier, the road quickly became covered in snow and soon became unrideable. It was at this point that maybe I should have turned back. I did consider it briefly but I am usually loathe to retrace my steps. All of those of you who are wiser than me may now nod knowingly!

What followed was a pretty hard hour and a half pushing the bike up the road on the snow. I was lucky that there was a hard crust on the snow so I wasn’t sinking down on each step – well only occasionally. However the views were fantastic. The sky was absolutely clear and the sun was picking out all the mountain ridges all the way to the Alps.

I did have a second trigger to reconsider carrying on when I tramped across the skiing range. It does seem rather incongruous to be pushing a bike where people normally ski. But by this time I was getting near the top and I had high hopes that the sun would have melted more of the snow on the southern side so that the descent would be better. More sage nodding is appropriate here.

Rounding the final corner before the summit was incredible. The wind was so strong that I had to walk very slowly and carefully or otherwise I would have been blown off the mountain. And it is a pretty steep slope down here. At one point the wind was strong enough to blow the bike up to almost horizontal we me hanging on to it waiting for the gust to diminish. At this point I could not actually take a step for about a minute.

I finally made it to the top but declined to walk up the steps to the top car park as they were covered in thick ice. A fall here wasn’t to be contemplated! I then battened down the hatches (tightened all the drawcords, pulled my hat down further, etc) in preparation for the descent. I also lowered the saddle as far as possible as the road was snow and ice as far as I could see down and I reckoned it was going to a case of paddling down rather than riding, indeed this proved to be the case.

After a little while the road would occasionally have a little clear patch in the middle where you could pedal and pretend that the bicycle was helping you descend quicker. Stopping to take the obligatory photograph at the Tom Simpson memorial I checked the temperature and my not very accurate thermometer was reading -5. With the windchill it certainly felt like it.

Unfortunately 5 minutes later I hit a tiny patch of black ice hiding between the end of a piece of clear road and the next stretch of icy snow. I saw it before I hit it but even though I was travelling at walking pace I couldn’t stop in time. Down I went, the bike nearly going all the way down the mountain, and the water bottle shot off in another direction. Picking myself up I worked out I was battered and bruised but nothing was broken. In the end I managed to get down to the bottom whilst putting a clump of snow on my jaw to reduce the swelling. Not a perfect end to a ride.

A few months later I’m wondering if I would have done anything differently. I think in hindsight the fact that the temperature was dropping and the light was fading fast was making me rush a little too much. It would have been better to take a little longer! I still consider it a great ride though – being alone on this mountains in these conditions was quite an experience.

Matt Boullin
(Ecully, France)