Mt Jafferau

[carlobar999]

Hi

I am hoping to ride Mt Jafferau in July, does anyone know how long it takes to ride ?
I wont be in the area till lunchtime on day 1 or am I better of doing it the next day with an early start.

Thanks in advance

[Kendo]

I will be watching with interest on this one as its on my to do list for this summer. Also plan on doing the Colle Sommeiller as well! All my research (Limited!) is that it is closed nowadays but that doesn't seem right. I Downloaded this pdf
PDF
from here
Information

but i may not be reading it right.

[carlobar999]

I hope you are not reading it right, but it looks right to me, Mt Jafferau looks to be closed and Colle Sommeiller looks like it's closed weekends, it looks official too.

Whoops there goes the Stella

[exrm193]

Here's a report I did over on the KTM Forum;Hang on......photo's not coming up.....
wait a minute

try this;

The plan was for 8 of us to get off the tunnel and ride down to Italy using as many off road bits as we could. Northern France passed without incident, although a couple of people had to lie down for a rest in the mud with the bike.



We had to average 262 miles per day if we were going to stick to the plan. We had a camp site reserved for us in Italy, so 262 miles per day seemed easy enough. WRONG.
After the first few bits of off road through forestry blocks and fields etc, it soon became obvious that we were not going to hit our daily average. We jumped onto some cracking “D” roads and headed South. Stopping at a camp site near St Dizier.



The first real testing off road bit saw one of the BM's hit the deck and push it's engine bars back into the generator/flywheel crankcase cover, causing a nice little hole and loss of oil. We spent an hour or so improvising and adapting our spares kit to repair the Bavarian tractor....and a damn fine job we did. Gaffa tape and a piece of self annealing tyre strip sealed the hole, and it held together for the rest of the trip.



Day 3 and the approach of Alps, saw the trails starting to get a bit gnarly. The plan was to do a couple of trails and head for a camp site. We split into 2 groups. The 3 x KTM's and the XR cracked into the more gnarly stuff while the BM's and Tenere's stuck to the D roads.

We had an off road section planned, so off we went. Up along some really rocky wide trails. Nice easy going, no probs. Following the Garmin Sat Nav was easy. We were bang on. When we got to the top, the scenery was superb. We followed the "road" into a farmyard type area that we couldn`t get through. The farmer came over for a friendly chat and by pointing at the Sat Nav screen we basically asked where the road was. He said it no longer existed. OK....so we headed back down to the rock trail and set the Twat Nav for the shortest route to the camp site....following a "road".



The rocky track turned into a rocky path. The rocky path turned into a very rocky path and I decided to have a lie down on a steep drop into a stream. Once rested, the other 3 joined me and we made our way up out of the stream. Still following the "road" on the Twat Nav...we were still BANG ON in fact. We broke out of the trees into a massive uphill field with some buildings at the top. "The road must be up there" we thought.....yeah right. It must have taken us over an hour to get all 4 bikes up. Wet, knee length grass with hidden boulders meant carnage on the climb. We got to the top, no road, and no water...DOH.

We were all fcuked and starting to dehydrate. The Twat Nav said 1.3 miles to the next nearest road.....how hard could it be??? FCUK ME famous last words.
It was a MEGA steep, rocky footpath down the mountain. Each bike had to be man-handled down through the rocks. No way was it possible to ride any more than a few feet





Exhaustion was setting in. Each bike was fully loaded remember. Camping gear, food, spares etc etc. It got darker and darker until it was too dangerous to continue. One slip could have seen any of us over the edge and not stopping until we hit the bottom. We stopped for the night on the footpath next to a stream. We boiled up some water and managed to eat and re-hydrate a little.



In the morning, we cracked on, luckily, the going got a little easier and easier until we hit a tarmac road. OK, it may not have been a Ray Mears type day, but as close as us 40 something’s want to get to appearing on the News.

We finally got to the camp site at the foot of Mount Jafferau. It was full of off road bikes.....excellent. A day off the next day, saw us take a bimble into Briancon and a visit to the KTM dealer. Next day, saw us head up Mount Jafferau. About 35k of rocky trails heading to the summit. Plenty of bikes coming and going, we even had our docs checked by the plod half way up. The summit is just short of 10,000 feet and well worth the effort of getting to.






There is another 60k dirt track on the other side of the valley according to some Germans we spoke to, but we didn`t have the time to explore.
We were due to do some off roading on the way home, but to be honest, everyone was knackered and just wanted to stick to the "D" roads on the way home. It was an excellent ride North. Stay off the Autoroutes and the "N" roads, and you will have a cracking ride, even with dirt tyres fitted.
So, the Alps.....highly recommended. Mount Jafferau well worth doing. Camping each nigh kept things nice and cheap. If there`s one thing I would say, having been stuck at 5000 feet overnight. If the Twat Nav says it's a road, but all you can see is a footpath, then chances are, it's a footpath. Garmin, bunch of cnuts!.

Rest of the photo's here;

http://s924.photobucket.com/albums/ad84 ... ff%20Road/

[Rederic]

Look's like it was a great trip

[Bonniebird]

I hope you are not reading it right, but it looks right to me, Mt Jafferau looks to be closed and Colle Sommeiller looks like it's closed weekends, it looks official too.

Whoops there goes the Stella

The Colle du Sommeiller (Stella Alpina) is open on the 2nd Sunday of July every year, Mt Jafferau is also open at that time as well.
My husband and I will be in the area from 12th-15th July riding as many trails as we can B)

[boboneleg]

We last rode the jaffreau in 2007 with no problems except it was misty and you couldn't see a thing. In 2011 we were going to ride it again but we were stopped by a local at the bottom who told us it was closed, we took his advice as we had just come down from the Assietta (other side of the valley) where a German rider had also stopped us and told us how the local police had just fined him 100euros :S

The Somellier is fine to ride on the weekend of the Stella but is closed on any other weekend in the summer until 7.00pm.

The link you have put up has been around for a while now so I'm not sure if it's really up to date. If anyone else has anymore info I would be interested as we are keen on riding up to Jaffreau this july when the Stella is on.

[beddowsm]

did the Jafferau in 2011.....almost got to the top but there was a large landslide blocking the way...wiped out the trail.

[desertraider]

We did it last year before the stella and had a blast , we went up in the morning and back down in the afternoon , stopped and took in the views fag breaks etc , fact i liked it better than the stella

[scouse]

Ah my annual reply...

Okay - Stella Alpina weekend, as per the posted PDF and signs say in the area, with usual Italian flair, the laws can get relaxed for "festivals" - as Stella Alpina weekend usually fills Bardo out of season with bikes and bikers requiring fuel, food and lodging it's acceptable by the local Commune(council) to be counted as a "festival" so laws get relaxed.

Mt Jafferau and other tracks in the area does have sections similar to Green Lanes which are , like in the UK, subject to the Italian version of the Road Traffic Acts so carry your docs in a sealed plastic bag to be on the safe side. Also obey all road signs,particularly at the weekend, if you see a Stop sign always slow and do a dab whether on the road or on gravel. If Signor Ploddo doesn't see you even make a token effort to do this he will happily slap a hefty on the spot fine on you. And they do lurk in the bushes... happened to quite a few peeps on the Assietta in 2007.

The only folk who take a thorough audit of all the Alpine trails are invariably German and I would personally love UK version of their gravel road bible , know as Der Denzel after the authors surname. Not easy to get hold of in the UK, but a small group have transferred it to a web site http://www.alpenrouten.de where you can find GPX downloads, maps, routes and regular updates about closures and conditions from folk returning from riding in the Alps - If you don't read German you can use Google Chrome to auto translate or use this link here as a start http://translate.googleusercontent.com/ ... M9CQTrbl9w

I really think we need set up a FAQ as the same questions get asked every year by new members