The wild road to Collade des Roques Blanches
Collade des Roques Blanches is a high mountain pass at an elevation of 2.260m (7,414ft) above the sea level, located in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France, near the border with Spain and the Autonomous Community of Catalonia.
The road to reach the summit is extreme. It starts asphalted from Prats-de-Mollo-la-Preste. Starting from this town, the ascent is 24.3 km long. Over this distance, the elevation gain is 1.517 meters and the average percentage is 6.2 %.
This road can be closed anytime when the access is not cleared of snow. It starts quite easily in Prats-de-Mollo-la-Preste, with slopes that doesn't go above 7 % in the first quarter of the climb. Then it comes a 4-kilometer section at over 8.5 % average, this bumps up the difficulty quite a bit, requiring more effort. The road then tightens and gets in a less optimal condition up to the Col des Basses, with 6 more kilometers averaging 5.5 %. The last 6km are unpaved, climbing up to Coll des Molles too, with a final part averaging 7.5 with 11-12 % short stretches, on dirt and rocks.
Pic: http://panneauxcols.free.fr/Panneau%20du%20mois/09-2005-crb.htm