The Road to Collado del Ampriu Has it All
Puerto del Ampriu is a high mountain pass at an elevation of 2.261m (7,417ft) above the sea level, located in the Benasque Valley, in the heart of the Pyrenees, in Spain. It's one of the highest mountain roads of the country.
The pass, also known as Alto del Ampriu is terrible, with slopes over the 12%. The road has been climbed many times by the Spanish Vuelta, but only to the end of the paved part, at 1.912m above the sea level. At this point there’s a big parking and a small gravel road leading to the real pass. It’s around 1km long from the parking.
Avalanches, heavy snowfalls and landslides can occur anytime and can sometimes block some sections of the road, being extremely dangerous due to frequent patches of ice. Starting from Cerler, at an elevation of 1.571m above the sea level, the ascent is 9.6 km long. Over this distance, the elevation gain is 690 meters. The average percentage is 7.1 %. A minor gravel road north the pass climbs up to Pico de Cerler, at 2.322m (7,618ft) above the sea level. It’s a ski-station service road pretty steep.