The climb starts the moment you cross the Genil bridge below Güéjar Sierra, with nine hairpins stacked into the first 1.3 km at 8 to 9%, then a 400 m stretch of flat or faint descent to gather yourself, and after that it stops relenting. The upper half runs in long straights with few corners, rarely under 12%, ramps over 20% and hairpin insides touching 22%, all of it on asphalt so wide it feels like a motorway laid up a mountainside, which makes the gradient look worse than the numbers read. Roadside markers count off altitude, distance and the gradient still waiting, and two of the hardest stretches are signed Veleta and Mulhacén. There is a stone fountain at around 1,360 m worth stopping at in summer, because water gets scarce the higher into the Sierra Nevada you go. The view opens back over the village and the Embalse de Canales, and the top at roughly 1,675 m is a junction with the Sierra Nevada road, a pass sign and nothing else: bars and refills are back down in Güéjar Sierra, or you carry on toward the Veleta on gentler slopes.