There are two explanations for the origin of the name "Chaîne de l'Épine". One traces "l'Épine" as a reference to a thorn from Christ's crown of thorns that Guillaume de Montbel brought back with him on his return from the Seventh Crusade in 1254. Montbel built the Château de l'Épine on the ridge above Nances and placed the holy thorn relic in the castle's chapel. In time, the chapel became such an important pilgrimage site that the name "l'Épine" was given to the whole mountain. The second explanation sees the Celtic god Pen as the source for both the name of the Chaîne de l'Épine ridge and the commune of Lépin-le-Lac to its west.
Geography
Topography
The Chaîne de l'Épine and the Mont du Chat separate the Lac du Bourget from the Lac d'Aiguebelette. The highest point is Mont Grelle at an elevation of. Another notable peak is Gratte-Cul at the northern end of Mont Grelle.
Geology
The Chaîne de l'Épine is an anticline, part of the "upper ridge" geological structure of the Jura Mountains. Situated between two Miocene molasse basins, the ridge is chiefly composed of limestones from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. The western escarpment, between the Col de l'Épine and the Col de Saint-Michel, is composed of limestones from the Kimmeridgian and Oxfordian formations, with scree at the base. The portion south of the Col de Saint-Michel consists mainly of scree with a Jurassic limestone ridge. The east escarpment, is composed of Valanginian marls and marbles, with scree and Cretaceous limestone at the base. South of the Col de Saint-Michel pass, a change in the strike-slip fault deflects the ridge line to run northeast-southwest. Another slip fault crosses the ridge perpendicularly at the northern tip of the peak Gratte-Cul. The fold extends across the Guiers river at Entre-deux-Guiers to join the Mont Tournier anticline and form the Grand-Ratz plateau above Voreppe, forming the southern terminus of the Jura Mountains.
Passes and tunnels
There are three principal passes across the ridge. A paved road runs over the Col de l'Épine. The two other passes, the Col du Crucifix and the Col Saint-Michel, overlook the Lac d'Aiguebelette and are crossed by hiking trails. Some of these trails follow the routes of earlier Roman roads. 's royal road from Turin to Lyon in 1670. The Voie Sarde skirts the southern end of the ridge, near Saint-Christophe, northeast of Les Échelles. The Voie Sarde or Sardinian Way was originally part of the RomanVia Agripparoad network. In 1670 the road was rebuilt by Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy with the aim of connecting his western landholdings in Savoie to Turin, capital of the Duchy of Savoy. In 1720, following the acquisition of Sardinia in the 1718 Treaty of London, the duchy officially became the Kingdom of Sardinia, leading the road to become known colloquially as the Voie Sarde. A century later, Napoleon judged this narrow route to be an impediment to his military campaigns. After 13 years of construction, the Tunnel de la Grotte bypassed the Voie Sarde route. The tunnel was nearly long and wide and high, sufficient for two laden wagons to pass. The English artist J. M. W. Turner sketched views of both the Voie Sarde and the new tunnel in 1819. The modern-day Route nationale 6 uses this tunnel to cross the southern end of the Chaîne de l'Épine ridge. There are tunnels through the main bulk of the ridge in two places, both named Tunnel de l'Épine. The A43 autoroute runs through a pair of parallel tunnels under the Col de l'Épine. The northern tunnel is long and was completed in 1974; the southern tunnel is long and was completed in 1991. This is the 14th-longest road tunnel crossing in France. About to the south is a single-track tunnel completed in 1884 for the Saint-André-le-Gaz-Chambéry railway line. This tunnel begins east of the station of Aiguebelette-le-Lac and runs under the ridge, south of the Col Saint-Michel, to emerge just west of the now-closed Saint-Cassin-la-Cascade station, in the valley of the Hyères river, a left tributary of the Rhône.
The Col de l'Épine is a popular route for cyclists. The pass formed part of the route for the Tour de France in 1947, 1965 and 1968 when it was classed at a Category 2 climb. The winners of these three climbs were:
