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The second of the two Etapes that are planned for 2012 is in the Pyrenees. There is a good description of the route in Cycling Weekly at Etape du Tour 2012: Pau to Bagneres de Luchon.

There is also an interesting and well informed article on Le Domestique Tours   which is based on local knowledge as they are based on the route of the Etape.

And Paddy from Velopeloton has published a page crammed with some great photos of the climbs and useful info  including a GPX of the route, see http://www.velopeloton.com/pau-to-bagneres-de-luchon-stage-16/

This looks to be a tough route with plenty of climbing involved, the estimates vary but looking at the table below which includes the ascent of the categorised climbs and also adds in the altitude difference between the start and finish locations then the minimum ascent will be in the region of 4,500 metres.

After mapping the route on Google maps the total climb was reported as just over 5,400 metres, this includes all the minor hills and gradients and the climbs up the valley floors that are not part of the categorised climbs.

If this is correct then this stage is as tough or even tougher than the Marmotte which has somewhere over 5,000 metres ascent (the categorised climbs total just under 5,000 metres depending on the route which can vary a bit from year to year).

In 2010 the Tour de France did the reverse of this route on stage 16 Luchon – Pau. See a description of the stage and photos/maps on Velo Peloton.  That was not quite as tough as this route as they benefited from the start being at Luchon which is at a higher altitude than the Pau.

There are good descriptions of all the climbs on the climbbybike website, see below for the links of each ascent, as there are several sides to each col it is important to pick the correct route as it can make a big difference:

Col de l’Aubisque – Laruns

Col du Soulor – Cirque du Litor

Col du Tourmalet – Luz Saint Sauveur

Col de l’Aspin – Sainte Marie de Campan

Col de Peyresourde – Avajan

The official L’Etape du Tour website has a profile of the stage that shows the climbs.