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Chapter 4

THE MONT BLANC RANGE

Including the Chablais, Faucigny & Dents du Midi

For a region so well-endowed with big mountains and glaciers, the Mont Blanc range is surprisingly compact, measuring less than 40 kilometres by 15, and with the summit of Mont Blanc itself rising to 4807 metres as the highest point in Europe west of the Caucasus. That dome of snow and ice is attended by a large number of other peaks. Frison-Roche lists some 400 summits, which include among them Mont Maudit, Mont Blanc du Tacul, the Dent du Géant, Verte and Drus, the Grandes Jorasses and Mont Dolent, each with its own challenge to climbers and fenced in by a barrier of granite aiguilles that add their own identity to the massif. On the northern side these aiguilles bristle above Chamonix and the valley of the Arve, while the more sturdy ramparts of the Brenva face overlook the southern, Italian, side, along with the great Peuterey and Brouillard ridges.

Then there are the glaciers – literally dozens of them – that either project long tongues towards the main valleys, or hang suspended from high and remote cirques. Best-known is the Mer de Glace. Born of the Leschaux, Tacul and Géant icefields, it’s overlooked by the north face of the Grandes Jorasses and flanked by the rocky bastions of Charmoz, Grépon and Drus before snaking below the Montenvers to expire among rubble-strewn moraines. To the north-east the Argentière glacier is equally impressive, while farther down valley the Glacier des Bossons, broad at its formation almost at the summit of Mont Blanc du Tacul and tapering below the tree-line, shows the full drama of a cascading icefall to visitors who need never leave the valley to admire its grandeur. On the south side of the range the Brenva glacier snakes down towards Entrèves, while the Glacier du Miage has bulldozed a huge wall of lateral moraine across the Val Veni.

The slopes of Le Brévent provide direct, frontal views of Mont Blanc

Mont Blanc’s glaciers have always formed a large part of the district’s appeal – especially to the non-mountaineer. In a letter dated 22 July 1816 written from Chamonix, P. B. Shelley expressed unrestrained enthusiasm for the mountains themselves (‘the immensity of these aerial summits excited ... a sentiment of ecstatic wonder, not unallied to madness’), but reserved true astonishment for the Bossons glacier and its icefall:

We saw this glacier, which comes close to the fertile plain, as we passed. Its surface was broken into a thousand unaccountable figures; conical and pyramidical crystallizations, more than fifty feet in height, rise from its surface, and precipices of ice, of dazzling splendour, overhang the woods and meadows of the vale. This glacier winds upwards from the valley, until it joins the masses of frost from which it was produced above, winding through its own ravine like a bright belt flung over the black region of the pines. There is more in all these scenes than mere magnitude of proportion: there is a majesty of outline; there is an awful grace in the very colours which invest these wonderful shapes – a charm which is peculiar to them, quite distinct even from the reality of their unutterable greatness.

Lozenge-shaped, the range follows a north-east to south-west alignment between Col Ferret and Col du Bonhomme, and stands head and shoulders above all its near neighbours. The Franco–Italian border runs along its crest, and on the summit of Mont Dolent is also joined by that of Switzerland. Around it flow seven principal valleys that effectively define is limits. Listing anti-clockwise from Chamonix, these are: the Vallée de l’Arve, Val Montjoie, Vallée des Glaciers, Val Veni, the two Vals Ferret – one Italian, the other Swiss – and the Vallée du Trient.

Vallée de l’Arve

The most important of these, in terms of size, development and tourist infrastructure, is the Vallée de l’Arve, the ‘Vale of Chamouni’. When William Windham, with Richard Pococke and several companions, entered the valley in 1741 they did so with exaggerated caution, being fully armed against what they feared would be a savage peasantry, and accompanied by servants and pack horses loaded with food and camping equipment. But on arrival in Chamonix they found it a surprisingly hospitable village and the valley well established with a public market that had already been held for some 200 years under the protection of the Dukes of Savoy. While the surrounding peaks were considered by locals to be Les Montagnes Maudites (the accursed mountains), the valley itself was devoted largely to agriculture, with sheep and goats grazing the upper pastures. Almost 20 years later de Saussure made his first visit and was suitably impressed by the ‘fresh and pure air ... the good cultivation of the soil ... the pretty hamlets ... [which] give the impression of a new world, a sort of earthly paradise ... enclosed by a kindly Deity in the circle of the mountains.’

Since Windham’s and de Saussure’s visits the valley has seen massive development. Mont Blanc has had a tunnel scored right through it to take heavy road traffic into Italy. Cableways have been strung from valley to mountain top and even across the glaciers to La Palud on the south side. Rack railways wind up hillsides and the hospitable village of Chamonix has grown into a town of major significance. It has, quite simply, become the world’s premier mountaineering centre.

The Vallée de l’Arve begins in a small cirque above Le Tour, where the Col de Balme (2191m) marks the border between France and Switzerland. A privately-owned stone-built refuge occupies prime position on the broad, grassy saddle of the col, and enjoys a magnificent view over the whole valley, with Mont Blanc and the aiguilles forming the left-hand wall and the Aiguilles Rouges a rocky crest on the right. As R. L. G. Irving once said: ‘If that view does not thrill you you are better away from the Alps.’

The tiny Lac Flégère above the Grand Balcon Sud

All the way down the valley, from Le Tour to Les Houches, glacial avenues open from the left, serving as drainage channels from the Mont Blanc heartland. First of these is the Glacier du Tour, upon whose right bank sits the Albert Premier Refuge (2702m). This very popular hut, given by the Club Alpin Belge to the CAF in 1930, is named after King Albert I of Belgium, a distinguished mountaineer who was killed in an abseiling accident in the Ardennes in 1934. The hut not only forms a base for climbers tackling peaks at this northern end of the range, but makes a worthwhile destination in itself for walkers anxious to gain a close view of the arctic world of high mountains without facing the tribulations of glacier travel. A path leads to it from Col de Balme, joining another from Le Tour shortly before the hut is reached.

Le Tour is far enough away from Chamonix to maintain an independent existence. Although small, it has both hotel and dortoir accommodation, and the neighbouring hillsides are immensely popular with skiers. The village receives more winter snowfall than any other in the French Alps, and part of its attraction to skiers is the number of cableways that now string the slopes above. As a result the summer walking potential is somewhat devalued by the existence of bare pistes and a clutter of tows and gondola lifts.

At Montroc, below Le Tour, the narrow-gauge railway from Martigny emerges from a tunnel under Col des Montets. That col, squeezed by the Aiguilles Rouges and Montagne des Posettes, provides road access from the Rhône valley in Switzerland and is heavily used. The col forms a boundary of the Aiguilles Rouges Nature Reserve, and there’s an alpine garden on either side of the road as it descends towards the Vallée de l’Arve, where the first framed views of the massif give a foretaste of things to come.

Grand Balcon Sud

The attractive little hamlet of Tré-le-Champ lies just off the Montets road; little more than a huddle of chalets, including a gîte, set in small, neat meadows and with a footpath that descends to the bed of the valley at Argentière. On the other side of the road from the hamlet a path climbs the slopes of the Aiguilles Rouges, first among pinewoods, but then out in the open to tackle a series of metal ladders fixed against a line of cliffs. Mounting these ladders is safe but exhilerating work, as there’s a degree of exposure with the valley now several hundred metres below. At the top of the ladders you emerge to a natural terrace that runs along the face of the mountain, and there join another trail that has come from Col des Montets, the junction marked by a huge cairn and fantastic views across the valley to the Mer de Glace. This trail is known as the Grand Balcon Sud, one of the most spectacular balcony walks in all the Alps, and one that has been adopted by both the Tour du Mont Blanc and the longer but less well-known Tour du Pays du Mont Blanc.

To follow the Grand Balcon Sud in its entirety from Col des Montets to Les Houches, is to sample a day or two of mountain walking at its very best. The complete walk could be achieved in a single day; a full and demanding day, it’s true, but quite feasible for a strong walker, well acclimatised to the Alps. But it’s much better to devote two days to it in order to have time to savour the panorama which takes in the full panoply of Mont Blanc’s great northern wall, its upper snows, aiguilles and snaking icefields seen across the depths of the intervening valley. Along that balcony trail it’s possible to enjoy such a panorama hour after hour as the sun drifts across the heavens and casts a new light, with new shadows, in a procession of delight from dawn to dusk. And then at night too, perhaps graced by a full moon and a sky thick with stars to add another dimension to a scene that defies description.

Where to stay? Along the balcon there’s a refuge at La Flégère which is also reached by cable-car from Les Praz de Chamonix, and above that, another refuge at Lac Blanc (2352m) linked to La Flégère either by a steep footpath or by a combination of the Index chairlift and connecting mountain trail. Both provide unforgettable views across the valley to the Mer de Glace, with Aiguilles Verte and Drus, Grandes Jorasses, Dent du Géant, Grands Charmoz, Aiguille du Midi and Mont Blanc itself. With its additional height, Lac Blanc is rightly considered one of the prime viewpoints from which to study the massif, while La Flégère offers no less grandeur, though the scale and perspective may be slightly different.

A partially paved trail winds up the hillside from Montenvers to the Signal viewpoint, overlooked by the Grands Charmoz

Farther along the Grand Balcon Sud, below and to the west of Le Brévent, another private mountain hut perched on a steeply plunging hillside is worth considering for an overnight’s accommodation. Although Refuge de Bellachat may lack the direct view along the highway of the Mer de Glace enjoyed at La Flégère, it has a more frontal aspect of Mont Blanc and the Bossons glacier with the toy-like buildings of Chamonix over 1000 metres below. From the communal dining room the full stature of Mont Blanc is on show, from summit dome of ice and snow to the greenery of the valley at its feet; an altitude difference of almost 4000 metres.

Midway between Refuge de Bellachat and the summit of Le Brévent, and reached by a short footpath spur off the Grand Balcon, lies the little Lac du Brévent, a lovely tarn to sit by on a bright summer’s day and contemplate the abundance of good things that nature has supplied close to hand, while above it Le Brévent itself holds the crowds.

Probably no single viewpoint, accessible to all who can afford a ticket on the cable-car, will be found that better displays the full majesty of Mont Blanc than that of Le Brévent. The cable-car rises from Chamonix via Plan Praz and deposits visitors to within a few paces of the 2525 metre summit, while the walker, progressing along the Grand Balcon Sud, comes to that same viewpoint but on foot from La Flégère by way of Plan Praz and Col du Brévent. Snow often lies deep on the col and across its approaches until long after mid-summer. Otherwise there’s nothing difficult about the route, although the descent from Le Brévent to the bed of the valley just below Les Houches uses an exceptionally steep path that will have tired legs straining all the way.

Grand Balcon Nord

There’s no balcony path of equivalent length along the Mont Blanc side of the valley. Paths there are, in plenty, but the intervening glaciers effectively get in the way of a continuous route from one end to the other. The Grand Balcon Nord is the best option, but this is interrupted by the projection of the Mer de Glace above Le Lavancher.

The Mer de Glace is always worth a visit despite the crowds, despite two centuries and more of it being one of the sites to see whilst staying in Chamonix or one of its satellite resorts, for nothing can devalue the view along that snaking river of ice to the dramatically impressive Grandes Jorasses, nor of the great peaks on either side. Following his visit, Windham wrote to a friend about ‘the tops (which) being naked and craggy rocks, shoot up immensely high; something resembling old Gothic buildings or ruins ...’ Early visitors were escorted there by guides using mules to convey the famous, the infamous, the unfit and the delicate. Then in 1908 the Montenvers railway was opened and mule-tours went into rapid decline. Nowadays the rack-railway does a steady business throughout the summer, while the footpath alternative climbs above Chamonix along a pleasant route through larchwoods, crossing and recrossing the tracks on the way.

At Montenvers a large hotel-refuge complex has accommodation in beds and dortoirs. Formerly one of the major starting points for climbs within the heart of the range, the opening of the cableway to the Aiguille du Midi has taken much of the pressure off, although it still features as an important staging post on the way to a number of climbers’ huts higher up.

For the walker Montenvers not only provides a grandstand view of an impressive array of mountains and shapely aiguilles that rise alongside and at the head of the glacier, it also gives an opportunity to join the Grand Balcon Nord as it climbs in zig-zags to the viewpoint of the Signal (or Signal Forbes, 2198m) where, from a northern spur of the Frêtes des Charmoz, the Aiguilles Verte and Drus look especially fine on the opposite side of the Mer de Glace.

The Grand Balcon Nord heads south-west below the Aiguilles des Grandes Charmoz, Blaitière and Plan to the small Refuge du Plan de l’Aiguille. Beyond this the path makes its steep descent to Chamonix, although the middle station of the Aiguille du Midi cableway is easily reached from the refuge in the event of bad weather demanding a speedy return to the valley.

Chamonix

As has already been noted, Chamonix has become the world’s most important mountaineering centre. Those who have known it a long time may mourn its seemingly unchecked growth, but truth is, the town has never been slow to respond to the whims of visitors, and its attraction to skiers in winter as well as to climbers, walkers and coachloads of casual tourists in summer, continues year on year. Yet we may imagine that de Saussure, who stands alongside Balmat in the square with his eyes trained on the summit of Mont Blanc, and who above all was responsible for drawing attention to its appeal, would not be entirely saddened by what has happened to Chamonix. It is, after all, a simple love of mountains that is being exploited.

The town spills down valley where the little Lac des Gaillands reflects the snows of Mont Blanc through a frieze of conifers. Behind the tarn rock slabs are invariably dotted with climbers, while below them a woodland path leads gently along the valley to the railway station at Les Houches. Thereafter the Vallée de l’Arve narrows and twists north-westward, before curving once more to lose its immediate hold on Mont Blanc and the glaciers as it broadens below St-Gervais-les-Bains.

St-Gervais, however, retains more than a passing interest in Mont Blanc, for it is from Le Fayet just below the town that the Tramway du Mont Blanc begins its ambitious ascent via Col de Voza to Nid d’Aigle overlooking the Glacier de Bionnassay. Opened in 1912, the original intention had been to push the ‘tramway’ to the very summit of Mont Blanc! From Nid d’Aigle a trail climbs to Refuge de la Tête Rousse (3167m). Another leads to the glacier’s moraine, then down to a little meadowland from where assorted paths lead either to Bionnassay and the Val Montjoie, to Les Contamines on the route of the Tour of Mont Blanc, or back to St-Gervais by way of Col de Voza. Just above Col de Voza, at Bellevue, a cableway arrives from Les Houches, thereby enabling walkers based in the lower part of the Vallée de l’Arve to gain a variety of routes without facing a long approach march.

Walkers on the path that descends from Plan de l’Aiguille to Chamonix

The Bon Nant flows through St-Gervais before joining the Arve at Le Fayet. This river, less flamboyant but in some ways lovelier than the Arve, drains the second of our seven valleys, the Val Montjoie which forms the western extremity of the Mont Blanc range.

Val Montjoie

The valleys of Montjoie and l’Arve could hardly be more different. Whilst the Arve is crowded with mountains, buildings and people, Val Montjoie gives a sense of space, of unfussed forests and open pastureland. There’s development, of course, and mechanical aid strung about some of the hillsides, but this western end of the massif is comparatively untouched. And yet in Roman times it was one of the busiest of high Alpine valleys, for the Roman road linking Gaul with Valle d’Aosta ran through it, and sections of that ancient paved route may still be seen today above the chapel of Notre Dame de la Gorge.

Despite the Trélatête and Bionnassay glaciers, and the smaller icefields hanging beneath the Dômes de Miage, there’s far less ice draining into Val Montjoie than into the Arve. Where the valley begins, in a cirque above the chalets of La Balme, there is no ice or permanent snowfield of any size. Col du Bonhomme (2329m) lies among stony heights, but below it a grassy basin is wound about with streams, one of which spills from the lovely Lacs Jovet under Mont Tondu.

This part of the valley is protected as a nature reserve, and those with a taste for such country could spend several worthwhile days exploring a clover-leaf of hanging valleys and a number of passes of varying degrees of difficulty, from a base at La Balme. There’s a chalet-refuge here with views up to the Aiguilles de la Pennaz and the Roches Franches that wall the glen to the south-west. A little lower in the valley the Chalet Nant Borrant makes another good base on the edge of woodland.

Les Contamines-Montjoie

The little resort of Les Contamines-Montjoie is the most obvious centre in Val Montjoie. The village is terraced on the right bank of the river where most of the hotels are located, but there’s camping and gîte accommodation on the opposite side at Nivorin. Here the valley is green and pastoral. Skiing is enjoyed on slopes to the south-west where Col du Joly marks a saddle between Aiguille Croche and Aiguille de Roselette, but there are other hillsides where there’s been no intrusion by piste-making machines, and footpaths seduce the inquisitive walker onto upper slopes and ridgetops with far-flung views. One such is Mont Joly (2525m) to the west of Les Contamines.

A little to the north of the village the ascent of this shaly mountain begins on the left bank of the Bon Nant near La Chapelle. There a path tacks to and fro up the hillside and tops the ridge at Mont Geroux (2288m). Below, and to the north-west, Refuge-Pavillon du Mont Joly (2002m) provides overnight accommodation and refreshments. From Mont Geroux the way heads south to gain the summit of Mont Joly, one of the finest viewpoints west of Mont Blanc accessible to the walker, although care is required and good visibility advised.

From the summit of this little peak Mont Blanc proves its stature, a glorious mass of rock, snow and ice dominating the eastward view. Above the Miage glen Mont Blanc is seemingly flanked by the Dômes de Miage and the Aiguilles de Bionnassay, but there are other mountains to enjoy from here too, a veritable sea of peaks in every direction. Those of Beaufortain are nearby to the south, but farther away rise Vanoise summits and the more distant crests of the Oisans, while north-east Les Diablerets guards the borders of the Vaudois and Bernese Alps beyond the Rhône valley.

On the other, eastern, side of Val Montjoie, one recommended outing visits the privately-owned Refuge de Trélatête below the glacier of the same name. While the immediate surroundings of the hut lack the pristine grandeur of some, its situation has much to commend it. From there a more serious hut approach continues along the north bank of the Trélatête glacier to Refuge des Conscrits (2730m), midway between the Dômes de Miage and Aiguille des Glaciers, while mountain walkers with considerable experience of snow and ice, who are at home on wild, unmarked mountain terrain and who are adequately equipped for the job in hand, may be tempted by a crossing suggested by the late Douglas Milner in his book, Mont Blanc and the Aiguilles. This involves scaling the southern ridge that overlooks the Trélatête glacier and gaining the head of the Vallée des Glaciers by either Col Mont Tondu (2895m) or Col des Glaciers – the former, he says, is the easier.

There’s another col, unmarked on the Didier and Richard map but shown on the IGN, named Col du Moyen-Age by that Alpine connoisseur R. L. G. Irving, which Irving reckoned to be the simplest and quickest pass from Trélatête to the upper Val Veni on the south side of Mont Blanc. None of these three cols is encouraged by the solid blue or red markings reserved for walking routes on either of the above-mentioned maps, so an attempt at their crossing should be reserved for walkers with well-honed mountaineering skills. Refuge Robert Blanc is situated on the southern slopes of the ridge midway between Col Mont Tondu and Col des Glaciers and this, presumably, would make a convenient halfway halt before skirting the head of Vallée des Glaciers and crossing the easy walkers’ pass of Col de la Seigne into Italy.

For a less challenging, but no less interesting, extension of the walk to Refuge de Trélatête, a well-made path known as the Sentier Claudius Bernard continues north to Combe d’Armancette and its little tarn, then descends to Les Contamines-Montjoie once more. This makes a fine day’s outing, but the Combe d’Armancette should be avoided early in the season, or following storm, when there’s a distinct danger of stone-fall or avalanche.

Combe d’Armancette hangs above Les Contamines just to the south-east of the village. To the north-east a beautiful glen has been scooped out of the hillside by glaciers that have long since drawn back into the headland of the Dômes de Miage. The glen is soft, pastoral and bright with alpenroses early in the summer, and with a collection of chalets and haybarns set on the right bank of a torrent draining the icefields of the Dômes de Miage and Aiguilles de Bionnassay. Cattle graze the pastures, their bells clattering against the constant sound of running water while marmots burrow among the rocks. North of the Chalets de Miage, Col de Tricot is crossed by a variant of the Tour du Mont Blanc. To the south-west a hillside spur has an extension of the TMB path climbing to the Chalets du Truc, while a dirt road snakes down to Tresse in the valley below Les Contamines.

Among the chalets and haybarns stands the Refuge de Miage, and a night or two spent there in a cradle of mountains with glaciers dangling high above, would give an opportunity to absorb something of the atmosphere of the world of pastoral alps, as opposed to a possibly more comfortable, but more distant, overnight in a valley divorced from the intimacy of the mountains themselves.

Apart from trails already mentioned, there are others that could be taken from the Chalets de Miage to fill one’s days. One option would be to follow a path heading north-west to Le Champel, then bear right to Bionnassay along the GR5, and from there climb through forest to the snout of the Glacier de Bionnassay. Once arrived there a well-marked footpath rises over mixed terrain to Col de Tricot, from where the Chalets de Miage are seen more than 500 metres below.

Having now revisited the Glacier de Bionnassay whose torrent flows below Bionnassay to join the Bon Nant above St-Gervais-les-Bains, this brief overview of Val Montjoie has gone full-circle and it’s time to look at the smallest of the three French valleys, reached on foot by way of Col du Bonhomme and Col de la Croix du Bonhomme. This is the Vallée des Glaciers.

Refuge des Mottets, a converted dairy farm near the head of the Vallée des Glaciers

Vallée des Glaciers

Less than 10 kilometres separate the head of the valley and the hamlet of Les Chapieux where it makes a sharp southerly bend to pass through the narrows below Pointe de la Terrasse. In those 10 kilometres there’s no resort, no real village, no tourist infrastructure. The valley has a metalled road that comes from Bourg-St-Maurice and goes as far as the misnamed Ville des Glaciers; little more than a collection of alp farms on the right bank of the stream, and a rough farm track continuing beyond it. Apart from two refuges, Les Chapieux provides the only accommodation and refreshment in the valley proper. In this tiny village lodging is available in hotel beds and dortoirs, giving an opportunity for those who stay there for a day or two to explore country to the west where tracks and footpaths link up with the GR5 after it has traversed the airy Crête des Gittes south-west of Col de la Croix du Bonhomme.

At first glance the Vallée des Glaciers would seem to be inappropriately named, for of the seven valleys surrounding Mont Blanc, it has the least number of glaciers. In fact apart from the remnant of the Glacier des Lanchettes there’s really only one, but as that is draped from the Aiguille des Glaciers, it becomes clear that the valley is named after the prominent peak at its head, rather than any glacier that might drain into it.

The Aiguille des Glaciers (3816m) is one of the cornerstones of the Mont Blanc range, an elegant peak on a ridge that curves round the head of the cirque blocking the north- eastern end of the valley. Snow and ice that gathers there is all that remains throughout the summer; the rest of the valley is either brushed with a furze of grass on which sheep and cattle graze, or is bare and stony. There’s little woodland cover and shrubs that are so abundant in many other valleys, are in short supply here.

That is not to suggest the Vallée des Glaciers is lacking in charm; far from it. It’s just that its charm is one of different proportions. One wanders through the valley and over its passes with an air of expectation, but scenes of breathtaking grandeur are not to be grasped easily. The extraordinary and beautiful are there alright, but they steal slowly upon you. By contrast with the northern and southern flanks of the massif, this south-western enclave requires the visitor to take a different attitude of mind and let the valley’s magic work its spell in its own good time. It won’t assault you with its wonders at first glance.

Aiguille de la Tré-la-Tète above the Val Veni on the south side of the Mont Blanc range

A night spent high above the valley at the architectural curiosity of Refuge de la Croix du Bonhomme, may do the trick. If not, try Refuge des Mottets on the way to Col de la Seigne.

From Refuge de la Croix du Bonhomme there are four ways of descending to the valley. The first is on a clear and obvious trail that descends directly to Les Chapieux. The second is a devious route that takes the path of the GR5 across the Crête des Gittes, and via Col de la Sauce to Refuge du Plan de la Lai overlooking the large Lac de Roselend on the northern side of the ridge, before descending the D902 road to Les Chapieux. The third route is a variation of the second, for it breaks away from GR5 without tackling the Crête and slants south-westward to join the D902 part-way down the hillside. But perhaps the best of all is the fourth option, a route that has been hi-jacked as a variant of the TMB; the crossing of Col des Fours (2665m), about 45 minutes above the refuge. The subsequent descent is a little difficult in places, especially when snow is still lying early in the season, and heads roughly eastwards to gain the valley at Ville des Glaciers.

Refuge des Mottets has been converted from a dairy farm and has a pleasant rustic atmosphere. One-time cowsheds are now clean but basic dortoirs, and the main dining room contains old farming and cheese-making implements. Lying directly on the path of the Tour du Mont Blanc, it will be familiar to many. Above it the trail is badly eroded with deep trenches having been initially dug in the turf by countless boots, then scoured by the spring thaw and summer rains. But as you gain height towards Col de la Seigne, so the way improves, and on arrival at the col on the borders of France and Italy, a wonderful scene bursts upon you. There ahead the southern side of Mont Blanc dominates the Val Veni, first of the Italian valleys lying far below. Without question it’s one of the great Alpine views.

Val Veni

While the northern slopes of the Mont Blanc range have a single valley to perform the functions of a moat, the Italian side has two; of similar length Val Veni and Val Ferret complement one another across the south face of the mountain. The first drains north-eastward, the second south-west. Gently tilted, their waters flow towards the spur of land on which stands Entrèves, then converge above La Saxe as the Dora Baltea (or Doire Baltée), which then flows south-eastwards through Valle d’Aosta. Courmayeur acts as a counterpoint to Chamonix and is the main centre of activity. Built on the east bank of the river with the warm southerly light flooding its valley, it gazes up, not at Mont Blanc itself as does Chamonix, but at the big walls just to the east of the monarch.

Approaching from the south the full splendour of the range bursts upon the eager traveller. Julius Kugy, who wrote such fine things about the Julian Alps, wrote too about this view on his way from Aosta to Courmayeur in 1887:

At one point about half-way up, where this beautiful valley of the Dora Baltea makes its great bend, there was a sudden stir among the company. Something had arisen before us, and it filled the background of the valley. It was neither cloud, nor rock, nor ice. It was all these in one. A fabulous structure of cloud, rock, ice and snow, a picture great beyond the richest fantasy, a cathedral borne on giant granite columns ... a dome standing brilliant in the firmament.

(Alpine Pilgrimage)

If that approach rewards not only those who come on foot, but also the motorist with a memorable view, the scene which stretches before the walker at the Col de la Seigne is no less magnificent. Immediately below lies the great trough of the Vallon de la Lée Blanche which drops in a sudden step to Val Veni proper. Close at hand on the left the twin Pyramides Calcaires intrude. Immediately to their left a ridge slants up, first to the Petite Aiguille, then the Aiguille des Glaciers, and behind this the Aiguille de Trélatête. But above and beyond these, all become subservient to the crown of Mont Blanc, more rugged and masculine from this side than when viewed from the Vallée de l’Arve; a great mass of snow and ice perched above bastions of rock. And through the col that divides the Pyramides Calcaires can be seen the grey triangular wedge of the Aiguille Noire de Peuterey, the finest of the upthrusting spears that stand guard round this side of the monarch. Impressive from the col, when viewed from the depths of Val Veni the Aiguille Noire is truly astonishing.

Vallon de la Lée Blanche (or Lex Blanche) is bleak by comparison with the lush green valleys on the French side of the range. Scant pastures are skeined with streams, the Pyramides Calcaires form a stark northern wall, and at its north-eastern end on a rocky bluff littered with ruins sits Rifugio Elisabetta (2300m). Owned by the CAI, the hut was built as a memorial to Italian Alpine Troops, and as it’s easily accessible by a relatively short walk from the roadhead near Lac de Combal, it’s a very busy one, especially at weekends. Behind it the Glacier de la Lée Blanche pours from the east flank of the Aiguille des Glaciers and the south side of Aiguille de Trélatête.

Below Elisabetta the Lée Blanche descends to a lower level where its flat bed gathers numerous glacial streams into a marshy area broken by the open pools of Lac Combal. A huge wall of lateral moraine bulldozed by the Miage glacier, blocks the eastern end of the lake, but its outflow squeezes to one side and then enters Val Veni proper.

The Val Veni pastures used to ring to the clatter of cowbells. But a military road was pushed through the valley, and after the Second World War it was opened to public access. The valley is now a justifiable tourist haunt. Buses serve it, so walkers based at Courmayeur, La Saxe or Entrèves, can ride towards the head of the valley and then spend the rest of the day tracing some of the paths that provide exquisite views of the great mountains and their glaciers.

Footpaths ease along the bed of Val Veni on both sides of the river. One climbs to the Monzino hut (2630m) on a spur of rock between the Brouillard and Fréney glaciers immediately below Mont Blanc de Courmayeur. Another goes through forest to the grassy saddle of Col Chécroui with its famed view into the armchair aspect of Aiguille Noire de Peuterey. But perhaps the finest of all is the high belvedere trail adopted by the TMB which climbs south from Lac de Combal, then heads north-eastwards on an undulating course, passing two or three small tarns on the way to Col Chécroui, where it forks. One trail descends into Val Veni, another winds down to Plan Chécroui, continues to Dolonne and crosses the Dora Baltea to Courmayeur, while yet a third climbs onto Mont Chétif, the 2343 metre promontory and splendid viewpoint that effectively blocks Courmayeur’s view of Mont Blanc.

Italian Val Ferret

The Mont Blanc Tunnel emerges near Entrèves and spills its heavy burden of traffic down through Valle d’Aosta on a major highway where once marched the legions of Rome. East of the tunnel at La Palud is the valley station of the Funivie Monte Bianco, the cableway system that swings thousands of tourists each year up and over the Glacier du Géant and the once-remote world of the Vallée Blanche, to the Aiguille du Midi and down into the Vallée de l’Arve at Chamonix on the northern side of the massif. There are intermediate stops at Pavillon (Mont Fréty), Rifugio Torino and Pointe Hellbronner (3322m) on the borders of Italy and France, where the close proximity of huge rock walls, glaciers and snowfields allows the non- mountaineer to enjoy a privileged high mountain experience at the cost of a ticket.