Through the Italian Alps - A Walker's Guidebook
Through the Italian Alps
Price
£12.00
Stage 16 - Pontechianale to Rifugio Q. Sella
Time: 5hr 20min
Distance: 15.8km/9.8 miles
Ascent/descent: 1200m/200m
Grade: 2
Map: IGC n.6 1:50,000
A simply magnificent, unforgettable day, circling the eastern bastions of the Monviso, one of the highlights of the western Alps; good weather and clear conditions recommended! Substantial climbing is required out of woodland to a desolate but magnificent high-altitude domain of lakes, rock and snow. A capacious bustling refuge welcomes walkers at day’s end.
Note It is inadvisable to set out if storms are forecast due to the lengthy stretches on open rocky terrain with no shelter.
From Pontechianale take the main road SE via the lake bank to Castello (20min, 1608m, groceries, bus to Saluzzo). As the road veers away from the water’s edge, look out for the elaborately decorated church, where you need to turn L (a clutch of signposts faces the opposite direction). The well-trodden path (U 10) climbs, gently making its way N into the perfect alpine ambience of Vallone di Vallanta. Through larch and pines on the L side of the torrent, you reach a signed key fork R (E) over a trunk bridge past a ruined hut (Grange Gheit, 1912m). This healthy forest, Alevé, is reputed to host the greatest concentration of Arolla pines – an impressive 817 hectares – in the whole of the Alps, to the joy of the noisy nutcrackers who delight in the nutritious seeds.
The treeline is reached in Valle delle Giargatte which runs NE, a chaos of fallen rocks amidst the first moraine ridges. Extensive snow patches, with the sound of running water underneath, take you zigzagging up to an unnamed cleft (fork L for Bivacco Bertoglio). This in turn leads into an atmospheric basin hosting Lago Bertin (2701m). An extraordinary sight awaits: a bizarre series of upright stone markers left by passers-by – cemetery effect! A little further ahead in an awesome landscape is
3hr 40min – Passo San Chiaffredo (2764m).
The path soon passes high over a vast south-running river of rubble rock bordered by a jagged ridge including Cima delle Lobbie. Not far around E, at the foot of Punta Trento, is Passo Gallarino (2727m). Here you veer N for a mostly level stretch, entailing extensive snow cover. Keep an eye on orange waymarks, and don’t be tempted to detour R in descent to newly reopened Rifugio Alpetto (2268m), unless an exit to Oncino in Valle Po is intended.
Walkers are dwarfed by the immensity of the glacially formed amphitheatre on the SE flank of Monviso, towering walls and endless terraces. The odd variations in colour come in the form of violets, glacier crowfoot, hardy ibex or marmots. If the trademark mist is absent, you’ll soon be rewarded with the sight of the refuge ahead, on the R bank of Lago Grande di Viso.
1hr 40min – Rifugio Q. Sella (2640m). Phone 0175 94943 CAI, sleeps 100, open 20/6–30/9, hot shower. Renowned welcoming establishment, a hive of industry as meals are prepared, fires stoked up, mountaineers check gear, walkers relax with a beer, and everyone marvels at the breathtaking eastern face of Monviso (known as Monte Viso in English). In ancient times the ‘king of rock’ was long held to be the loftiest mountain in the Alps, due to its unique location, physically separate from surrounding mountains and observable from distances of hundreds of kilometres all over Italy’s northwestern plain. An earlier appellation was in fact ‘Mons Vesulus’, ‘alone, isolated and visible from afar’. The first known attempt for the 3841m summit came in 1834, but it was not until 1861 that British climbers William Mathews and William Jacomb, aided by Chamonix guides Jean Baptiste and Michel Cruz, succeeded. The hut’s custodian/guide has a life-long experience of the mountain and can arrange for ascents. Named in memory of Quintino Sella, the founder of the Italian Alpine Club, the refuge cost a total of 20,788 lire (equivalent of 10.74 Euros) and was inaugurated in 1905. It has been reconstructed in the wake of demolition by avalanche, violent storm and fire, then underwent massive expansion and modernisation in 2001. Nightfall brings the glittering lights of far-off towns on the plain.
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