Tour of the Vanoise - France - A Trekker's Guidebook

• Location
• Description
• Contents
• Introduction
• Sample Route
• Maps
• Reviews
• Further Reading

This book is a guide to a 10–12-day walking tour of one of the most attractive mountain regions in France. It also provides an outline of several shorter tours in the same area.

Wedged between Mont Blanc and the Massif des Écrins in Savoie, southeast of Chambéry and close to the Italian border, the Vanoise Alps present a magnificent backdrop of more than 100 summits in excess of 3000m; an archetypal landscape whose major peaks are daubed with glacier and snowfield. Valleys glisten with tarns, streams and waterfalls; there are towering moraine walls, impossibly steep rock slabs and, in the early summer, meadows extravagant with a riot of alpine flowers. Almost every district has its old stone ruins, deserted chapels, isolated farms and tiny hamlets that belong, it seems, to a long-forgotten age. There’s a wonderland of marked trails to explore, scenic cols to cross, a variety of mountain huts in which to spend the night, and abundant wildlife to enrich each day. 

With good reason the Vanoise has been described in its Alpine context as ‘a diamond in a necklace already hung with pearls’.

Making an almost figure-of-eight circuit in and around the very best of the Vanoise National Park, this hut-to-hut tour should appeal to all keen mountain walkers. It covers a distance of more than 154km, encounters dramatic wild landscapes, is demanding in places and, with several passes to tackle in excess of 2500m, the ascent totals some 7097m. Each stage has its challenge and its rewards. But there are no glacier crossings, no scrambling sections, no lengthy paths exposed to either stonefall or vertigo-inspiring exposure. Waymarks and cairns are usually clear enough where the trail is indistinct, and in places signposts have been erected that provide a rough indication of the time required to reach the next hut, col or village along the way.

The route is an obvious one. By combining sections of that classic long-distance trail, the GR5 (Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean), with the GR55 which cuts through the wild heart of the region, a multi-day tour becomes practicable. Although not as well-known as the Tour of Mont Blanc, nor as challenging as the Tour of the Oisans, the Tour of the Vanoise is every bit as inspiring and rewarding as these two neighbouring routes, is an undoubted classic, and one which makes the perfect introduction to Alpine hut-to-hut trekking. 

THE ROUTE

Beginning at Modane in the Maurienne (the valley of l’Arc), the Tour of the Vanoise is usually tackled in a counter-

clockwise direction, and as far as Tignes-le-Lac (on Stage 8) it follows the course of the GR5. 

The first short day climbs steeply through forest to a refuge on the edge of the national park, overlooked by the impressive pear-shaped Aiguille Doran. It then contours northeastward high above the Maurienne before cutting into a deep combe containing two dammed lakes and dominated by La Dent Parrachée, whose ice-hung north side forms part of the largest glacier complex of the region. Making a loop round this combe the second night is usually spent in one of several mountain refuges built upon its east flank overlooking one of the lakes.

From Plan Sec on the third day, the continuing trail crosses a mountain spur, then turns roughly northward on a long but spectacular section above the narrow gorge of the Doron de Termignon. On the way to Refuge de l’Arpont it passes below several of the Glaciers de la Vanoise whose drainage sprays over cliffs in a series of breathtaking waterfalls, while at the head of the valley can be seen the Grande Casse and Grande Motte, the two highest peaks in the Vanoise National Park. 

Taking the Tour of the Vanoise from Arpont to Refuge du Plan du Lac involves crossing to the east bank of the Doron’s gorge. To achieve this you continue along the west bank on a wonderfully scenic trail, as far as the gorge’s northern limit. From there the way descends to valley pastures, before curving south and climbing to a gentle, high plateau with views across the unseen gorge to the Glaciers de la Vanoise stretching between La Dent Parrachée and the Dôme des Sonnailles.

As its name suggests, Plan du Lac contains a highly attractive lake which reflects the high peaks at the head of the valley. Within a few minutes of leaving the refuge on the fifth morning of the tour the GR5 takes the route southward, at first by footpath, then along a track linking several alp farms, before crossing the Crête de la Turra to leave the Doron valley and swinging eastward, once again high above the Maurienne where steep meadows hang from mid-mountain slopes. Refuge du Vallonbrun nestles on a grassy terrace opposite Signal du Grand Mont Cenis and Pointe de Ronce, and provides overnight accommodation in a tranquil setting. 

It is from Vallonbrun that the route briefly deserts the Vanoise National Park, descends steeply into what is now the Haute-Maurienne on an easy stage that follows the Arc upstream via Bessans and the charming hamlet of Le Villaron, and comes to Bonneval-sur-Arc, recognised as one of the best preserved and most attractive of French villages. Shunning all external signs of modernity, Bonneval is clamped between mountain slopes, which necessitates a steep departure on