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

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

View Sample Route Map

STAGE 8

Val d’Isère to Refuge de la Leisse

Distance 18km
Time 6hrs
Start altitude 1809m
High point 2758m (Col de la Leisse)
Low point 2093m (Tignes-le-Lac)
Height gain 1110m
Height loss 430m
Accommodation Tignes-le-Lac (2hrs 15mins) – hotels; Val Claret (2hrs 45mins) – hotels; Vallon de la Leisse – PNV refuge + camping

With two cols to cross (Pas de la Tovière and Col de la Leisse) it will be apparent that this stage, which returns the trek to mountain wilderness, could be challenging. But having walked this far along the Tour of the Vanoise, and tackled steeper gradients than those demanded by either of these crossings, under normal summer conditions most trekkers will take it in their stride.

This is another stage divided into two distinct parts. The morning will be spent in view either of major ski resorts, or their mechanical accoutrements (or both), while the second half leads into a landscape with more remote appeal. From Val d’Isère the way climbs through forest and along a gently rising grassland to gain the 2252m Pas de la Tovière, from where it’s possible to see Mont Blanc in the distance. Descent is then made to the hideous ski resort of Tignes-le-Lac (which Paddy Dillon, in his guide to the GR5, likened to Benidorm), but this is quickly passed on the way to Val Claret – an equally obtrusive resort of high-rise buildings completely out of keeping with the landscape.

Happily the trail soon works a way into an untamed land of big mountains, the highest of which is La Grande Motte, whose snowfields and glaciers shine like mirrors in the sunlight. La Grande Motte rises immediately above Col de la Leisse, its long southwesterly wall plunging into the valley in which Refuge de la Leisse is located. On the way to it the trail descends to moody tarns, screes and boulderscapes loud with the call of marmots.

From Val Claret onward all the way to Modane, the Tour of the Vanoise follows the route of the GR55, a high mountain alternative to the GR5, which gives a scenically varied and spectacular four-day trek to match the grandeur experienced during the Maurienne half, between Modane and Val d’Isère.

Optional alternatives

There are two alternatives worth considering, both of which avoid the visual intrusion of Tignes-le-Lac and Val Claret. The first of these options is to walk into the Charvet valley south of Val d’Isère, then take a trail heading west to Col de Fresse (2576m). Over this join the GR55 and the main route to Col de la Leisse.

The second alternative goes to the head of the Charvet valley, crosses the 2911m Col de la Rocheure and descends to Refuge de la Femma. The following day walk down the Vallon de la Rocheure, and via Refuge d’Entre-Deux-Eaux join the main route from Refuge de la Leisse (Stage 9) at the Pont de Croé-Vie.

Walk through Val d’Isère along the main road (D902) heading northwest towards La Daille and Tignes. On the outskirts of town, just beyond a Spar supermarket and filling station, turn left into a minor road by a large building named L’Aigle Blanc. Over the Isère river bear right on a track which curves left by a large electricity building. A footpath runs alongside the track among larch trees, goes behind the electricity building, and across a stream joins another track. Take the left branch to wind uphill towards a T-junction of tracks. Immediately before this, turn right on a footpath signed GR5 to Tignes.

The trail takes you through larchwoods and under the stilted Funival which carries tourists from La Daille to the Rocher de Bellevarde. When the trail passes beneath a ski tow, it then climbs steeply to a crossing track with a parallel footpath. Turn right along the path, contour across an open ski piste, then enter larchwoods again. There are several signed junctions as you follow the trail out of the trees and up into the Vallon de la Tovière – a gentle, pastoral valley walled on the left by Pointe du Lavachet (2696m), and on the right by the crags of Roc de la Tovière.

The walk through the Tovière valley is easy and undemanding. Marmots abound, and as you approach the saddle at its head you wander alongside a grass airstrip which belongs to the Val d’Isère Flying Club. 

PAS DE LA TOVIÈRE (2252m) is a broad saddle of grass, rocks and flowers, reached about 1hr 45mins from the centre of Val d’Isère. From it the Italian side of Mont Blanc can be seen on a clear day, while far below lies the dammed Lac du Chevril. Behind the lake another valley cuts into the walling mountains, within which lies the Réserve Naturelle de la Grande Sassière.

As the path continues, now descending westward, the high-rise buildings of Tignes-le-Lac appear in the valley below; a purpose-built ski resort whose architecture seems quite out of place, and whose cableways lace the mountainsides on both flanks of the valley. The trail takes you directly down to the edge of the village, but although the GR5 enters Tignes, it’s unnecessary to go that way unless you need refreshment or supplies. For these take the main path into

TIGNES-LE-LAC (2093m) While much of the accommodation is closed in summer, several hotels remain open. There are also shops, bars, restaurants, a PTT and tourist information (( 04 79 40 04 40).

Tignes-le-Lac

The original village of Tignes was located in the Isère valley below La Daille, but this was flooded in the 1950s when the dam was built to create Lac du Chevril. Its ultra-modern replacement grew alongside Lac de Tignes to exploit the area’s ski potential. Linked with Val d’Isère’s ‘Espace Killy’ there are now more than 300km of pistes and no less than 97 lifts, including an underground funicular that transports skiers from neighbouring Val Claret to a panoramic restaurant at 3030m on La Grande Motte’s glacier. From there a large téléphérique carries passengers to 3450m below the summit of La Grande Motte. Despite this development (and the fact that it is used for year-round skiing) the Glacier de la Grande Motte has been dubbed the Réserve Naturelle de Tignes. In winter the resort caters for around 20,000 visitors at a time. Fortunately that number is greatly reduced in summer, when much of the accommodation is closed. The lake, which is its most attractive feature, is a natural one which once lay in a treeless basin of high pasture, but is now the focus of a variety of water sports.

The Tour of the Vanoise ignores Tignes-le-Lac and takes the broad gravel path round the left-hand (east) shore of the lake. At the far end continue alongside a golf course, then beside a road heading towards more monstrous high-rise buildings in 

VAL CLARET (2102m), reached in 2hrs 45mins. Like neighbouring Tignes-le-Lac, most of Val Claret’s accommodation is closed in summer, although it has shops, bars, a bank and tourist information that remain open.