Vallée des Glaciers — Val Veny
Tour du Mont Blanc — Stage 12: Les Chapieux → Rifugio Elisabetta Soldini
14 km
+1083 m
−559 m
7 h
Fitness level
Map & route
GPX track — verify on the ground before hiking
Description
From Les Chapieux ascend the Vallée des Glaciers past the Mottets hut to the Col de la Seigne (2,516 m), the TMB’s Italian gateway: ahead opens Val Veny with the Pyramides Calcaires and the Aiguille Noire. A short descent leads to Rifugio Elisabetta Soldini (2,195 m).
From Les Chapieux — a handful of houses, a fromagerie and the summer shuttle that cuts the first 4 km of tarmac — you head up the Vallée des Glaciers towards the loop’s final border. The Mottets refuge, a converted old grange, is the last support point before the final climb: steady switchbacks to the Col de la Seigne, where the wind is at home and Italy opens suddenly with Val Veny, the Pyramides Calcaires and the unmistakable profile of the Aiguille Noire de Peuterey. Half an hour down and you reach the Elisabetta, perched below the Lex Blanche glaciers.
Key points
Col de la Seigne
2516 m · 10.5 km from start
Earth sciences
Geology & landscape
The Mont Blanc massif is a Hercynian granite batholith (~300 million years old) uplifted by the Alpine orogeny: the pale Mont Blanc granite — the “protogine” — forms the Peuterey and Géant spires. At its feet the tour walks on older crystalline basement rocks (gneiss and micaschist) and, in Val Veny, on the Mesozoic limestones of the Pyramides Calcaires, a sliver of sedimentary cover pinched between the granites. The Miage and Brenva moraines are textbook examples.
History & culture
The Petit Saint-Bernard defensive line ran through Les Chapieux: the Seigne forts saw the June 1940 fighting between Italian alpini and French chasseurs. Rifugio Elisabetta stands on a former barracks.
Water sources
Water at the stage's support points (Les Chapieux, Rifugio Elisabetta Soldini). On the high ground and at the passes springs are not guaranteed: fill bottles in the valley and at the huts.
Getting there
Cross-border stage: on the foreign sides local public transport applies (PostAuto in Switzerland, line buses in France/Piedmont). Check seasonal timetables; in peak season several access links run by reservation only.
Warnings
- Snowfields possible on the passes until early July
- Book overnight stops in peak season
Start & end
Start
Les Chapieux
1551 m
Finish
Rifugio Elisabetta Soldini
2189 m
Refuges & bivouacs
Photo gallery
Adjacent stages
ACurated and verified by Andrea
Data source: Tour du Mont Blanc — itinerario internazionale segnalato · Traccia calcolata su rete sentieri OpenStreetMap (ODbL); verificare sul terreno
Last verified:
Vallée des Glaciers — Val Veny
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