Tour Monte Rosa — Stage 3: Alagna Valsesia → Macugnaga

A long, lonely stage: from Alagna ascend the Turlo valley past Alpe Faller to the Colle del Turlo (2,738 m) on a spectacular paved mule track from the 1920s. An endless descent through the Quarazza valley, past the “Fairies’ lake”, reaches Macugnaga (1,327 m) below Monte Rosa’s east face.

The queen stage of the TMR, long and remote: from the Walser hamlet of Sant’Antonio you ascend the entire Turlo valley, where there are no huts — only ruined alps and silence. The paved mule road, built by the Intra battalion in the 1920s, climbs at a steady gradient to the 2,738-metre col: a masterpiece of military engineering that makes the height gain almost pleasant. On the Ossola side you descend the Quarazza valley, among marmots, to the Lake of the Fairies and the hamlet of the same name. A dawn start is mandatory; water from streams all the way up.