Tour du Rutor — Stage 5: Sainte-Foy-Tarentaise → La Rosière

EHikersummer

Distance

9 km

Ascent

+851 m

Descent

−122 m

Duration

4.5 h

Fitness level

Map & route

GPX track — verify on the ground before hiking

Description

A linking stage on the French side: from Sainte-Foy cross the villages of the Haute-Tarentaise, among baroque churches, forests and hanging meadows above the Isère valley, climbing gradually to the resort of La Rosière (1,850 m) on the Petit Saint-Bernard slope.

A gentle day on the balconies of the Haute-Tarentaise. The trail links the mid-slope hamlets above the Isère — Le Miroir with its stone-slab roofs, La Masure, Montvalezan — alternating cool woods, mown meadows and baroque chapels that recall the valley’s 17th-century wealth. Across the Isère glitter the glaciers of Mont Pourri and La Sache, in the heart of the Vanoise. La Rosière, a resort born in the 1960s, welcomes you with full services and a long tradition of hospitality on the pass: the Little St Bernard road, open only in summer, also crosses here.

Earth sciences

Geology & landscape

The Rutor group belongs to the outer Penninic domain: micaschists, fine gneisses and Permo-Carboniferous quartzites of the Ruitor zone, with striking folds visible on the walls above the Deffeyes hut. The three lakes and roches moutonnées of the valley are the work of the Rutor glacier, fast retreating yet still the Aosta Valley’s third largest; at the Col du Mont the Versoyen calcschists crop out with relics of oceanic crust.

History & culture

Sainte-Foy-Tarentaise preserves baroque chapels and the alp-villages of Le Miroir and Le Crot, with their characteristic lauze roofs carried on stone columns.

Water sources

Water at the stage's support points (Sainte-Foy-Tarentaise, La Rosière). 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