Vallée des Glaciers — Val Veny
Tour du Mont Blanc — Stage 12: Les Chapieux → Rifugio Elisabetta Soldini
Advertencias
- Snowfields possible on the passes until early July
- Book overnight stops in peak season
1 / 214 km
+1083 m
−559 m
7 h
Nivel físico
Mapa y ruta
Traza GPX — verifica sobre el terreno antes de caminar
Descripción
Puntos clave
Salida
Les Chapieux · 1551 m
Llegada
Rifugio Elisabetta Soldini · 2189 m
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.
Puntos clave
Col de la Seigne
2516 m · 10.5 km from start
Ciencias de la Tierra
Geología y paisaje
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.
Historia y cultura
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.
Fuentes de agua
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.
Cómo llegar
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.
Aparcamiento
Refugios y vivacs
Galería de fotos
Photos are published immediately. JPG/PNG/WebP, max 6 MB.
Etapas contiguas
AEditado y verificado por Andrea Rama
Fuente de datos: Tour du Mont Blanc — itinerario internazionale segnalato · Traccia calcolata su rete sentieri OpenStreetMap (ODbL); verificare sul terreno
Última verificación:
Vallée des Glaciers — Val Veny
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