Mont Blanc massif

Mont Blanc is a granite and gneiss massif of the external Alpine domain, exhumed by differential erosion relative to surrounding sedimentary cover. Val Veny and Val Ferret show outcrops of limestone, schist and Würm glacial moraines. The Miage Glacier, among the most monitored in Italy, features a proglacial lake, seracs and recent lacustrine deposits. Faces such as the Grandes Jorasses consist of Penninic metamorphic and limestone rocks.

Courmayeur became a target of bourgeois mountaineering as early as the 19th century; the first Mont Blanc ascent from Val Veny dates to 1786 from Chamonix, but the Italian flank developed its own school of guides and huts. Walter Bonatti, symbol of 20th-century Italian alpinism, linked his name to Val Ferret. Today the Tour du Mont Blanc — born as a stage route in the 1970s — crosses three countries and draws tens of thousands of trekkers each season.

The Tour du Mont Blanc crosses Val Ferret with stages at the Bonatti, Bertone and Elena huts. Alta Via 1 closes its Valdostan route from Courmayeur toward the Col du Petit Saint-Bernard. Day hikes reach Rifugio Bonatti, Lake Arpy, Pavillon du Mont Fréty and viewpoints above the Italian Mer de Glace. Watch for sections on névé and crevasses near glaciers.