Balcon Val Ferret
Description
Courmayeur is the starting point of this route through the Val Ferret. You initially follow the road to Entreves and then further into the Vall Ferret. The road rides up several steps to Arnuova Desot, then turns into a gravel path and finally you reach the Rifugio Elena. This is the starting point for the brilliant return journey. The start is a singletrail back to Arnuova Desot, then you push your bike up to Arnuova Di Mezzo, where you join the endless high-level trail. You roll back up and down high above the valley floor and often can't get enough of the view of Mont Blanc opposite. On the ride, it shows itself from very different sides and perspectives until you reach the Rifugio Bertone, where you can take one last look at the highest mountain in the Alps. After that, all the focus is on the trail. This is extremely difficult - less experienced riders are better off riding down to Entreves first - and leads steep and rough directly to Courmayeur. It is an impressive conclusion to an even more impressive panoramic tour that is second to none.
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Details of the tour
36 km
1500 m
1500 m
1220 above sea level
2068 above sea level
1 day
Courmayeur
Courmayeur
1566
limited
More information
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User comments (5)
About the author: Thomas Giger
Note: This content has been automatically translated from German. Please report any incorrect translations.
We rode the tour yesterday. Hiked up to Rifugio Elena and then to Tete de Ferret to let lots of hikers through because we thought it would be busy. The trail from Rifugio Elena doesn't make sense in August, it's far too busy.
We reached the high trail at around 2 pm. It was reasonably busy with hikers. Everyone was friendly and we passed each other.
The view is amazing and the trail is fun, but I still wouldn't recommend the tour in August (unfortunately we couldn't plan our vacation any other way).
Can recommend the tour in the fall, very few hikers and visually it is also quite impressive. We didn't ride the descent to Courmayeur but turned right before the prohibition sign. Here first the unspectacular flowy trail already described. But then, as soon as you reach the forest road, you can turn left again onto a trail (meadow), which we really enjoyed. You come out directly in La Palud.
At the "Lechey Damon" point there is a no cycling sign on the mountain path towards Rifugio Bertone.
Due to uncertain weather and a low snow line, we rode this tour a little differently today. Start in Courmayeur and then to Arnuova Desut. So we skipped the loop to Refugio Elena. Contrary to the previous rider, Navarro, we found the trail on the high route to be very flowy. You just have to descend from time to time and push for a short distance. We can confirm the many hikers, as the trail is part of the Mont Blanc circumnavigation. The Refugio Bertone offers simple but good food. As the trails get wet, we decided to take the descent to Entreves, as recommended in the description, which also starts very flowy and then leads into a forest path. Thanks for the route suggestion.
Pros: Landscape, steep trail to Courmayeur
Cons: Far too many hikers, little flow on the high trail