Courmayeur · Italy
Mont Chétif
Mont Chétif is the small mountain between Courmayeur and Val Veny, and one climbs it for what is seen from the top. It is not high by comparison with what surrounds it, and that is precisely the point: one is low enough and close enough to take in the entire Italian side of Mont Blanc at once, rather than a piece at a time. From the summit the range runs from the Grandes Jorasses to the Aiguille Noire, with the Brenva face at the centre and the town a long way below on the other side. At the top stands a bronze Madonna and nearly always somebody sitting beside it with a sandwich. It takes two or three hours from the valley floor, and people have walked up it for as long as they have been coming here.
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How do you get up?
On foot from Courmayeur or Dolonne, on a steep marked path, two to three hours. You can also take the lifts to Plan Chécrouit and walk the last part along the ridge, which is the short version.
What can you pick out from the top?
From the left: the Aiguille Noire with its dark point, the Peuterey ridge running up to the summit, the Brenva face in the middle, the Dent du Géant standing on its own like a tooth, and further right the Grandes Jorasses. With a map in your hand you can spend an hour on it.
Why is it called Chétif?
The name is old and the explanations do not agree. The most repeated one derives it from a word meaning small or poor: the little mountain next to the giant. True or not, it describes the relationship between the two well.
Where it is
More stories in Courmayeur
- The Aiguille Blanche
- The Aiguille Noire
- Duke of the Abruzzi Alpine Museum
- The Brenva Spur
- The Guides' House
- Church of Saint Pantaléon
- The quiet col
- The Col de la Seigne