Courmayeur · Italy

Val Ferret

This valley leads nowhere by car. It continues to a head and stops. On foot, by contrast, it leads to Switzerland: the Col Ferret at the top is a pass crossed by walking, and on the other side opens another Val Ferret, the Swiss one, bearing the same name because it is the same way observed from either side. For centuries those who passed through were the people obliged to travel north without the means for an easier road: shepherds with their animals, traders, people moving for work and, in certain years, people moving so as not to be found. Today it is walked by those on the Tour du Mont Blanc, which is to say the same undertaking performed for pleasure.

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How high is the Col Ferret?

A little over 2,500 metres. It is a col of grass and stones with nothing technical about it, but high enough to be under snow for much of the year. The crossing works in summer and in the first weeks of autumn.

Why two valleys with the same name?

Because the name described the crossing, not the territory. Before borders mattered, a valley was a way of reaching somewhere, and the two halves of the same route were called by the same name. The borders came later and cut a single route in two.

What do you see going up it?

The Grandes Jorasses and the glaciers coming down towards the valley floor, on your left as you go up, for kilometres. It is one of the few valleys in the Alps where you walk on the flat with a wall like that beside you the whole way.

Where it is

Lavachey, Val Ferret, 11013 Courmayeur · 45.84989, 7.02164 · Open in Maps

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