to visit first a lake in a magical setting before making a traverse round the mountain flank to the hut itself. Refuge de Cougourde is a chalet-style hut built in 2002 to replace the odd-looking original. Its location on the edge of meadowland under peaks that form the Franco-Italian border is delightful.
From Le Boréon hamlet, northeast of St-Martin, drive towards the head of the Vallée du Boréon (taxi possible). The tarmac road ends with plenty of parking spaces and picnic sites near the Vacherie du Boréon, but a broad track continues to an upper car park (Parking Supérieure) in the woods just above the vacherie. The walk begins here, by an information board. Initially follow a track through forest, but when it swings right in about 3mins, walk ahead on a stony path, then when it forks take the upper option. This leads to a forest clearing with a pool, a small building, and views to nearby cascades. Beyond this clearing the path twists uphill and comes to a bridge over the stream at 1838m. Cross this and wander upvalley with the stream for company, and rocky peaks looming ahead. Reach a junction where the left-hand path goes to the Lacs Bessons, but continue ahead for another 3mins to another junction on the north side of a dock-covered pasture below the little Pierastrèche cabin (1936m). The left-hand path is the direct route to the hut, but we bear right and recross the stream.
Lac de Trecolpas, near Refuge de Cougourde
At first the path slants across the hillside among alpenroses, then twists more steeply up the south side of a broad spur dividing two stems of the upper Boréon valley. This is blocked by Cime de l’Agnellière and its consort of slabs and cliffs. Just below an obvious brief saddle there’s another path junction. (Left to the hut, straight ahead to the lake.) Climb to the saddle, beyond which you’ll find the lovely Lac de Trecolpas (2150m), then when you can tear yourself away, return to the junction and bear right. The path makes a traverse of rocks and scree below the Tête de Trecolpas, then among larch and alpenroses before negotiating yet more rocks. Finally cross a stream to gain Refuge de Cougourde, about 30mins from the lake.
Refuge de Cougourde is owned by the Nice section of the CAF, with 40 places and full meals service. It is staffed from mid-June to the end of September. (Tel: 04 93 03 26 00, www.cafnice.org).
The downward path begins from the hut and descends steeply to the Pierastrèche junction where you rejoin the main trail used on the upward route.
WALK 5
Refuge de Gialorgues (2280m: 7480ft)
| Start | St-Dalmas-le-Selvage (c1500m: 4921ft) |
| Valley base | St-Étienne-de-Tinée |
| Distance | 8km (5miles) to the hut |
| Total ascent | 780m (2559ft) |
| Time | 3hrs up, 2hrs down |
| Map | Didier Richard 9 ‘Mercantour’ 1:50,000 |
Not being among the higher mountains of the Maritime Alps, and on the ‘wrong’ side of the Tinée valley, Refuge de Gialorgues does not have many visitors. Indeed, it is unmanned and locked, and prospective users should arrange to collect the key in advance – either from St-Dalmas or St-Étienne. And yet the scenery enjoyed on the approach to this hut is second to none, for as you progress through the Jalorgues glen, so the great battlements of the Ane massif (highest is Pointe Côte de l’Ane, 2916m) excite the imagination, and one could be forgiven for thinking you’d been transported to the Dolomites. The hut itself nestles among high rolling pastures under the southeastern crags of the massif, in a landscape conducive to lazy reflection.
St-Dalmas-le-Selvage (gîte d’étape) is a time-worn village with a beautifully decorated church tucked in a side glen approached by a minor road cutting west from the Col de la Bonette road about 4km north of St-Étienne-de-Tinée. It gazes southwest into a lovely valley through which a jeep track pushes its way to the base of the Ane massif. Either walk along this track, or drive as far as the National Park boundary near the La Barre ruins where the track forks and crosses a stream about 5km from St-Dalmas. If you walk from this point it will take little more than 1¼hrs to reach the hut.
A signpost directs the path from the track (1980m), and twists easily up the hillside to cross the track again at a higher level by a sign for the Mercantour National Park. The way continues among larches before angling left. Gaining height with little effort, views downvalley grow in extent, while the crags of Fort Carra loom above. An upper pasture is reached, and the trail sneaks past a number of low ruins and grey stone walls. Ahead a stream escapes a high basin through a narrow cleft. The way eases towards it, guided by a line of well-made cairns, then enters a broad open basin of pastureland – marshy in its bed where the stream meanders through. The path rises over grass hillocks (more tall cairns) to a knoll where you come to two small huts. The first is a timber chalet used by a shepherd; the second is the stone-built Refuge de Gialorgues. Above to the north-west a small cirque is rimmed with fingers and towers of rock, while the walkers’ pass of Col de Gialorgues lies 30mins to the southwest.
The unmanned Refuge de Gialorgues
Refuge de Gialorgues is CAF-owned. It can sleep 12, but as was mentioned above, it is unmanned and locked. Keys available at St-Dalmas or St-Étienne (Tel. CAF, Nice: 04 93 62 59 59, [email protected], www.cafnice.org). If you plan to stay overnight you should be self-sufficient with food and cooking equipment.
Allow 45mins to return to the jeep track at la Barre, or 2hrs to St-Dalmas by the same route used on the approach.
WALK 6
Refuge du Balif Viso (2460m: 8071ft)
| Start | La Roche Ecroulée (1780m: 5840ft) |
| Valley base | Abriès or Ristolas |
| Distance | 7km (4 miles) to the hut |
| Total ascent | 680m (2231ft) |
| Time | 2½hrs up, 1¾hrs down |
| Map | Didier Richard 10 ‘Queyras’ 1:50,000 |
Although it rises on the Italian side of the border, Monte Viso (3841m) stands at the head of the Guil, a long and important valley that eventually opens to the Durance at Guillestre south of Besançon. It’s not only a handsome mountain but, thanks to its position, it is visible from the summit of countless Alpine peaks, and its presence is thereby felt over a large area. Refuge du Balif Viso enjoys a grandstand view of this noble peak, and for much of the way to the hut, the mountain entices you on. The walk begins at the second parking area known as La Roche Ecroulée, named after the huge boulder which dominates the first one. This is found about 7km upstream of Ristolas, and is as far south as vehicles are allowed in the valley. An information office stands next to the car park.
At the southern end of the car park, where a barrier prevents unauthorised vehicles from proceeding, a footpath signposted to the right gives 1½hrs to the Grand Belvédère du Viso. It rises through larchwoods and in 15mins emerges to an open meadow where the way forks. The righthand path is an ‘ecological trail’, but we wander across