patrol the main sites. Guided tours are arranged during the height of the summer season from Refuge des Merveilles, and explanatory booklets are on sale at both the Merveilles and Valmasque huts.
Picturesque St-Dalmas-le-Selvage is located about 4 kilometres north of St-Étienne-de-Tinée
West of Refuge des Merveilles a well-marked route crosses Pas de l’Arpette (2511m) to allow walkers to return to the Vallon de la Gordolasque, thus giving an opportunity to create a circular tour before moving on to the next valley worth exploring from a general base at St-Martin-Vésubie.
Vallon de la Madone de Fenestre
This is the Vallon de la Madone de Fenestre which drains roughly east to west from another tarn-dashed headwall topped by Cime du Gélas, the distinctive peak which also looks down on the upper Gordolasque valley. The GR52 suggests an obvious link with Refuge de Nice by way of the Pas du Mont Colomb, and walkers who have been based there would be better served by crossing that pass instead of making a very long valley detour. Those with their own transport may have other plans. In which case a road invites motorists through the Fenestre glen from St-Martin to the Refuge de la Madone de Fenestre set among a group of buildings at 1903 metres, a distance of about 12 kilometres from St-Martin. By virtue of the easy access (minibus service from St-Martin) it’s the busiest of all huts in the area, and there’s no shortage of ideas for walkers spending a few nights there. Above the Madone hut the little Lac de Fenestre lies under the frontier ridge below Col de Fenestre (2474m), an easy and popular destination for walkers. The pass, from which views stretch beyond the Piedmont plain to Monte Rosa and the Matterhorn, carried a Roman road from St-Martin to Entracque – which proves its strategic importance. Walkers can now use this as an obvious way down to the Rifugio Dado Soria on the Italian flank.
The ascent of Cime du Gélas is popular, especially by the voie normale. So too is that of the neighbouring Cime St-Robert when tackled from the south. But there are lots of little tarns to visit too. Not only those that sparkle among crags walling the upper glen over which lies the Gordolasque valley, but south-east of the hut where the five Lacs de Prals are found in a large grassy basin on the far side of Mont Caval. A circuit of Mont Caval could easily be made whilst visiting these tarns from the Madone hut.
Both ridge systems that defend the Fenestre valley have walking routes along and across them. At the western end of the southern crest stands the peaklet of Cime de la Palu (2132m), a noted local viewpoint. From Madone de Fenestre a trail climbs up to the saddle of Baisse de Ferisson, then follows the ridge westward over Mont Lapassé and several other tops, before reaching Cime de la Palu and descending then through woodland to St-Martin at the end of a memorable five-hour walk. The north wall of the valley has a matching route on which Cime de Piagu (2338m) is the highpoint. Both routes could be used by walkers on their way out of the glen.
However, those who are planning to move on in order to make further explorations of the district should note that another CAF hut is easily reached from the Refuge de la Madone de Fenestre. Situated near the head of the Vallée du Boréon and backed by a girdle of cliffs, Refuge de Cougourde is gained by way of Pas des Ladres (2448m). An alternative approach is by way of the hamlet of Le Boréon in about three hours.
Vallée du Boréon
Le Boréon is a small cross-country ski centre with hotel and refuge accommodation located at the mouth of the wooded Vallon de Salèse, about eight kilometres from St-Martin. This tributary glen is of interest for its access to more walking country, while the main valley here, the Vallée du Boréon, is the third of those named above which converge on St-Martin. Non-motorised visitors should be able to reach Le Boréon by minibus from St-Martin, while those who walked over Pas des Ladres to the Cougourde hut may well be drawn to the frontier ridge which makes a headwall above it, for yet again there are ways over into Italy where Punta dell’Argentera looms above the upper Valletta valley. But those who choose Le Boréon as a base in preference to the hut have frontier crossings to consider too, at Col de Cerise (2543m) and Col de Frémamorte (2615m), both of which descend on the north side with plenty of scenic interest to the Valle della Valletta in the Parco Naturale dell’ Argentera. Alternatively a recommended there and back outing leads to the turquoise Lac Nègre by a trail from the jeep road at Col de Salèse.
The tranquil Lac de Trecolpas in the upper Vallée du Boréon, Mercantour National Park
Val de la Tinée
The next major valley system to the west of Vésubie is that of the Tinée river which rises near the north-western limits of the Mercantour National Park in a mountain cirque topped by the Rocher des Trois Évêques. Val de la Tinée is deep and narrow, in places dwarfed by huge overhanging cliffs. Above St-Sauveur Vallon de Mollières is a tributary whose upper reaches form a link with Le Boréon via Col de Salèse. At Isola, halfway between St-Sauveur and St-Étienne, a road breaks out of the main valley and twists its way in a sinuous journey to the hideous, purpose-built ski resort of Isola 2000, and continues from there over Col de la Lombarde into Italy. But the main Tinée valley draws the motorist on to St-Étienne-de-Tinée where there are hotels, gîtes d’étape and a campsite, sufficient to prove tempting as a base for a few days. The ultra long-distance GR5 route, which makes a traverse of the French Alps from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean, comes through here, while more local trails climb the frontier side of the valley where numerous tarns lie cradled among wild and stony corries. Refuge de Rabuons is perched up by one of these tarns at an altitude of 2500 metres. Refuge de Vens is another, located further north at 2360 metres. Both have trails leading from them that stray over the border into Italy where other rifugios may tempt the enterprising walker into devising a hut-to-hut tour in the hills above the Valle Stura, from whose lower reaches access is given to the Parco Naturale dell’Argentera.
Parco Naturale dell’Argentera
The Italian Alpi Marittime boasts a few small glaciers draped among the north-facing slopes of the highest peaks. Like their French counterparts the upper valleys display a chaos of rocks, boulders and screes, but alpine meadows abound too, fringed here and there with stunted mountain pines. Outside the Argentera park, and located to the east of Col de Tende (Colle di Tenda), the dolomitic Marguareis (2651m) soars above the karst plateau of Conca delle Carsene which is honeycombed with vast sink-holes – a stark contrast to the granite of the Argentera where streams dash silver streaks from slope to slope and dozens of tarns rival those of the French side of the border.
The key to access to the Parco Naturale dell’Argentera is Cuneo, the first town of note on the Italian side of the mountains if coming from France via Col de Tende. A minor road breaks away from the Tende road at Roccavione, south of Cuneo, and heads south-west along the Valle della Valletta. Beyond Valdieri this divides and subdivides again with southern branches delving deep into the park through the Vallone della Rovina and the glens watered by the Gesso di Barra and the Bousset. Wild camping is prohibited in the Argentera park, but there’s an official campsite in Valdieri, and hotel accommodation in Valdieri, Sant’Anna di Valdieri and Terme di Valdieri.
Valle della Valletta
With Punta dell’Argentera spreading itself in a large imposing mass between Valle della Valletta and Vallone della Rovina it is natural that this should be the focus of attention here. The mountain consists of four main tops rising from an extensive ridge system thrusting forward from the main frontier crest in a south to north alignment, and there are four huts scattered on or near its various slopes: Rifugios Remondino, Genova, Bozano and Morelli. All, apart from the Genova hut which is reached from the Rovina glen, are approached by way of the Valle della Valletta or one of its tributaries, while Rifugio Franco Remondino (2430m) is also accessible by a tough cross-border route from Le Boréon by way of Col Guilié – on this route an ice axe may be deemed an essential piece of equipment due to extensive snowfields on the north side of the frontier ridge.
Without being drawn into activity on the highest