Hiking in Italy’s Parco Nazionale Gran Paradiso

What better time to spend several weeks hiking in Parco Nazionale Gran Paradiso (PNGP) than this summer, the 100th anniversary of Italy’s first national park? During my third sojourn since 2018 in the Val d’Aosta, my goal was to explore an area of PNGP that I had not yet visited and to summit at least one significant trekking peak. As my five weeks here draw to a close, I think I can safely say that my goals have been accomplished.

I divide this long post roughly into thirds: first, some local walks in the main Aosta valley near where I was staying; next some highlights of day hikes in and around PNGP; and finally, the climb of Punta Rossa della Grivola, the culmination of my stay in the Val d’Aosta.

Walks from Gressan, Val d’ Aosta

Aosta has the distinction of being both the smallest and the least densely populated of Italy’s twenty regions. Perhaps that’s what attracts me to it! Located in the far northwest of the country, it is bordered by both France and Switzerland. See the map from Wikipedia below.

During my previous visits to Aosta in 2018 and 2019, I chose to stay well above the main valley at an elevation of about 1000m where it was both quieter and cooler. However, this time I chose the village of Gressan as my home base, about 6 km from the capital city of Aosta (population about 35,000). The trade off is that a wide range of hikes is available within a half hour drive, and my preferred supermarket in Aosta almost walking distance. Despite the heat and malodorous ordure from a nearby dairy farm, Gressan is a very pleasant little community. Indeed, I walked right out my door on most off days from some serious hiking. These local walks were ideal during my recovery from Covid, contracted in Norway, and after a mercifully short flareup of patellar tendonitis.

Hikes in and around PNGP from Valle di Cogne

Gran Paradiso park, named after the highest mountain completely within Italy*, was initially protected in order to save the Alpine Ibex from poachers, as it was a personal hunting ground for King Vittorio Emanuele II. (Happily, ibex have recently been thriving, so that now there are more than 50,000 of these wild goats, also known as steinbock). Encompassing more than 173,000 acres, the park bestrides two regions in Italy, Aosta and Piemonte. The northern, Aostan, portion boasts the highest peaks and most rugged terrain. The three main valleys on the northern side of the park are all pendent from the main Val d’Aosta. West to east these are: Val de Rhemes, Val Savarenche, and Valle di Cogne. (Refer to the map, extracted from the park’s brochure, below). Some of my earlier hikes from the first two of these valleys were described briefly in my blog from the Val d’Aosta in 2018, where I focused on many of the alpine wildflowers that were in bloom. This post’s main focus, in contrast, will be on hikes in the Valle di Cogne, culminating in my ascent of the Punta Rossa della Grivola, at 3630m (11,910ft) the highest trekking peak (i.e., no ice axes, crampons, ropes, harnesses, hardware, etc, required) in the park, and perhaps in Italy for that matter.

* -- There is some confusion as to which is the highest mountain in Italy. Mont Blanc (4808m) is sometimes claimed to be, but the summit is actually completely in France. Mont Blanc de Courmayeur (4748m), a sub-summit of Mont Blanc, is marked as lying entirely within Italy on the Italian IGM map, while on the French IGN map the summit lies on the border between France and Italy. In any case, with a prominence of only 18m across the Col Major from the main Mont Blanc summit, it doesn't qualify even as a separate peak. Castor (4223m), whose summit does lie within Italy, is part of the Monte Rosa Massif. With a prominence of 165m, Castor can stake a claim as the highest peak, though the main summit of the Monte Rosa massif, the Dufourspitze (4634m), lies in Switzerland. Nonetheless, the highest mountain completely within Italy is without a doubt The Gran Paradiso (4061m).  

From Gressan, the entrance to the Valle di Cogne is quickly reached. The twenty kilometer drive up the valley in my Fiat 500 Cabriolet never grew old. The impossibly steep mountains rising from both sides of the gorge, the roaring Grand Eyvia River, derelict buildings, numerous tunnels and galleries cut into the mountains, and several picturesque communities made focusing on the road difficult at times. When the gorge finally opens up in Cogne, trailheads radiate from the various villages that comprise this town. There is no end to the possibilities for the serious or casual hiker. Indeed, set at an elevation of 1600m, the town of Cogne would have made a splendid alternative base for me this past month. I will highlight some of the hikes in this section, arranged by trailhead rather than chronologically. For the interested reader, a pdf of some of the Alltrails maps of my routes is provided below. I also have hyperlinked to several Summitpost peaks throughout this blog post. (Note: the east side of the Valle de Cogne is technically outside of PNGP proper, but there are some fine trails, including a portion of the Alta Via 2, and viewpoints into the park can be spectacular).

The Punta Rossa della Grivola

At one time I had seriously considered finally climbing Gran Paradiso this summer. As the highest mountain within Italy – and not too difficult as far as alpine summits go – it had been for years on my bucket list. In the end I didn’t bring any climbing equipment with me this summer, and in any case my enthusiasm for alpine mountaineering seems to have diminished recently. So, casting about for a suitable climbing objective that I could safely solo without any equipment, I finally chose the Punta Rossa della Grivola. The Grivola itself is less than 100 meters lower than Gran Paradiso, but is a completely different beast, a technical rock climb. Fortuitously three lower peaks lie adjacent to the Grivola: Bianca, Nera, and Rossa, translated respectively as White, Black, and Red. The first two of these are challenging, dirty scrambles, and some routes require glacier crossing, something I was not willing to do. That left the lowest of the triptych, Rossa, as an obvious consolation prize.

While Punta Rossa (3630m) can theoretically be climbed in a single day from Valnontey, the ascent is greater than 2000 meters, similar to Mt Whitney from Whitney Portal. Unlike the standard Mt Whitney route, though, a good deal of the climb is not on groomed trail, with scrambling and exposure guaranteed. Furthermore, having just recovered from patellar tendonitis, I didn’t think my knees could possible handle more than 6500 ft descent in one day. The logical choice was to divide my climb into three days, staying overnight in the Rifugio Vittorio Sella (2588m) on the Grand Lauson before and after summit day. To that end, I had already made a reservation during my Casolare Herbetet loop hike, which passed by the rifugio. (NB: for the video in this section of the blog, it is best to play it full screen. There is an icon to click on the lower right.)

Later this week I depart Italy for three weeks, trekking and hiking in Bulgaria, Poland, and Slovakia, book-ended with city breaks in Sofia and Prague. I return to Italy at the end of August for a short time, at which point I plan on producing my next two blog posts.

I hope everyone has been enjoying their summer outdoors in nature. I certainly have!

The Vagabond Hiker