Val Ferret

Val Ferret runs north-east from Courmayeur, a broad pastoral valley beneath the Italian flank of the Mont Blanc massif. Where Val Veny is dramatic and glacier-dominated, Val Ferret is gentler — a landscape of summer pastures, scattered farms, and small hamlets that gives a different but equally compelling view of the mountains above. The valley is threaded by the Tour du Mont Blanc and is the starting point for trails into the Grand Col Ferret and the Swiss side.

The road up the valley is open in summer to Arnuva, from where a track leads to the Refuge Walter-Bonatti at 2,025 metres. This is an excellent half-day walk with fine views back down the valley to Courmayeur and the Aosta Valley below. The val is also a favourite with cyclists — the road is quiet and the gradient steady rather than brutal. In winter, parts of the lower valley are used for cross-country skiing.

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A story
The Refuge Walter-Bonatti at the head of the Italian Val Ferret is named after Walter Bonatti, the Courmayeur-based climber widely regarded as the greatest alpinist of the twentieth century. Bonatti soloed the south-west pillar of the Dru in six days in 1955, a route considered impossible at the time. He spent his later years in the valley he had used as a base for decades.

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