Harvesting Horsradish

Mont Velan.

GPS tracks.

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From My Video Production by Igor presents:

Mont Velan.

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orographic position.

Mont Velan rises on the crest of the border between Valais and the Aosta Valley. The top separates the valley and Menouve to Valsorey By Valley. The slope south-east rises as high wall of broken rocks from the pastures of By, the south-west, is high and steep but retains the small glacier Velan. The north wall and a series of chutes and crevasses, while the north-east is occupied Valsorey glacier, where stands a dome of glacial peak of Velan.

The trip would be feasible in the day, even if the 7 / 8 hours and over 2100 m. dislevello serving of the hill are not little, however, in two days you can enjoy more than the ascent.

Start first day: Glassier (1549).

Difference Day 1: 1105 m.

Departure Day 2: bivouac "Maria Cristina Rosazza" at the Savoy.

Gradient second day 1060 m.

Display: south-east, north-east.

Difficulty: I must admit that it is not easy to assess the difficulty of a climb, because it can vary depending on the weather, I read the reports that have given to F, but we gave her the bad weather the day before, we found Crest icy steps, also the many crevasses that must be crossed, and the final slope of not less than 45 °, still make a trip quite complex. So we felt it was the scores of "difficulty PD.

Equipment: rope, ice ax and crampons.

Topographic Map: 1:30000 IGC, The Valpelline.

Access automotive.

All’uscita dell’autostrada del casello di Aosta si prosegue in superstrada per Gran San Bernardo, alla prima uscita i cartelli indicano Valpelline. Oltrepassato il centro abitato di Valpelline si tiene per Ollomont, oltre, la strada carreggiabile prosegue per interrompersi nel parcheggio di Glassier, 150 m. prima sulla sinistra cartelli indicativi gialli, tipici della Valle d’Aosta, indicano il nostro bivacco.

Itinerario.

Come ci possiamo rendere conto da subito, diverse strade avvicinano al bivacco Savoia, ma la più corta è quella che risale il Ruisseau di By, dopo breve, seguendo sempre le indicazioni per By, si arriva ad un laghetto creato da una diga, if you look well you see the yellow signs, leading under the wall of the building, it would seem to pass over the dam, but instead the path runs along below the prairie.

You get on a graveled road, cross it and climb up the trail, to the pasture of sluts, then 200 m. further upstream are other houses of Tsa Porsche (the Meadows are still in use and are used for grazing). On clear path we arrive at the bivouac Savoy. Today the weather is very upset, especially on the summit of our mountain out of sleet, but the camp is good, very spacious, there are a kitchen, plenty of pots and blankets. I do not know if it is available also the gas, we are not able to open it, if it is there.

The next morning fortunately the sky is all clear, although a strong wind followed us throughout the trip.

Behind the camp you can see the path that climbs the Col de Valsorey channel, the last part is quite steep and icy, but the transition is quite exposed on the rocks. I prefer to wear crampons to climb the hill of frozen snow Valsorey. Hill climb for the ridge to the north east, and today after yesterday's snow crampons allow you to walk a sure-footed even on icy rocks. It fakes the Mont cord to go down to take the track on the glacier Valsorey. more than evident the ice cap of Mont Velan, overcome several crevasses on an easy path to reach the plateau at the foot of the Horns of Velan. At this point we have to overcome the last stretch to the right of the horns, not too long of a slope of 45 ° to emerge directly to the summit.

mountaineering history.

Mount Velan was one of the few major peaks to be the first ascent of Mont Blanc. The work was completed in 1779 by L. Joseph Murith, canon of the Great St. Bernard, accompanied by hunters Genoud and Moret. The monks of the hospice, which the landscape is an important Velan, had a significant role in its mountaineering history; were in fact the monks and Marquis D'Alleves to climb it in 1826 by Glacier Valsorey and go down the west ridge, the canons were probably still the ascent of the west slope. The north wall has also attracted famous names of 'mountaineering, as L. Boulaz that, guided P. Bonnat, I opened up a difficult route in 1939. On this wall also were compared to the 80 best ice climbers, including G. Grassi and P. Gabarrou.

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