Val Ferret

Distance: 29.6 miles. Elevation: 3342 ft.

This was another ride from Morgex, heading up the north-western-most valley in Italy, Val Ferret, towards the Swiss border. France was just the other side of the Mont Blanc massif, views of which featured heavily. The plan was to ride as far as Rifugio Elena, near the Swiss border, the last couple of miles being a steep gravel track. But I didn’t quite reach that far, as described below.

Leaving Morgex I rode along the same quiet route that I’d used yesterday on my way back from Col du Petit Sain Bernard, to keep away from the main road, all the way to Pré Saint-Didier.

The two-mile quiet road from Morgex to Pré-Saint-Didier, with Tête du Grand Mont (2,737m) dead ahead and the Mont Blanc Tunnel approach road visible.

Beyond Pré-Saint-Didier was another quiet route that avoided the main road, sometimes coming close to it, and at one point weaving its way under the main road to come up between it and the autostrada, before climbing over that and leaving them both behind (see 2nd video). Then I was on a nice back country road leading to Verrand and then Courmayeur.

Through Courmayeur I was surprised to find myself on a busy road with traffic and lots of lorries going by. I hadn’t expected that. (Looking back at the map now, I realise I could have easily avoided that main road (the SS26dir) by staying on the road through the centre of Courmayeur – I’m really surprised I hadn’t spotted that at the planning stage. My bad. Still, in its defence, that main road did have a smooth edge lane (not really a cycle lane), except through some tunnels, and a speed limit of only 50kph, so it wasn’t as hellish as it could have been).

Brenva glacier — Approaching Entrèves at the NW end of the Aosta Valley, the view is dominated by the huge Brenva Glacier, the second longest in Italy

After going through a few tunnels I eventually did get to turn off onto the valley road at Entrèves. The first two miles is at 9% but that’s the only steep bit for the remainder of the ride. It’s a beautiful valley road with massive mountains to the left (NW), featuring several glaciers that seem almost within touching distance. To the right there are gentler tree and grass-covered slopes. There’s no doubt it’s a spectacular valley road but it’s really quite commercialised up until the last couple of miles, beyond which all vehicles are prohibited. There are many restaurants, car parking areas, bars, hotels, chalets, camp sites, etc dotted along the road. I even found out later there’s a golf course! This is in contrast to other wonderful alpine valleys I have visited such as Ubaye Valley from Jausiers or Vallée de la Clarée from Briançon. I can picture Val Ferret being rammed during the holiday season. Luckily I was able to enjoy it in relative peace on this coolish September day.

Val Ferret — Barriers to close the road in case of avalanche or landslide

Lots of parking restriction signs spoil the visual tranquility

The last few hundred yards are gravel, leading to a clearing.

I heard dogs barking and, looking up the hillside, I saw sheep being herded down and a couple of patous out front.

Some people nearby clearly knew the approaching dogs, so I felt quite safe. But I had several reasons building up to not do the last couple of miles: The first reason was that it’s ridiculously steep on gravel, which I would have attempted had it not been for the sheep herders (or mainly the dogs). Then there was the fact that the weather was supposed to change later in the afternoon and I wouldn’t have wanted to get a puncture or something and have my return delayed when there were thunderstorms in the forecast, even though it looked lovely and blue at that moment. Oh yeah, there was one other reason – there was a sign that said it was private property and no vehicles allowed – I mean I’m sure that people have cycled up there before but at least I can use it as another excuse! (… and “I ran outta gas, my tux didn’t come back from the cleaners…“, etc)

I didn’t hang about there and rode back half a mile or so and stopped by the side of the road to have my sandwich, make some notes, take in the scenery and put my rain jacket and arm warmers on ready for the descent. The temperature at the top was about 8°C, at 1800 metres altitude, compared with 16°C at the start of the ride at 1000 m, so that fits in exactly with the general rule of thumb which states that the temperature drops 1°C for every 100m of elevation. I could feel a breeze coming up the valley, which would be an inconsequential headwind for my return.

Standing there, I suddenly heard barking and thought it was just someone walking their dog, but when I looked up the road I saw the heard of sheep coming towards me with the patous (or whatever they’re called in Italy) leading.

At first I wondered whether I could stay there and watch the sheep go by, but they were all over the place so I thought I wouldn’t risk alarming the dogs. I quickly got all my stuff together, that had been spread out on a rock, and set off in front of them. I heard a dog behind me getting excited – I don’t know if it was because of me but the shepherd told him to be quiet. I rode a bit further up the road, hopefully out of their range for a while, and stopped at a nice spot by a stream, overlooked by a magnificent glacier.