Читать книгу Mountain Adventures in the Maurienne. Summer routes for a multi-activity holiday in the French Alps онлайн

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Sitting on the French–Italian border, the Upper Maurienne (Haute Maurienne) has a southern boundary bordering the Italian region of Piedmont. Its northern border is less pronounced, as the massif of the Vanoise blurs the boundary with the Tarentaise valley. These two valleys, the Haute Maurienne and the Tarentaise, border the national park to north and south, while the Gran Paradiso National Park borders the area to the east. The Maurienne valley, carved by the Arc river, stretches for over 60km in length but the Upper Maurienne comprises the region between Modane and the highest summits overlooking Bonneval-sur-Arc and climbing to the Col de l'Iseran.

There are a number of recognised long-distance routes that pass through the valley or use it as part of a circuit. The most famous trek must be the GR5, which wends its way from Geneva to Nice and traverses the valley side for a few days of its journey. A less well-known and more recent route is the Via Alpina. This is a family of long-distance paths stretching across the Alps and crossing numerous national borders. The longest is the Red Trail, which at 161 stages is a mammoth walk; two of those stages, stages 123 and 124, pass through the valley, as the route heads south to Monaco.