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Champex, one-time mountaineering centre

Above and to the west of the village, Val d’Arpette is very different from the immediate surroundings of Champex. This is a wild valley, wooded but with open meadows in its lower reaches, rougher in its middle section and rugged and untamed towards its head where it’s confused by boulder tips and patches of grit and old snow. Though only one of the walling mountains reaches 3200m, the valley seems dwarfed by abrupt slopes. The south flank is swept by a vast ramp of scree, while the headwall is topped by a bristling ridge containing the spiked summits of Pointe d’Orny and Pointe des Ecandies; this latter summit pushes forward a spur that effectively divides the western end of the valley in two. Used by both the TMB and Walker’s Haute Route (see box) the 2665m Fenêtre d’Arpette cuts through the ridge just north of Pointe des Ecandies, but the more challenging Col des Ecandies (2796m) below the Petite Pointe d’Orny is adopted by skiers on the classic Haute Route when departing the Trient refuge.