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  Petit Combin (3672m) lies just to the northwest of Combin de Corbassière and is often combined with a traverse of the latter peak. However, when conditions are favourable, an ascent by way of the Follets glacier and SE Face offers the most direct route (4hrs) from the Cabane de Panossière, while routes on the NW Face and NW Ridge are usually tackled from a base at Cabane Brunet.

The Upper Val de Bagnes

Le Pleureur and Lac de Mauvoisin in the upper Val de Bagnes

Cabane de Chanrion

At the 1840m roadhead there’s a small chapel and a hotel. Open June to September, Hotel de Mauvoisin has 20 beds and 30 dorm places (www.mauvoisin.ch). Behind it towers the massive 250m high dam wall holding back the Mauvoisin reservoir which forms part of the elaborate Grande Dixence hydro-electricity scheme. In 1818, almost a century and a half before the dam was built, a mass of ice broke away from one of the nearby glaciers and blocked the Mauvoisin gorge, causing a natural lake to form behind it. When the ice-and rock-barrier broke, a wall of water swept downvalley, killing 34 people and wreaking havoc as far as Sembrancher and Martigny, where the remains of trees and houses finally settled.