Chabod Refuge, from Pravieux
Edited by:
Massimo Martini
Access
From the motorway barrier at Aosta-West, keep left and follow the signs for Aosta - Saint-Pierre. After one kilometre, at the roundabout, take the second exit to join the main road. Continue on the state road for 4.3 kilometres, passing the village of Saint-Pierre until you reach a new roundabout with the Gran Paradiso National Park sign. Take the first exit and continue on the state road for 1.4 kilometres until you come to the exit for Introd/Rhemes S.G/Rhemes N.D/Valsavarenche. Continue for 700 metres and at the roundabout take the first exit onto for Valsavarenche. Follow the regional road for 3.9 kilometres, pass the village of Introd and, after a series of hairpin bends, you will reach the junction for Val di Rhêmes . Continue left on and climb up the valley for a further 22.1 kilometres, passing the main town of Dégioz, the village of Eau Rousse and finally, after a couple of hairpin bends, you reach the Pravieux esplanade where, to the left of the direction of travel, there is a free car park 🅿️ dedicated to hikers and mountaineers who will proceed in the direction of the Chabod Refuge and the Gran Paradiso.
[0h40'] - [30.6km]
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Pravieux can also be reached by bus with the company Arrive, leaving from Villeneuve in about 45 minutes.
Introduction
A beautiful destination within the Gran Paradiso National Park. The walk is not particularly difficult and normally allows sightings of the largest mammals in the park: ibexes and chamois.
Description
Leaving the car at SR23 about 6.5km from Dégioz (Alpe Terre), we set off on a farm road, which we take near a small bridge over the Savara stream. After an initial stretch of farm road, you reach the Pravieux alp (1,871m).
Following the alpine pasture, you begin to climb the path (5), which takes you rapidly upwards in narrow hairpin bends. As we climb the ridge of the valley, the Gran Paradiso and Ciarforon groups appear to us in all their beauty. After about an hour's walk, we gradually leave the forest and reach the Lavassey mountain (2194m).
After the mountain pasture, we continue along the path and, having left the last trees behind, we climb up a stretch of alpine grassland (very beautiful at the beginning of the season for the blossoming). Then you reach a stony ridge which, after walking along it halfway up, leads you directly to the refuge (2750m): from here you can admire the spectacular view of the northern Gran Paradiso.
The refuge, dedicated to the historian and mountaineer Federico Chabod, one of the most important Aosta Valley intellectual figures of the 20th century, was inaugurated in 1985.
The descent can be made on the same path or you can take the connection with the Vittorio Emanuele II Refuge, but remember that the arrival of the descent in this case is at Pont: you will need to be accompanied to the car located a few kilometres further down the valley.
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