Col Bassac Deré, from Thumel

Introduction

A long but very satisfying hike with a changing environment: it goes from the pastures of the lower valley to the characteristic environments of the high mountains. It is not too steep (except for about fifty metres to the col and the last stretch below the summit) and has a little exposure in the final stretch from the col onwards; half of the route is on a path and the remainder on morainic scree and well signposted scree as far as the col.

Description

From the car park, continue along the road until you find the signposts on the left at the start of the itinerary. Climb up following the signs for the Benevolo refuge, passing by a small votive chapel and immediately after a park ranger's hut. The path continues on a false level, skirting the orographic left bank of the Dora di Rhêmes, then descends a little to cross a stream and ascends again thanks to a concrete ladder to cross the terraced crags of the valley. Without an excessive gradient, it passes some recent water works and reaches the dirt road coming from the bottom of the valley; go up it to the left, pass in front of a high waterfall and, near a bend, turn right onto a path that cuts, with a steeper gradient, some hairpin bends in the road: now you can see above a rocky promontory the hut and further down the imposing Granta Parei. After taking another shortcut, climb up the path to the last meadows before the Benevolo refuge. To the left of this is the signposts indicating that we should continue towards a rocky hump where the path, descending slightly, crosses a small bridge and leads towards the ruined alpine pasture of Des Sauches (2313m). From here, the trail heads halfway up the mountain spurs and arrives at a fork signposted by a post, where it is necessary to turn right and climb the numerous hairpin bends that become a little steeper towards the end and lead to the grassy ridge that forms the watershed with the Comba de Golette. Continue along the comfortable ridge with a few ups and downs and you will reach another fork signposted by a small pole where you must take the track to the right. From this point, we walk on scree and stones, abandoning the beaten earth track for the stony one typical of moraine areas. The notch of Col Bassac Deré is clearly visible in front of us. Following the little stone cairns, the track, after crossing a few modest morainic knolls, and merging at times with the gravel, reaches Lago di Goletta; we cross its estuary on a stone bridge and skirt it on its right-hand side, passing by the edge of a marshy area. To our left is the Granta Parei and, below it, the tongue of the Golette glacier that descends almost to the shores of the lake, while to our right is the Grande Traversière and the Punta Bassac Sud. After skirting the lake, the track ascends obliquely on the moraine and heads towards a low rocky bastion from where water is flowing down: we climb it with a short steep section to the right to reach a moraine plateau of light-coloured rocks. The stone cairns and yellow markers, which are always clearly visible, lead us towards a strip of darker rock that is surmounted with a few hairpin bends and, after a short flat section that crosses an area of slightly coarser stones, we arrive below the vertical of the hill. Very laboriously, one ascends the gully on the left without hairpin bends but with a direct route made difficult not only by the slope but also by the ground made slippery by the fine debris and unstable stones. In front of it is the Grande Sassière with its large hanging serac and, below it, the crevassed Glairetta glacier, while looking eastwards you can see the Grivola, the jagged crest of Punta Bioula, the Perchà peaks and the Cima di Entrelor.