What to see in the Cogne Valley, the ideal place to spend a mountain holiday and the starting point for many excursions to do in the Gran Paradiso national park.
Tourist information
The Cogne valley is part of the right hydrographic basin of the Dora Baltea and has a U-shaped conformation with high rocky walls eroded during the past glaciations.
The inhabited center of this valley, rightly considered the most beautiful in the Aosta Valley and in the north-western sector of Italy, is Cogne from where other smaller valleys depart including the Valnontey which leads to the slopes of Gran Paradiso, the valley of Grauson with the tip of the same name, the Urtier Valley and the Valleille.
There are many streams that descending from the glaciers pass through these valleys and flow into the Dora Baltea almost in correspondence with the town of Aymavilles.
The valley creeps into the Gran Paradiso massif and the main mountains are the Gran Paradiso, with its 4,061 meters of altitude, the Roc, the Grivola, the Piccolo Paradiso, the Cresta Gastaldi, the Becca di Montandayne, the Herbetet , the Punta di Ceresole, the Torre del Grande S. Pietro, the Torre di S. Andrea, the Viva Roccia, the Testa della Tribolazione, the Punta Rossa, the Becca di Gay, the Torre di S. Orso, the Testa di Valnontey , the Gran Serz, the Punta Tersiva, the Punta Ondezana, the Gran Crou, the Punta delle Sengie.
Furthermore, numerous glaciers descending from the Gran Paradiso massif concern the Val di Cogne including the Tribulation Glacier, the Trajo Glacier, the Nomenon Glacier, the Tuf Glacier, the Loson Glacier, the Loson Glacier, the Gran Valle Glacier, the Glacier del Tzasset, Gran Crou Glacier, Money Glacier, Money Coupé Glacier, Patrì Glacier, Valletta Glacier, Valeille Glacier, Sengie Glacier, Arolla Glacier, Tessonet Glacier .
What see
There are many alpine huts built over the years to allow hikers who climb to altitude following the numerous paths marked by the CAI to find comfortable refreshment points.
Among the major refuges we can remember the Vittorio Sella, reachable from Valnontey and located at 2584 meters above sea level, the Berzé Dream Péradzaa 2,526 m reachable from the Urtier Valley with 78 beds, the Mario Balzola Bivouac with 4 beds at 3,477 m reachable by following a path that starts from the Cogne Valley.
Other minor refuges, not all easily accessible, scattered in the area are the Bivouac Luciano Gratton, the Bivouac Lionello Leonessa, the Bivouac Carlo Pol, the Bivouac Marcello Gérard-Ettore Grappein, the Bivouac Borghi, the Valnontey, the Bivouac Alessandro Martinotti, the Bivouac of the Money, the Laura Malvezzi-Guido Antoldi Bivouac, the Franco Nebbia Bivouac. The whole valley is crossed by the path n ° 2 Alta via of the Aosta Valley.
