Valsesia, together with Ossola valley, is one of the most important areas of the Northeast of Piedmont.

The groove of the valley ascends from the small village of Serravalle Sesia (Serravalle means “valley locker”) to the wild, almost Himalayan, cirque located under the huge south face of Monte Rosa (4562m, the second summit for elevation of the Alps), where Sesia river borns from the glaciers of the mountain.
The valley embraces a wide variety of environments, from the green nice hills of its lower part to the dramatic ice covered peaks of Monte Rosa range.

Every year, during summer, a large number of mountaineers coming from all over the World, starts from Alagna, the most famous locality of Valsesia, to climb Punta Gnifetti (4559m) and reach on its top Margherita hut, the highest mountain hut of Europe.
The lift that from Alagna gets to Salati pass, at 2980m, shortens the approach to the highest peaks of Monte Rosa range and during winter offers great possibilities for on and off-piste skiing, such as that Alagna earned the nick name of “Free- ride Paradise”.

The upper cirque of the valley under Monte Rosa

Monte Rosa is surely the most attractive group, with numerous routes that climb to summits with an elevation major than 4000m, some very easy, requiring only some experience in walking over glaciers, others hard or very hard, climbing remote rocky walls, like the South face of Punta Gnifetti, or steep iced couloirs in the severe environment of the high mountain.

Near Monte Rosa, the Fierce peak of Corno Bianco(3320m), or the rugged pyramid of Monte Tagliaferro(2964m), together with the other summits of their ranges, offer long hiking or ski-mountaineering trails and some classical rock climbing route.
Moreover Valsesia embraces in its territory numerous lateral valleys, where almost unknown ridges attends during summer the hiker with nice woods, green meadows and easy ridges, and during winter the ski-mountaineer with fancy slopes for all the level of skill.

Val Sermenza, Val Mastallone, Val Vogna, only to mention some of them, are fancy areas where you can hike in every season, in absolute piece and often solitude, over mountains whose elevation goes from less than 2000 meters to more than 3000.

Sesia and its feeders are moreover famous for kayak and rafting sports, the best season for these activities is without doubt spring, where the melting of the snow, together with the frequent rain falls, ensure abundance of water.

In the Northern part of the area, under Monte Rosa and the summits of Tignaga range, High Sesia natural park defends the wild life of this area.

Sunset on Monte Tagliaferro range

Getting There

The quickest access by car to the valley is from the highway A26, that connects Milan to Genova.
After the exit of Romagnano Sesia, a good road lead to the entrance of the valley and goes on till Alagna where it ends under the cliffs of Monte Rosa.
Also the secondary valleys have their own paved road that reaches lovely villages, like Rima in Val Sermanza or Santa Maria in Val Mastallone, where is easy to find an accomodation an that can be used as trailheads.

The access by train is easy by the town of Novara, not far from the Malpensa Airport or from the city of Milan. The Railway ends in the town of Varallo, where you can then go on by bus to reach Alagna, or almost all the other interesting localities of the area.

Map of the valley

Red Tape

No permission are required, these mountains and rivers are free all over the year.

The sub-ranges of Val Sesia

Monte Rosa Group
This range has two faces reachable by Valsesia, the easy west one, that can be quickly approached by the Salati pass cable-lift, and the rugged south face, overtopping the end cirque of Valsesia with huge rocky cliffs and steep iced couloirs.
Some classical routes are the ridges of Lyskamm and the normal route to Punta Gnifetti, or, always to Punta Gnifetti, the Signal ridge.
Also the normal route to Doufur Spitze(4632m), the highest peak of the range, can use Salati pass as trailhead.
There are also different possibilities for the collectors of 4000s to cross the summit ridge of the highest peaks of this range.
More than ten summits over the 4000 meters can be climbed with different difficuly levels starting from Alagna.

Monte Rosa from Val Sesia

The Ridge from SW

Punta Grober range
At East of Monte Rosa, separated from it by Signal pass, this range divides Sesia Valley from Anza valley.
The most important summit is Punta Grober (3495m), which is often climbed and offers fantastic views and some interesting climbing route on the south face.
Other three summits belong to this range: Punta Rizzetti, Punta Calderini and Monte Turlo, all higher than 3000m, they are usually called Faller Range. They can be easily climbed also by hikers but they are rarely visited, the view from their top is anyhow very interesting and the ascend is pleasant.

Punta Grober and Monte Turlo

Corno Bianco range
This range ambraces the summits of the lateral valleys of Otro and Vogna, immediately at SW of Monte Rosa, along the border ridge with Valle D’Aosta.
There are 5 summits above or near the 3000 meters of altitude, with Corno bianco(3320m) overtopping all of them.
The valleys of Otro and Vogna are two untouched wilderness islands, with numerous remote cirques and hanging valleys to discover along the long trails.
There are fantastic possibilities for well trained hikers or ski mountaineers.
The long N ridge of Corno Bianco is a not difficult rock climbing route, while its NE Pillar is very difficult and dangerous due to its remote position and to the bad quality of the rocks.
The normal route to Corno Bianco from Rissuolo valley or from Thaily lakes and the normal route to Straling (3115m) from Otro valley are two astonishing hiking experiences, with more than 2000 meters of elevation to gain.
Numerous alpine lakes contour the slopes of Corno Bianco both on the Otro and Vogna side.
The trailheads are the villages of Alagna and Riva Valdobbia.

Corno Bianco in Winter from Otro Valley

Corno Bianco Range seen from East

Mount Tagliaferro range
This range closes the valley of Alagna, often called Valgrande, at East, right in front of Corno Bianco range.
The slopes of these mountains can be approached also from East, by the side of Valsermenza.
There are numerous hiking possibilities, the normal route to Tagliaferro from the south ridge is the most classical one, it gains more than 1600 meter of altitude and the view from the top is astonishing, embracing Monte Rosa and the great lakes Maggiore and Orta.
The N ridge of Tagliaferro, is one of the most frequented rock climbing route of the valley, while the north wall is an impressive shield of rock with a prominence of 800 meters, but it’s rarely climbed because of the lichens that cover the rocks and become slippery when wet, and because the difficulties are high but remains under the fifth degrees of UIAA scale, which means “low glory” at the bar.

Corno Mud and Tagliaferro overtop the village of Alagna

Palanca-Meia-Cossarello range
This range is located at South of the one of Corno Bianco, on the hydrographic right of Vogna river, embracing the summits of the small valleys of Artogna, Gronda and Sorba rivers.
The elevation is always under 3000 meters, there are numerous hiking possibilities but the summits remains often unvisited.
The trails are in fact signed only to the high passes of the valleys, to reach the summits you must often invent the route by your own, thing that can be fun cause the difficulties are never high.
The “gates” of this range are the city of Rassa and Campertogno, some kilometers at south of Alagna.

Monte Palanca from Vogna Valley in early Autumn

Monte Vecchio – Tignaga range
This range is located at east of Tagliaferro ridge and closes at North Sermenza and Egua valleys.
The highest peak is Pizzo Monte Vecchio (2738m), which north ridge is an easy and amusing rock climb on firm rock.
All these summits are rarely climbed, but they can be reached without difficulties starting from the near passes, choosing the route by your own on the easy ridges.
The environment is wild but not so remote due to the nearness of the small villages of Rima and Carcoforo that are good trailheads for these peaks.
The small dorsal that divides the valleys of Rima and Carcoforo can be considered as a part of this ridge.
These mountains can be approached also from North, starting from the village of Macugnaga in Anzasca valley, across the lateral valley of Quarazzola river.

Sunset on Monte Vecchio West face

Colmetta range
This ridge divides Egua Valley from Val Mastallone. It offers good possibilities for hiking all over the year and also for ski mountaineering.
The highest summit is Cima Colmetta(2458m), Cimone di Camposecco(2413m) is easy reachable from the villages below and offers great views.

Capezzone-Capio range
This is the most Eastern dorsal of Valsesia, divinding Val Mastallone from Val Strona.
The most important summit is Monte Capezzone (2421m), which, like the other summits, can be climbed in one day starting from the village of Rimella without technical difficulties.

Monte Barone range
The most southern range of the area, the highest summit is Monte Barone (2044m).
A lovely range for hiking, especially in autumn and winter, there are also ski- mountaineering possibilities.

Accomodation

The valley is full of possibilities, for all the budgets, with campings hotels and "bed and breakfast".

See the link section.

Huts

Here after the most important huts of these areas divided by the respective range.

Monte rosa

Capanna Regina Margherita (4656m), on the top of Punta gnifetti. The highest mountain hut of Europe.
Reachable from the Salati cable-lift arrival at 2980m.

Capanna Gnifetti (3600m), near Lys glacier, the trail head is Salati pass cable-lift, it’s normally used like support point for climbing all the 4000s of Monte Rosa.

Capanna Gugliermina (3400m), under Punta Parrot south face, in the upper Sesia cirque.
The trailhead is the locality called Acqua Bianca (“White water”, 1400m), at the entrance of Sesia natural park, some kilometers at north of Alagna.

Capanna Resegotti (3600m), at Signal pass, normally used to climb Signal ridge to Punta Gnifetti.
The trailhead is again the locality called Acqua Bianca.

Rifugio Barba Ferrero. Located in the upper Sesia Cirque at 2300m under Monte Rosa. The trail head is always from Acqua Bianca. It’s usefull both to climb the summits of Monte Rosa and of Punta Grober range.

Regina Margherita hut at 4556m

Corno Biance range

Ravelli hut (2500m). In the upper Otro Valley. Reachable from Alagna in 4 hours without difficulties on a well signed trail.
Usefull to climb the 3000s of the range: Corno Bianco, Corno Grosso and Punta Straling.

Carestia hut (220m), at the entrance of Rissuolo cirque in Vogna valley. It’s used to break in two days the long normal route to Corno Bianco or for the trekking around the peak called “Tullio Vidoni” trail.
The trail head is the locality called Sant’ Antonio (1300m) over the village of Riva Valdobbia.

Tagliaferro range

Ferioli hut (2200m), near Mud pass, reachable from Alagna or Rima and used to climb Tagliaferro and Corno Mud (2800m).

Alpe Sattal (2100m), under the west ridge of Carnera (2754m).
Is an original bed and breakfast open all the year, reachable by Alagna in less than two hours. It deserves a visit!
You can use it two climb Tagliaferro or Carnera.

Monte Vecchio – Tignaga range

Vallè hut, at 2100m, under the West face of Monte Vecchio, reachable in two hours from the village of Rima (1400m)

Massero hut, at 2000m, under the East face of Monte Vecchio, the trailhead is Carcoforo at 1300m.

Boffalora hut, at 1700m under Pizzo Tignaga, reachable in less than two hours from Carcoforo.

Map of the huts

The Walsers

Walser folk has settled in the valleys of Monte Rosa during the 16th century. Val Sesia, with the villages of Alagna, RIva Valdobbia, Rima and Carcoforo is the site of numerous Walser colonies.
The typical Walser architecture can be admired not only in the villages but also in the mountain settlements of Otro and Vogna valley.
A Walser museum is located in the localities called Pedemonte, a fiew kilometers at North of Alagna.

Typical Walser architecture in Vogna valley

Links

Official Site
Informations about the accomodations, the roads, the huts and the trails.

Official site of high Valsesia Park

Official site of Alagna

Val Sesia Alpine Club detachment

Alpe Sattal official site

Regina Margherita hut

Images



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