810 km/26 400 hm - 14 stages - Difficulty: ******
(max. 6 stars)
The route is suitable for: extreme adventurers who know how to help themselves in any situation
The highlights: Mont Blanc view in Valais, Massif de la Vanoise, Cottian Alps, Maritime Alps, Ligurian border ridge
Only when you're no longer daunted by a single carrying passage, no steep climb drives you to despair and no blocked downhill trail can throw you out of the saddle - then you're ready for the complete Western Alps trip from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean.
You can expect 14 days of touring through lonely high mountains and trails that are much easier to find on the maps. The harsh weather conditions in the French Alps repeatedly undo the work of map makers and trail maintainers. But for those who can easily cope with such adventurous conditions, the Western Alps are the pinnacle of enjoyment!
The route starts on the southern shore of Lake Geneva and first leads through the Chablais and then climbs up to the 4,000 metre peaks of the Valais. Grand Combin and Gran Paradiso tower into the sky on the left and Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps, on the right. On the seventh day, you reach the Cottian Alps.
Alps. Dilapidated military roads and trails once again pull out all the stops against the magnificent backdrop of the Chaberton and Monviso. Here you need to be in good shape and have a good sense of direction. Then the mountains slowly descend towards the sea: the Maritime Alps! When you reach the famous Ligurian border ridge road and keep switching between France and Italy, you've almost made it. One more stage on the Alta Via and you can jump into the Mediterranean!
Tour info
The complete description of the tour would fill pages. That's why we've put the route description, including map details, on the Internet: Western Alps
Literature/Info: BIKE-Magazin 6/98 (tour incl. route description) and in the book "Alpencross" by Achim Zahn you will also find shorter Western Alps tours in a modular system, Bruckmann-Verlag.
Guided tour: www.bikealpin.de
www.bitou.de
www.jester-tours.com
www.mountaintrails.ch
www.seracoje.de
The GPS data for the Val the Susa can be downloaded here from our partner bike-gps.com:
- GPS data Val di Susa-Borgo-San_Dalmazzo ->
- GPS data Western Alps_total ->
You can now find the GPS data for all the tours presented in BIKE in the professional tour portal of www.bike-gps.com. The data was created with pinpoint accuracy in high-resolution satellite maps and will also be available as RichTracks in future. For you, this means: no more procedures! For us, it means a considerable amount of extra work. That's why this service will have a price in future, but at 3 cents per kilometre, it's absolutely affordable.
From now on, you will receive this for every tour:
1. very precise and well-maintained GPS data
2. all waypoints of a tour
3. road book with arrow symbols and all tour data
4. very precise elevation profile with underground information
All of this is conveniently contained in a single file. You can also order the corresponding digital maps (1.8 cents per square kilometre). You will receive these in the RichTrack file (double-click on the file to open the map and RichTrack in the RichTrack software at the same time).
IMPORTANT: To open the data, please download our free RichTrack Factory software, which is available free of charge from www.bike-gps.com can download. The software allows you to view and print the roadbook and elevation profile and download the GPS tracks and waypoints to all common GPS devices (Garmin, VDO, MyNav, Xplova).
We wish you lots of fun with the new touring system from BIKE and
bike-gps.com
