Gran Sometta

Scheda

Segnavia: 

21, 23

Data del rilievo: 

15/07/2011

Foto di copertina: 

The Cime Bianche seen from Crest: Left to right: Pointe Sud, Becca Carrè, Gran Sometta and ... Matterhorn

Tipologia Percorso: 

Circolare

Difficoltà: 

E

Periodo Consigliato: 

June to September

Tempo Complessivo: 

5h00'

Dislivello: 

885 m

Introduction

In the orographic view of the Valle d'Ayas and Valtournenche, the White Peaks represent a geological rarity: it is curious to observe the three "white" peaks, close to the Matterhorn, that look more similar to the Dolomite mountains than the Valle d'Aosta ones, and notice the strong detachment of color and shape that affects the viewer's eye accustomed to very different shapes and colors in this area. In this page you can read other interesting notes about it.
Great Sometta, the highest and most westerly of the three, lies between the upper and lower Cols of the Cime Bianche, basically riding the watershed Ayas - Valtournenche. It 'a massive and elegant pyramid-shaped top and from it you can enjoy a splendid view of the nearby Matterhorn mainly on the Gobba di Rollin and the main peaks of the two just mentioned valleys. The fastest and easiest access is from Valtournenche: thanks to the cable of La Salette, you save about 700 meters. Coming from Ayas the departure is from Saint-Jacques, and most of the route to reach the Lower Col has in common with that of Col Higher to which we refer also with regard to the reflections on the impact that the lifts built for winter tourism has had on the environment. In particular, rising from Valtournanche no one can escape a sense of unpleasantness since much of the route is carried out under piles of chairlifts and beside long rows of cannons for artificial snow. Also to avoid to pass back through these plants, it is recommended as we did (myself with Massimo Martini) to outline the white peaks to the South Col Roisetta and return to the head station of the cable through the beautiful path nr. 23. True that, during summer, these plants do not operate and consequently we do not have here very crowded situations, but it is also strange to find at an altituide of lmost three thousand meters ugly buildings scattered everywhere and the roads that intersect the summits of valleys as well, as already mentioned, and the long rows of pillars. In our tour we met almost nobody(except for four hikers English) and was therefore a pleasant surprise to observe a bit of a beautiful wildlife including ibex, seemingly oblivious of our presence, loitering on the road near Lower Col and then disappearing in the direction of Becca Carrè on a spit of snow.
On the top there was a statue of the Madonna. We have found it broken, his head secured to a stone near a stick in stone metal with three tipss and the trunk thrown to the ground just ahead. We do not know whether this was an act of vandalism or lightning, or other.