Ascent to the Font Turbat refuge via the Petit Vallon

23 points of interest

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  History

  The Désert-en-Valjouffrey

  No sand or barren lands, the name of Desert comes from the word "essarter" which means to clear the land of forest in order to produce a clearing. Forest clearing was necessary for the implementation and the development of agriculture in the mountains... Nowadays, the Desert is one of the only hamlets at altitude which is inhabited all year round in spite of the harsh mountain climate.

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  Know-how

  Hay Fields

  The hayfields where the grass is mown have been improved over the generations by the extraction of stones which have then been stacked in piles which are known locally as “clapiers”. These piles of stones mark the boundaries between the crops and the flocks. 

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  Fauna

  Common Chiffchaff

  A bird that you hear but do not see, the Common Chiffchaff nicknamed the "écu counter”. Its song, which is very easy to identify, evokes the sound of gold coins falling one by one in to the cash register as they are counted. Green-brown and greyish on top, its feathers are off white underneath, beige on the chest with a barely visible pale brow.

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  Geology and geography

  Glacial valley

  The high valley of Bonne, or Font Turbat, is a typical glacial valley in the form of a trough with morainic bars marking the stages of the retreat of the glacier. The lower shelves or glacial shoulders are suspended above the trough 500 to 600 m in size of which the steep sides dominate the layers of scree and the alluvial fans (mass of debris transported by the water It finishes upstream by a vast cirque at the imposing foot of the rocky wall of theOlan (3 564 m), hemmed in at its foot by the Maye black glacier. At the time of the last glaciation  of Würm, 10 000  years ago , the two glaciers of Font Turbat and Maye joined together and fed into a powerful glacial tongue in the Bonne valley. It formed the valley in to the shape of a basin by scraping and polishing rocky walls in the granite. The lowest moraines, masses of rocky debris transported by the glaciers are situated around Châtellerat cabin.

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  Flora

  Cob web House Leek

  Thick leaves organized in tight rosettes shoot up towards the sky twists of white hairs  which are quite similar to  the traps woven by certain spiders. Not less competitive than the rhododendrons, The Cobweb House Leek is adapted to resist drought. The main rosette and the smaller shoots well grouped together; make a real water reserve which is then marvelously stocked by the fleshy leaves... It also develops many kinds of hairs that collect the dew.

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  Flora

  Rhododendron

  Nicknamed the rose of the devil, the rhododendron ferrugineum has the capacity of placing itself between the rocks and boulders where the soil is rare. It keeps its stiff leaves which are dark green and shiny and rust coloured underneath right through the winter. It gets its name from this rust colour. Every year, between the end of July and the beginning of August its branches are crowned with bouquets of flowers coloured rose and purple.

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  Fauna

  Apollo

  A big white butterfly with black and red markings is not shy; the Apollo is easy to see between the middle of June until the end of July... It lays its eggs on the White Stonecrop, a perennial plant with white flowers living on scree and gravel... The male Apollo is born before the female and waits patiently to procreate. It is to be noted that it benefits from national protection; its transport and destruction are forbidden.

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  Fauna

  White-throated Dipper

  Easier to observe than the Common Chiffchaff, the White-throated Dipper lives beside rivers and mountain torrents... A little red and grey bird, with a short tail, it has a fine beak, a white mark on the chin and on the chest. This astonishing sparrow has the particularity of being able to walk under the water against the current in search of food. It flattens itself down and grips on to the bottom with its claws, opens its eyes, which are protected from the flow by a fine membrane and spots worms, larvae, little crustaceans and fish.

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  Water

  Cascade de la Pisse

  With its origin in the high crystalline ground, the torrent bounces down waterfalls and cascades until it meets the Pisse at a height of 40 m.

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  Fauna

  Mountain Hare

  There are many Mountain Hares or Blue Hares that observe you; the opposite is rarely true... Brown in summer, white in winter, the Mountain Hare is present across the Alps. Like the European Hare from which it differs being smaller, with a white tail and shorter ears,  It leaves Y shaped tracks in the snow due to the way it moves in little jumps  (it brings its back  legs  in front of the front legs.). However, it is often its tracks and its little dry, round droppings that indicate its passage. Its large fluffy feet are like snowshoes enabling it to stay on the surface of the snow even when it is powdery.

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  Fauna

  Eurasian Siskin

  Feeding principally on the seeds of the Alder, the Birch and conifers, the Eurasian Siskin only nests in conifer forests in the mountains of the Northern Alps during the reproduction period... The male, more colourful than the female, can be recognized from its bright green-yellow feathers its black forehead and its little white bib under the beak. It is in winter, that you can observe them, sometimes in big groups, descended from the mountains in search of food... 

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  Fauna

  Ring Ouzel

  The Ring Ouzel is easy to identify: it endorses the black feathering of the blackbird, but is distinguished from it by the big white bib on the chest, the light borders of its wings and abdomen. Insects, grasshoppers, worms and  berries make up its menu. This shy mountain blackbird, that flies fast, lives at the edge of forests of larch, Scots pines, Spruce and Swiss Pines pins at an altitude of between 1 000 to  2 500 m. Present in the mountainous massifs it nests in the lower branches or in the hollow trunk of a tree, a crack in the rock or building. Essentially a migrator, the Ring Ouzel hibernates in Spain or in Northern Africa. It comes back to the Alps from the month of March.

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  Fauna

  Red Fox

  The Fox was originally called the goupil in French and this animal was the central character of the hugely famous “novel” written in the 12th century about a goupil called "Renart" (later “Renard”), who was, a clever knight tricking and making fun of the clergy and the powerful who were unable to  deal with the people. Renart made fun of them and was sometimes cruel.  He was so popular that his name became that of the animal species he portrayed. Another literary reference to this animal is by Jean de la Fontaine whose character « Maître Renard » features in twenty of his fables...

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  Hut

  Châtellerat Cabin

  In 1908, Châtellerat pastoral cabin was hastily built by the community of Valjouffrey. Destroyed several times in avalanches, is still sheltered numerous mountaineers. It was rebuilt in 1921 in a less exposed place and already ideas about a « real » refuge were growing.

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  Fauna

  The ring ouzel

  The ring ouzel is easily identifiable: it sports the same plumage as the black ouzel but is distinguished from it by a large white bib on its breast and light edges on the feathers of its wings and underside. Its diet is largely made up of insects, grasshoppers, worms and berries. This shy, swift-flying mountain-dwelling ouzel lives on the edges of forests of larch, Scots pine, spruce and Swiss pine, at altitudes of between 1,000 and 2,500 metres. It nests in low branches or hollow tree trunks or crevices in rocks or buildings. Essentially a migratory bird, the ring ouzel overwinters in Spain or North Africa and returns to the Alps in March.

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  Fauna

  The griffon vulture

  This enormous bird of prey with a wingspan of almost three metres is a relatively recent sight here in the mountains, after a reintroduction programme in the late 1990s. In summer, they constantly circle the skies in groups, on the lookout for the corpses of sheep or large wild mammal to take apart and devour. This impressive carrion bird plays a valuable cleaning-up role in the alpine pastures.

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  Top

  View of L'Olan

  L'Olan stands at 3,564 metres above sea level and it consists of three peaks, the highest of which is the most northerly. For the first time L'Olan was climbed up to the top of the central peak on 8 July 1875, and then up to the top of the north peak on 29 June 1877, by the famous William August Brevoort Coolidge and his guide Almer. L'Olan is the iconic peak not only of the valley but also of the western part of the Les Écrins massif. From here, you can see the north slope which is one of the highest and wildest mountain faces in the Alps, like Les Drus (in the Mont-Blanc massif). Its name is a distortion of the word l’auran which used to mean «windy mountain».

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  Fauna

  The alpine accentor

  The alpine accentor is a bird just slightly bigger than a sparrow, very hardy, grey in colour but speckled with russet on a grey belly. It lives in open alpine meadows and feeds on the ground on the many invertebrates, often close to the snow line. You might also spy it near the refuge because comes for the crumbs dropped by hikers.

  When winter comes, the cold and the snow force it to drop down into the valley and it often comes to the villages, seeking the protection offered by houses.

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  Hut

  Font Turbat Refuge

  During the summer of 1923, the guide Célestin Bernard took charge of the construction of the refuge at Font Turbat. Several great mountaineering names are associated with it like Guery, Ripert, Frendo, Fourastier, Boell, who came to explore the mountains at Valjouffrey. In 1934, Devies and Gervasutti traced a historic itinerary in the North-West face of the Pic de l'Olan. 22 years later, the direct Couzy-Desmaison (ED) was opened to the left of the previous one, surmounting the steepest part of the face. The construction of the refuge As it stands now dates from 1962. It was extended and renovated in 1996-1997.

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  Fauna

  Common Pipistrelle

  Brown with relatively short ears, the Common Pipistrelle and the Soprano Pipistrelle fight over the title of the smallest bat in Europe... The Common Pipistrelle can be seen in very diverse environments even above an altitude of 2 000 m  At the time of  Jules Ferry, school books boasted about the merits of bats .In fact, insectivores, they consume every day a quarter to a third of their own body weight in mosquitoes and other insects.. They emit ultra-sounds which are inaudible to the human ear but detectable thanks to a captor. This technique enables them to orient themselves when moving about at night to capture their prey. They can often be seen around street lighting hunting the insects that have been attracted by the light. 

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  Fauna

  Savi Pipistrelle Bat

  With a small size, and a contrasted coat, an off white abdomen and a golden brown back, Savi’s Pipistrelle can be recognized by the black membranes, it’s rather pointed muzzle and at the end of its tail from which several vertebrae are visible by the uropatagium, a skin membrane situated between the two hind legs... With a calm nature, this bat is a rock species mainly from the South, but it can also reach the high mountains at an altitude of more than 3 000 m.

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  Top

  Pic de l'Olan

  It was on the 29th June 1877 that Coolidge, with Christian Almer father and son, carried out the first ascent of the pic de l'Olan. On the 5th August 1980, Arthur Cust with Pierre Gaspard and Roderon opened the Northern ridge. At that time the bivouac was still obligatory at the bottom of the Bonne valley.

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  Fauna

  Dark green fritillary

  Thanks to its impressive wingspan, the dark green fritillary makes its presence noticed! The top side of its wings is a beautiful orangey colour embellished with black spots. Underneath, they are marked with bands of mother-of-pearl against a background of greenish scales. This is a large butterfly with a wingspan of 50 to 60 cm. It is relatively common but is becoming less so due to loss of habitat, caused by changes in farming practices. In fact, its caterpillar which is black dotted with orange spots along its sides, essentially feeds on violet leaves which are only found in extensively grazed meadows.