GTA Variant of Alte Valli Stura, Maira and Varaita: Stage 53D Chialvetta - Pontebernardo

Highlights and tour details

From Chialvetta you go back up towards Viviere and the Vallone di Unerzo. At the crossroads at an altitude of 1813 m, turn left along a stretch of road, at first asphalted, where there are signs for Passo della Gardetta (S08 signpost). You go along a stretch on a path that cuts a hairpin bend to find yourself again on the white road that runs along the right bank of the Unerzo stream for a stretch and then crosses it. When a little chapel is in your sight you leave the road and a very well marked fork (Loc. Pratociarliera 1955 m) guides you to the left following the indications for Passo della Gardetta. The signposts along the route are both the traditional red and white ones and other yellow ones related to the "Percorsi occitani". You go along a stretch inside a sparse larch wood going up a lateral shoulder with respect to the valley floor full of the large pastures of Prato Ciarliera. It is a wide, well-marked mule track that runs at the base of the wide detritus conoids that form at the base of the carbonatic and quartzitic rock walls. At an altitude of about 2100 metres you cross the end part of an accumulation of large quartzite rocks and continue to climb, keeping two small lakes on the right at 2200 metres. You then reach a plateau with a ford on the stream and the view of a small barracks and other military posts that precede the pass. Below the larger building there is an area with erosion on chalky and clayey materials. Be careful for the holes that have formed here and there due to the dissolution of the chalk and the many residues of rusty barbed wire. Pass in front of the small barracks and only a short stretch along the hillside remains before reaching Passo della Gardetta (2437 m). Just behind the pass you take the military road to the right towards the Colle di Rocca Brancia, following it for a few hundred metres. Once you have gone around a rocky ridge, you can see the hill and the road soon becomes a path over limestone detritus and rubble. The last stretch before the hill is an airy passage under the rocky ramparts on the old road cluttered with fallen rocky material. From the hill (2611 m) there is a view of Monte Viso. You go down with a couple of hairpin bends still on the military road and then turn left following the P36 which descends into a landscape characterised by outcropping rock and large detritus conoids. You then pass two small lakes at a mountain pasture at an altitude of 2420 metres. A little below you reach Lake Oserot at an altitude of about 2307 metres and then descend along a ridge reaching a mountain pasture with a large drinking trough (2125 m) and then the fork with the P35 that goes towards Colle Servagno. Take the latter on the right, continuing to descend into the valley until you cut along the hillside above a mountain pasture with hut where you leave the fork with the P38 that goes towards Colle della Montagnetta on the left. Continue along a high stretch over Rio Servagno until the ruins of an abandoned hamlet at an altitude of 1720 m. From here you descend a rocky ridge with numerous hairpin bends at the edge of the gorge dug out by Rio Servagno until you reach the SS 21 at the Barricate near Pontebernardo.