GTA: Stage 61 S. Anna di Vinadio - Rifugio Citta' di Ceva al Malinvern | Lake Maggiore, Lake Orta, Lake Mergozzo and Ossola Valleys

Highlights and tour details

From the Sanctuary, you pass by the car park of the Apparition rock and gradually climb up along the military road. After a few hundred metres, you leave the road on the right that goes up to the lakes and at the Tesina pass you continue straight on this rather uneven road, arriving at a basin that encloses the Lake of Colle di Sant'Anna (2156 m). Leave the road on the right that goes up towards Colle di Sant'Anna and take the path that runs along the lake on the right hydrographic bank and starts to climb up a detrital valley until you reach a small hill near Cima Moravacciera (2378 m) that you leave on your right. You then continue following the border path P57 which remains on the watershed between Val Tinée and the Sant'Anna valley with some ascents and descents between 2300 and 2350 metres in altitude. Once you arrive near a mountain pasture building, take the final stretch of the track to Colle della Lombarda (2368 m). From here you descend on path (P15) towards the small lakes below and take a stretch of former military road again until you reach a fork at an altitude of about 2170 m where you leave the road to take the P14 path to Passo d’Orgials on the left. Then go up the mule track along a steep stony path until you reach Passo d’Orgials (2600 m). Note that the term Orgials etymologically means high pastureland. The path that descends on the opposite side of the Vallone Riofreddo initially runs along a stretch of the hillside on detritus, passing under the rocky ramparts of Monte della Valletta, and then descends more decisively with narrow hairpin bends into the stony basin of the two upper lakes of Orgials (2291 m), also known as the lakes of Valletta. Leaving the basin, the mule track descends along narrow hairpin bends on the orographic left side of a small valley, flanking several small waterfalls in the upper part that descend from the lakes. Afterwards you continue along a grassy slope and you reach the bottom of the valley where there is a small lake (2150 m). The mule track then bends to the left over a small ridge and continues in the sparse wood until Grange Segnassa (1930 m). From here you continue to descend against the base of a rocky wall and then zigzag down among the stony ground and larch trees that lead to the road near Rifugio Malinvern (1840 m), where the stage ends.