Why it is one of my favourite long-distance hiking trails
I was first introduced to the GTA by Joe at Cicerone. I’d recently returned from my first thru-hike of the PCT, during which I’d collated some updates for the Cicerone PCT guide, then authored by Brian Johnson. I must have done a decent job of it as Joe suggested I might be interested in doing something with the GTA.
I had not previously hiked in Italy and the earlier guide by Gillian Price was long out of date. It had warned that getting by with just English was not really feasible in these remote mountain areas where few people spoke more than French and Italian. I also knew the route was not a popular or commercialised one and I couldn’t find many blogs about it by earlier hikers, so I was preparing myself for a challenge. I walked the route in sections across four years. I knew very quickly that I wanted to take on authoring a guidebook to the route, and I ended up walking most of the route twice, both northbound and southbound. What I got was a challenge in places, but it was also so much more than I expected.
Devised in the 1970’s by the Italian Alpine Club, the GTA was always as much an economic project as a touristic one. De-population of alpine communities threatened the loss of culture and pastoral practices that date back centuries. A route that sought to steer hikers through some of the most forgotten corners of the Italian alps, where small communities often live simple lives that are deeply connected to the nature around them and their own cultural history. While mountain huts (rifugio) are present in the longer and higher stages, accommodation options include an array of small hotels (albergo), inns (locanda), religious sanctuaries (santaurio) and farms (agriturismo). Wild camping is not legal in Italy, but is possible with a combination of permission, discretion and respect. Hosts delight in introducing regional specialities here. Piedmont is the home of the slow food movement, and the Nebbiolo grape, famed for wines such as Barolo and Barbaresco, so even the simplest of meals can be a delight.
Commencing from Nufenen Pass between the Swiss cantons of Valais and Ticino, it is a short walk to the Italian border where the view unfolds south across the Lepontine then Pennine Alps. Leaving the glaciers and moraine of Switzerland behind, the route descends through a series of long, flower-rich valleys punctuated by steep, densely vegetated climbs over high passes. Stone roofed huts (baita del pastore) enable shepherds and herders to stay in the highest alpine pastures and move with their cattle and flocks during the summer. Dairy products are produced on site, using age-old methods and can often be bought directly.
Exploring the GTA is a far more than a mountain journey. With considerable ascent and descent, the path takes the walker over high passes daily, typically descending to small settlements. It is a glimpse into lives and practices that have changed little in hundreds of years. Without the tourism or income that enables visitor infrastructure in so much of the alps, the GTA requires a little more independence and effort, and is consequently a wilder and more personally rewarding journey.
Staying close to the French border, the route moves south through the Alpe Veglia and Alpe Devero protected areas without crossing a major road for four stages. Beyond, in the Natural Park of Alta Valle Antrona, a series of turquoise lakes are nestled between steeply forested slopes. At Alagna Valsesia, the GTA touches on the Tour of Monte Rosa. The nine peaks of the Monte Rosa massif can be viewed from several places on route, but a day off in Alagna enables a cable car ride to Passo dei Salati where a ridge-top restaurant enables you to dine among these giants. Only after crossing the south-eastern corner of the Aosta valley at Oropa, does the route descend toward Quincinetto, the end of the northern section of the GTA and the first of only two major centres of population you will pass through.
Now heading west into the Graian Alps, the route drops into the Valle Soana and meanders along the riverside before climbing momentarily into the Gran Paradiso National Park and joining the Senteiro Italia along the Valle Orco to the great dam at Lago di Ceresole. From here a steep climb through fragrant pines levels briefly for the Piano del Morti (plain of the dead), before ascending through great slabs of crumbling rock to the dramatic Colle della Crocetta (pass of the cross). Continuing south, the trail crosses a series of 2500m passes, dropping at each stage into the heads of the valleys for rest and accommodation.
Close to the mid-point of the route, Susa, considered the capital of the Cottian Alps, pre-dates Roman rule and is the second major centre of population visited by the trail. Inducted into the Roman Empire in the 1st century BC the city hosts a fine Roman amphitheatre and the Arch of Augustus dating to 8BC. Further south the trail passes within a few hundred metres of the upper battlements of the great fortress of Fenestrelle. Stretching some 3km and over 600m in height above the Val Chisone, this structure is sometimes referred to as the ‘Great Wall of Europe’.
The remote crossing of the Colle dell’Albergian precedes a descent to Balsiglia, a ghostly hanging valley and site of one of the defining battles between the Duchy of Savoy and Waldensians, persecuted for their religious division from the Catholic Church. This densely wooded area is sparsely populated and rich in nature, and undulates between ridge and valley, passing isolated farms before rising again at the Colle della Gianna. From here, a magical descent to Pian del Re sees you step across the spring at the source of the mighty Po river, before climbing to one of the mountain highlights of the route, the desolate and pyramidal Monviso, rising from a moonscape of rock and scree.
The southern section of the GTA commences at Castello in Valle Varaita and continues south across the head of Valle Maira, crossing the expansive Gardetta plateau and past the soaring pale form of Rocca La Meja, a rock climbers Mecca. The trail takes advantage of many former military tracks and passes bunkers at the Colle della Lombarda. A brief dip into Valle Valscura precedes another great climb to the Colle del Chiapous passing the ‘queen of the maritime alps’ and mountaineers’ favourite, Monte Argentera. As the route turns south for the final time it crosses from Piedmont into Liguria. Here the environment and flora become clearly more Mediterranean, water is sparse and climbs become shorter, descents longer, but the trail hugs the remaining high ground, until within touching distance of the sea at the Roman coastal settlement of Ventimiglia.
Anyone taking on this trek is likely to face a range of challenges that at times can include overgrown or obscured paths, cattle across the trail, fierce patou sheepdogs guarding flocks and language difficulties. If you view your trek as a holiday and want everything made easy and accessible for you, then look elsewhere. This is just not that kind of trek. It is far more rewarding. This is an adventure in the truest sense of the word. The experience will push you. It will expand your comfort zone and require you to engage with real local people in a way that you don’t in most areas of the alps. At some point you will probably stumble into a remote settlement, in the dark, drenched by a mountain storm and knock on a farmhouse door seeking shelter. An experience more akin to travellers of the past than of the modern age.
However, having overcome your anxiety about barging in on a family having dinner, about not being able to communicate or about the pool of muddy water you are leaving on their kitchen floor, you will experience the kind of hospitality that is equally rare in modern travel. You will be welcomed with smiles all round. Your inadequate grasp of the language and your desperate attempts at mime will generate much amusement, and you will be welcomed like old friends. Soon you will be warm and dry, be shown to a chair and fed the kind of food that makes you wonder why supermarket food taste so bland. With a warming glass of red wine that is equally astounding, you’ll find that basic conversation about your journey and your life is possible with a few gestures and a phrasebook. Overall, you’ll discover the happiness and hospitality that mountain people are famous for, despite their simple lifestyle and lack of modern amenities.
