Tips for Crossing the Great St Bernard Pass in Winter

[timr]

This post is from Gaëtan Tornay on the Viefrancigene.org website.

It is authoritative information for those who wish to cross the Great St Bernard Pass during the long winter months.

 

[Bradypus]

Since Gaëtan suggests you skip sections by bus and by train I think that I'll just wait till summer anyway. It is important for me to walk every step of a pilgrimage journey. From memory it was only 4C in August when I crossed the GSB. I'll let others try it in winter!

 

[timr]

Since Gaëtan suggests you skip sections by bus and by train I think that I'll just wait till summer anyway. It is important for me to walk every step of a pilgrimage journey. From memory it was only 4C in August when I crossed the GSB. I'll let others try it in winter!

Yes I noticed that and felt the same!


It is not permitted to walk up the 'left' side of the valley on the road from Bourg St Pierre to Bourg St Bernard, as you cannot walk through the galleries. The waymarked footpath across the valley on the other side of the reservoir is not easy in snow as I found!!

And that section from Martigny to Sembrancher is noted in Alison Raju and Paul Chinn I think as "the most difficult stretch of the VF" even on a good day! I remember it had 'permanent signs' for avalanche.

Here is avalanche still in May:

 

[jl]

A perfect time to cross is a day or a so before they open the pass to vehicles again, having had the surveyors out and the machinery required for clearing the final stretch of snow. You walk up the road with minimal traffic - only service vehicles, and so it is pretty safe. Crossing the last stretch of snow between the hospice and Italy is quite straightforward, about 600 metres or so from memory. Then it is a comfortable stroll down the road until you can diverge back onto the path again. Sheer cliffs of snow on both sides of the path for the last / first hundreds of metres, depending whether you are ascending or descending. Very beautiful. Leave it till the weekend that the road opens and apparently the traffic is horrendous! I didn't hang around to find out.

 

[Bob from L.A. !]

I'll let others try it in winter!

I will second that @Bradypus