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By car, take the road to Tende (06430). At Saint-Dalmas-de-Tende, turn left towards Casterino until you reach Lac des Mesches.
(S/E) Departure from the Lac des Mesches car park. Return via the road towards Castérino. After two hairpin bends, take the concrete path that leads to a village.
(1) Take the path that climbs to the upper part of the village (do not head towards the footbridge that crosses to the other side of the valley). Stay on the right side of the valley, which offers a very clear view.
(2) Continue to the right, along Lac de la Minière, and continue to marker 88a, then 382, then 383.
(3) Take the path on the right that leads to the Fontanalba Refuge. Continue straight ahead towards the Refuge des Merveilles; the path will take you to the left side of the valley.
(4) Cross the stream via a wooden footbridge and continue to marker 89a.
(5) Continue straight ahead until you reach marker 89 and the hut (which was almost buried under the snow), then turn left. The large amount of snow diverted us from the normal path, and we had to climb more than 200 metres of almost vertical elevation (other hikers had already taken this path, which encouraged us to continue as the slope was so steep). Once we had overcome this difficulty, the gently sloping path led us to the fantastic Vallée des Merveilles, the lake and then the refuge.
(6) Return via the same route (we slid down the steep slope on our backsides) to the hut and marker 89a.
(5) Take the same path as on the way up. Turn right to take the right side of the valley on the way down. From this marker, the return journey is on the opposite side to the one we took on the way up (right side of the valley on the way down) to the village. Go around Lac de la Minière and return to the crossroads we passed on the way up.
(2) Turn right onto the path you took at the start to return to the Mesches car park (S/E).
Visorando member
Moderate 
