Pont du Châtelet (Saint-Paul-sur-Ubaye) walks

Etape de la traversée des Alpes à partir du hameau de Maljasset qui suit la route de la Haute Ubaye avec une vue époustouflante sur les sommets qui bordent le flanc sud du Queyras. Traversée de la Haute Ubaye dans un univers minéral parmi les sommets de plus de 3000m.

The Grande Traversée des Alpes (GTA) mainly follows the GR®5, with a few possible variations such as the crossing of the Haute Vanoise via the GR®55 and the Via Alpina, which this route takes instead of the GR®5 route via the Col de l’Iseran. It crosses the French Alps from north to south, from Saint-Gingolph to Nice. The guide includes web links to the many accommodation options along the route or nearby: mountain huts, lodges, campsites, cabins and shelters, excluding hotels. Although this guidebook details the GTA as a three-week trek, it can be adapted to suit your own pace, with stages of varying lengths, either completed in one go or in sections over several years. This journey, fuelled by the joy of freedom in unspoilt natural surroundings, will remain a superb and unforgettable experience, offering, moreover, the opportunity to meet many people with whom you can share this same passion for the mountains.

This fifteenth stage crosses the Escreins massif (not to be confused with the Écrins massif) and, via the Ubaye valley, enters the Chambeyron valley. From the Refuge de la Cime, the route—off the GR®5—crosses the Torrent du Mélezet valley and climbs up the Pré Girardin valley via the ski runs; then, on the plateau, it skirts the rocky ridge overlooking Lac Miroir, reaches the lake and rejoins the GR®5. The route climbs up the valley between the shoulder of the Pic des Heuvières and the Crête de Coste Belle, passing the small pass of Sainte-Anne and then the lake of the same name before reaching the Col Girardin. It descends towards a basin, where the Torrent des Séchoirs has its source, and follows it. Clinging to the side of a steep slope, it joins the D25 road in the upper Ubaye valley and continues downstream, alternating between the road and paths close to the river. It leaves the D25 for the Fouillouse road, passes the vertiginous Pont du Châtelet, a tunnel and, via a path, reaches the hamlet of Fouillouse.