Tête Noire, Tête Ronde and Tête de l'Arpettaz

Tête Noire, Tête Ronde and Tête de l'Arpettaz: three peaks overlooking the southern end of the Glières Plateau. The hike takes you through a fairly wild and unfrequented part of the peaks surrounding the famous historic plateau. Magnificent 360° view.

Details

150797
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  • Walking
    Activity: Walking
  • ↔
    Distance: 11.36 km
  • ◔
    Average duration: 5h 05 
  • ▲
    Difficulty: Moderate

  • ⚐
    Back to start: Yes
  • ↗
    Ascent: + 652 m
  • ↘
    Descent: - 651 m

  • ▲
    Highest point: 1,865 m
  • ▼
    Lowest point: 1,263 m

Photos

Description of the walk

Access: Drive to the Plateau des Glières via Thorens (or via Entremont, crossing the plateau). When the road comes out onto the plateau, at the bottom of a short descent, take the road on the right towards Notre-Dame des Neiges, Dran. The tarmac road gives way to a track suitable for vehicles: follow it to the car park in Dran.

(S/E) Follow the track south towards Notre-Dame des Neiges.

(1) Continue for 100 m on the track after the chapel, look for a cairn and a path on the right, follow it (old yellow markings and cairns). It is impossible to go wrong as there are no crossroads. However, remain vigilant, especially in the sharp limestone pavement areas at the summit, to spot the markings and cairns. You will arrive at Tête Noire.

(2) The rest of the hike along the ridge is now clearly visible.
Take the path heading south and you will quickly reach a rocky passage (a small, easy 2-metre chimney to climb down). This is the only difficult part of the route. Then follow the path that climbs up to Tête Ronde.

(3) Continue south on the ridge towards Tête de l'Arpettaz (pronounced Arpette). You will reach a crossroads at the foot of the summit.

(4) Take the left path to the summit marked with a cross.

(5) Return to the previous crossroads.

(4) Take a path that branches off to the left. Follow it (old red markings and cairns) until you come out of the woods in the Vallon d'Ablon.

(6) Descend this valley on the right to reach the Chalet d'Ablon.

(7) Here you have two options:
- take the path on the right, "par la barre", which is generally more interesting and easier, and joins a first track. Cross this track and continue along the path for 200-300 m until you reach a second track, where the two paths meet.
- continue along the wide track, which also joins the junction of the two tracks; this is the route shown on the map.

(8) Continue along the track to reach the Dran car park (S/E).

Waypoints

  1. S/E : km 0 - alt. 1,393 m - Dran car park
  2. 1 : km 1.23 - alt. 1,450 m - Fork after the - Notre-Dame des Neiges
  3. 2 : km 3.34 - alt. 1,835 m - Tête Noire
  4. 3 : km 3.87 - alt. 1,863 m - Tête Ronde
  5. 4 : km 4.28 - alt. 1,827 m - Crossroads of the - Tête de l'Arpettaz (1840m)
  6. 5 : km 4.4 - alt. 1,842 m - Tête de l'Arpettaz (1840m)
  7. 6 : km 5.96 - alt. 1,565 m - Ablon valley
  8. 7 : km 7.73 - alt. 1,391 m - Ablon chalet
  9. 8 : km 10.04 - alt. 1,364 m - Crossroads of the two tracks
  10. S/E : km 11.36 - alt. 1,393 m - Dran car park

Notes

This hike can of course be done in the opposite direction... but be careful when leaving the Ablon valley (at a mound topped by a small spruce tree) to climb towards Arpettaz, as the start of the path is not visible: there are cattle crossing, no markings or cairns, so you have to reach the forest to find the path.

Worth a visit

(S/E) Glières plateau: historic site of the 1939-45 war
Area frequented by chamois.

Reviews and comments

4.6 / 5
Based on 80 reviews

Reliability of the description
4.6 / 5
Ease of following the route
4.4 / 5
Route interest
4.8 / 5
annievilliers
annievilliers

Overall rating : 3.3 / 5

Date of your route : Sep 08, 2025
Reliability of the description : ★★★☆☆ Average
Ease of following the route : ★★☆☆☆ Disappointing
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

a very wild and therefore magnificent hike. The starting point is on the right just after ND des Neiges.
When you reach the slabs, look carefully for the yellow markings, which are sometimes difficult to see.
I find it better to descend via the same route. The return via the valley is endless and uninteresting.

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Hugo38500
Hugo38500

Overall rating : 3.3 / 5

Date of your route : Aug 25, 2025
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Ease of following the route : ★★☆☆☆ Disappointing
Route interest : ★★★★☆ Good
Very busy route : No

A beautiful walk with varied landscapes and terrain.
I agree with some of the previous comments about how easy it is to get lost without a GPS.
Be warned, this is quite a physically demanding hike despite the low elevation gain, due to the terrain (particularly the sharp limestone pavement).
It's just a shame about the return to the car park after the Ablon chalet, with a seemingly endless and uninteresting climb at the end on a 4x4 track.
Thank you for this beautiful trail 🙏🏻

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User 19107546

Overall rating : 4.3 / 5

Date of your route : Aug 09, 2025
Reliability of the description : ★★★★★ Very good
Ease of following the route : ★★★☆☆ Average
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

Hello everyone,
I agree with the previous comment about the beauty of the hike, the variety of landscapes and the magnificent view from the three peaks.
However, we lost a lot of time trying to find the poorly marked boundary markers.
From the car park towards the Notre Dame des Neiges chapel (point 1 on the itinerary), it was really difficult to find the path that led into the forest. A sign would be welcome.
Once at the top of this "path", there were no clear signs to indicate where we were and how to find the path to the summit of Tête Noire.
Point 7: After the Chalet de l'Ablon, it should be pointed out that there is another steep climb before reaching the car park via the track.
This meant that our route was longer than expected, at 14.4 km, and the walk was longer than initially indicated

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DominiqueAIX
DominiqueAIX

Overall rating : 5 / 5

Date of your route : Aug 09, 2025
Reliability of the description : ★★★★★ Very good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

Thank you Gazet for this beautiful hike. We did it on a very hot day and suffered from the heat, which reduced our abilities. The rating of "moderate" seemed a little low to me. In fact, the climb to the peaks is mostly on sharp limestone pavement, which requires constant vigilance to know where to put your feet. What's more, the option after the Ablon chalet in the forest really took the wind out of our sails: a 90-metre climb over 300 metres, which was tough going. Fortunately, the path after that was magnificent. It took us almost seven hours to complete the route (another group took the same time). Once again, the heat was to blame.

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Memess
Memess

Overall rating : 5 / 5

Date of your route : Oct 20, 2024
Reliability of the description : ★★★★★ Very good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

Nice route
The signposting needs to be reviewed
Fortunately we had Visorando

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Sandy S.
Sandy S.

Overall rating : 5 / 5

Date of your route : Jul 27, 2024
Reliability of the description : ★★★★★ Very good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

A varied and enjoyable tour all the way. The views are sumptuous. Many thanks to the author for sharing this route, we had a great time!

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Arthur Perrin
Arthur Perrin

Hello,
I see on my map that the route runs along the inside of a 'temporary' firing range.
Is there a time limit for crossing it? I can't find any information on the net.
Thank you for your help,

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gazet
gazet

Hello,
Regarding Léa7474's review of 26/022024: this route is described in summer conditions, but in February it is snowy with some complicated sharp limestone pavement sections... and you need to have a very good knowledge of the area to avoid getting lost...
What's more, this is an area that is not very popular in summer and even less so in winter, and the route is described in the review as "very popular": there are a lot of inconsistencies in all this.

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Netra
Netra ★

Hello Léa7474 and thank you for your feedback.

In order to help the author of this hike to improve his description, could you specify where the explanations seemed "too imprecise"? Thank you in advance.

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Léa7474
Léa7474

Overall rating : 2 / 5

Date of your route : Feb 26, 2024
Reliability of the description : ★★☆☆☆ Disappointing
Ease of following the route : ★★☆☆☆ Disappointing
Route interest : ★★☆☆☆ Disappointing
Very busy route : Yes

explanations too vague

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michel tout court
michel tout court

This is a beautiful, wild hike offering a fine ridge route with 360° panoramas.
On the ascent to the first summit, follow the sharp limestone pavement signs.
At the châlet d'Albon, turn right under the bar: more pleasant in these hot weather conditions.

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Limon
Limon

Overall rating : 4 / 5

Date of your route : Oct 15, 2023
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Ease of following the route : ★★★☆☆ Average
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

A beautiful hike in a wild setting of sharp limestone pavement. Although it is not particularly difficult, you will need to be careful as you make your way through the sharp limestone pavement, and the small chimney after Tête Noire needs to be unclimbed.
The 360° view of the ridge route is magnificent.
The signposting is very average, especially in the sharp limestone pavements, particularly when changing direction (some of the signs were very useful!).
The return is just as interesting as the outward journey, because it's different.

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michel tout court
michel tout court

Overall rating : 4.7 / 5

Date of your route : Aug 14, 2023
Reliability of the description : ★★★★★ Very good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★☆ Good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

A very beautiful, wild walk. You need to pay close attention to the markings in the sharp limestone pavement. The route along the ridges is admirable.
On the way back, at the châlet d'Albon, it's better to take the path on the right under the cliffs rather than following the carriage road (10 minutes longer).

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VictorM
VictorM

Overall rating : 4 / 5

Date of your route : Aug 06, 2023
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Ease of following the route : ★★★☆☆ Average
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

The hike is very beautiful and as soon as you reach the tête noire you start to get a magnificent 360° view. Going from head to head is clearly the best part, you get a great view.

The start of the path is not very visible, so be careful - it's not far on the right after Notre Dame des Neiges. If you come to a junction of two paths, you've missed the start (ask me how I know...).

The yellow marks are not very visible, so be careful. Before the black head, we made a mistake and followed a downhill path. There were kerns but it didn't lead anywhere. The right path should lead uphill.

Apart from the unclear signposting, the hike is not difficult and seems to be fairly uncrowded.

You get the feeling that the hike is not very busy, especially on the way back. The descent to point 7 is not very interesting. Maybe next time I'll do the return rather than the loop.

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claire chamot
claire chamot

Overall rating : 4.3 / 5

Date of your route : Jul 30, 2023
Reliability of the description : ★★★★★ Very good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★☆ Good
Route interest : ★★★★☆ Good
Very busy route : No

it's so nice to find itineraries off the beaten track, but you still need to know how to find your way around in such cases... and it wasn't always easy to spot the routes on the ground (there were no marked paths in some places), so an IGN map was a must as well!

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