Giro del Monviso

From the middle of July to the middle of September, the period the Monviso park recommends for the loop. And yes, early July often still has snow. In 2024 the Refuge du Viso team dug the French entrance of the Buco di Viso out of deep snow on 22 June, and on 11 July a Cuneo news site still reported snow at both tunnel entrances and on the north-facing slopes, with the loop calling for the skills of an experienced hiker or a mountaineer. The hazard is snowfields hardened by the overnight frost, and for those the park advises crampons or an ice axe. If your dates fall before mid-July, ask the refuges how much snow is left on the passes before you commit.

Three days is the classic plan. The park's itinerary from Pian del Re sleeps at the Rifugio Quintino Sella and the Rifugio Vallanta and comes to about 16 hours of walking. The second day, over the Passo Gallarino and the Passo San Chiaffredo, is the long one. Overall the park gives two to five days, depending on fitness. With more time, the Gran Tour adds one or two days by taking in the upper Val Pellice, and the park publishes five-day and six-day versions of it. In the Traileasy planner each night of the loop is its own stop, so a three-day plan and a five-day plan can be compared evening by evening.

It is a hut-to-hut mountain walk for fit walkers, and the park pitches it at good walkers rather than beginners. Its itineraries are graded E/EE on the Italian alpine club scale. Most of the paths are ordinary E mountain trails, marked with red and white paint and signposted at junctions, while the Sentiero del Postino variant and one stretch of the Gran Tour are EE, for experienced hikers only. Height and length are what make it hard. The loop tops out at the Buco di Viso, a dark tunnel where you need a torch, and the second day is long. Someone new to multi-day walking but fit and used to mountain paths can do it in high summer, once the snow has gone. Without that fitness, the park suggests shorter, lower routes instead.

Only in summer. Since 2023 a Corten steel door on the French side has been locked at the end of each walking season and opened again once enough snow has melted. Over the last ten years the tunnel reopened between 15 June and 17 July, in most years in the second half of June, and it usually stays open into October, although in 2025 it was locked on 26 September. In recent years the reopening has been done by the team at the Refuge du Viso, so that is the place to ask before you set off. If the tunnel is shut or blocked, the park's other way back into Italy is the Colle delle Traversette, on the ridge just above it. The col is higher than the tunnel, so early in the season expect snow there too. The Colle delle Traversette is loaded in the Traileasy planner as a route variant, which lets you plan the last day both ways before you know whether the door will be open.

The classic three-day loop sleeps at the Rifugio Quintino Sella and the Rifugio Vallanta, and passes the Refuge du Viso, the French hut, on the last day. Other plans use the Rifugio Alpetto instead of the Quintino Sella, or add the Giacoletti, the Bagnour or the Gran Tour huts in the Val Pellice. Book every night. The park strongly recommends booking in all the huts and makes it compulsory for groups, and the Quintino Sella says its capacity is limited. Opening dates depend on the snow: the Quintino Sella is open from 20 June to 20 September, and the Alpetto and the Refuge du Viso from the middle of June to the middle of September. Confirm the Vallanta's dates with the hut itself. Out of season the Quintino Sella keeps an unstaffed winter room open, with blankets but no water or heating.

Most walkers start at Pian del Re, the source of the Po at the head of the Valle Po above Crissolo, and go round clockwise. The last stretch of road up to Pian del Re is open only from the middle of June to the middle of October, and parking at the top is limited to about 150 cars and paid by the day. From the end of June to the middle of September a shuttle bus runs up from Crissolo, and it has to be booked by the day before, at the Crissolo information office or by phone. The other Italian start is Castello di Pontechianale in the Val Varaita, which the park describes as easy to reach by public transport, and from there a link path climbs to the loop in the Vallanta valley. From France, start in the upper Guil above Ristolas. In summer you drive on past L'Échalp to the car park at La Roche Écroulée, where the road ends, and walk up to the Refuge du Viso on the loop in about two and a half hours.

Only as an overnight bivouac. Italy and France set different rules. In the Italian park, the regulation of the Monviso protected areas bans camping but allows a tent from one hour before sunset until two hours after dawn. The park adds that bivouac is never allowed on the bog at Pian del Re, around the source of the Po. The French stretch crosses the Ristolas Mont Viso nature reserve, whose decree bans camping unless the prefect authorises it. There, a prefectoral order tolerates bivouac from 18:00 to 09:00, one night per site, at least 500 metres from the Refuge du Viso, close to the marked paths and away from the lake shores and any sensitive sites signed on the ground. That tolerance rests on an order issued year by year, so check the current rules with the Refuge du Viso before you go.

No, not legally. The whole French stretch of the loop, from the Passo di Vallanta past the Refuge du Viso to the Buco di Viso, lies inside the Ristolas Mont Viso national nature reserve. Article 4 of the decree that created it, Décret 2007-182, bans bringing domestic animals into the reserve, even on a lead. The only exceptions are working dogs: police and rescue, herding, the reserve's own science programmes and controlled hunting. The Colle delle Traversette, the way round the tunnel, is inside the reserve too. Two common sources get this wrong. The park's itinerary pages place the ban in the Queyras park, a different protected area, and the Refuge du Viso's page shows animals as allowed, but the decree covers the whole reserve, the hut included. On the Italian side the Monviso park allows dogs on a lead.