Grand Combin
Fly here
Vast ice-covered dome between Valais and the Aosta Valley, visible from the Great St. Bernard Pass.
From the basket
Above Bagnes and Entremont, its two valleys, the Grand Combin rises like an enormous dome of ice. Between Mont Blanc and the Dent Blanche, no summit stands higher: it peaks at 4314 metres. From the balloon you soon see that it is not a lone spike but a small massif in its own right, the Combin, bristling with several summits.
Three peaks follow one another along its main ridge. In the centre stands the highest, the Combin de Grafeneire, which people simply call the Grand Combin. The Combin de Valsorey flanks it to the west; to the east lies the Combin de la Tsessette. All three top four thousand metres. Around them, other more modest heads complete the family, such as the Petit Combin and the Combin de Corbassière.
Head north and you will fly over the long Corbassière Glacier, which spills from the massif in a smooth white tongue. Beneath the ice lie rocks that came from far away: a share of the massif consists of sediments laid down in an ancient ocean that once separated Europe from Africa.
Far to the west stands Mont Blanc, its big neighbour. Let yourself drift along the crest, from one Combin to the next, before descending towards the mountain pastures of Bagnes.
Sources: Wikipedia, “Grand Combin”.
All around
- Dent Blanche, 4357 m, 26 km to the north-east
- Matterhorn, 4478 m, 28 km to the east
- Sion, 33 km to the north