Vanoise National Park

Vanoise National Park
	Bellecôte from the north
Location:	Savoie , France
Next city:	Chambery
Surface:	196,476 (52,839 core zone, 143,637 outer zone) ha
Founding:	July 6, 1963
Address:	www.vanoise-parcnational.fr; 135 rue du docteur Julliand ; BP 705 ; F − 73007 Chambéry CEDEX
	Mountain lake near the Col de la Vanoise
	Vanoise Glacier (right) and Dent Parrachée
	i3 i6

The Vanoise National Park ( French : Parc National de la Vanoise / PNV ) is a national park in France in the high mountains of the Alps . It is named after the mountain massif of the same name , which belongs to the west of the Graian Alps , which lies between the four-thousand-meter peaks of the Mont-Blanc group and the Écrins ( Dauphiné Alps ) in the French part of the western Alps . The area belongs to the department of Savoie in the region Rhône-Alpes (2016 Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes merged) on the border with Italy .

The reserve was established in 1963 as the first French national park to protect the pristine high mountain world of the interior of the Vanoise massif and the preservation of the endangered Alpine ibex , of which the last specimens had survived in the Italian Gran Paradiso National Park to the east . Since 2000, the Vanoise National Park has been on France's list of proposals for UNESCO World Heritage .

geography

The PNV covers large areas of the upper Maurienne and the Tarentaise in the south of Savoy, which has been French since 1860 .

The inner, strictly protected zone is a high mountain region characterized by over 40 three-thousand-meter peaks (107 individual peaks) with an area of 528 square kilometers, of which about 50 square kilometers are glaciated .

Around this inner zone, the outer zone extends over 1436 km² (like all French national parks, the PNV is also a so-called 'two-zone park'), in which all 28 municipalities and the visitor centers of the national park are located. The national park area lies at heights between 685 m and 3855 m ( La Grande Casse ). In the east there is a shared border of around 14 km with the Italian Gran Paradiso National Park, with which a cooperation agreement has existed since 1972 .

summit

The highest mountains are:

Pointe de la Grande Casse (3855 m)
Mont Pourri (3779 m)
Dent Parrachée (3697 m)
Grande Motte (3653 m)
Dôme de l'Arpont (3601 m)
Dôme de Chasseforêt (3586 m)
Grand Roc Noir (3582 m)
Pointe du Génépy (3551 m)
Pointe de Labby (3521 m)
Bellecôte (3417 m)

Nature and environmental protection

In 1976 the Parc National de la Vanoise was awarded the European Diploma for Protected Areas by the Council of Europe .

Animal species

Alpine ibex (approx. 2,500 animals)
Chamois (approx. 5,500 animals)
European mouflon
marmot
Bearded vulture
Golden eagle
wolf
ermine

tourism

While the tourist use of the outer zone of the national park is strongly characterized by alpine winter sports ( Val-d'Isère , Tignes and Trois Vallées ), the strict regulations of the inner protection zone focus on nature and environmental protection, sustainable development and ecologically compatible tourism.

Hiking trails

In the national park there are around 500 kilometers of marked hiking trails, which allow a variety of different mountain and hiking tours.

The most famous circular route is the 'Tour des Glaciers'.

In addition, the Via Alpina long-distance hiking trails (stages R122 / 123), GR 5 and GR 55 lead through the national park.

Mountain huts

There is a dense network of shelters that either belong to the PNV itself, the Club Alpin Français or private operators. Apart from a few, lower-lying exceptions, their management period extends from mid-June to mid-September.

Huts operated by the PNV

literature

Sabine Bade, Wolfram Mikuteit: Tour des Glaciers de la Vanoise - National Park Hike in Savoy . Fernwege-Verlag, 3rd edition, Roxheim 2011, ISBN 978-3-937304-90-8 .

Iris Kürschner: Vanoise. Albertville - Trois Vallées - Val d'Isère - Maurienne. 52 selected day hikes in the Tarentaise, Maurienne and Vanoise National Park . Bergverlag Rother , Munich 2004, ISBN 3-7633-4304-0 .

Remarks

↑ Parc national de la Vanoise. UNESCO World Heritage Center, June 8, 2000, accessed January 15, 2018 (French).
↑ statistical information from: Le Guide du Parc National de la Vanoise, Éditions Glénat, Grenôble 2003

Web links

Commons : Vanoise National Park - Collection of images, videos and audio files

[1] Parc national de la Vanoise. UNESCO World Heritage Center, June 8, 2000, accessed January 15, 2018 (French).

[2] statistical information from: Le Guide du Parc National de la Vanoise, Éditions Glénat, Grenôble 2003