Refuge Vallot
| Refuge Vallot CAF refuge |
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| location | Haute-Savoie department ; Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes , France ; Valley location: Saint-Gervais-les-Bains | |
| Mountain range | Mont Blanc group | |
| Geographical location: | 45 ° 50 '21.7 " N , 6 ° 51' 7.3" E | |
| Altitude | 4362 m | |
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| owner | Club Alpin Français Section Saint-Gervais | |
| Built | 1938 | |
| Construction type | Refuge | |
The Refuge Vallot ( German Vallot Hut ) is a bivouac box for alpinists in the Mont Blanc massif on the north side of Mont Blanc at an altitude of 4362 m . It is located on the territory of the commune of Saint-Gervais-les-Bains in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in France .
The Refuge Vallot serves people who are on their way to or, which is much more often the case, on the descent from the Mont-Blanc summit, for overnight stays in an emergency. It belongs to the Saint-Gervais section of the Club Alpin Français , was built in 1938 and completely renovated in 2006. Immediately next to the emergency accommodation is a small observatory , which is now operated by the Center national de la recherche scientifique .
Furnishing
The Refuge Vallot is an unmanaged and unheated emergency shelter. If contact with the outside world is necessary in an emergency, a radio beacon can be used. The refuge, originally designed for twelve people, is often visited by significantly more people, as the area around the Mont Blanc massif is becoming more and more popular for mountaineering and climbing.
Approach
The ascent to Refuge Vallot takes 2 hours 30 minutes from Refuge du Goûter and 7 hours 30 minutes from Nid d'Aigle , the mountain station of the Tramway du Mont-Blanc .
history
The idea of building a refuge below the Mont-Blanc summit goes back to the French private scholar and astronomer Joseph Vallot , who spent three nights in a tent on the Mont-Blanc summit with his mountain guides in 1887 . He then negotiated a contract with the Chamonix-Mont-Blanc community and local mountain guides to build a hut there: on the Bossesgrat, 450 meters below the summit, at an altitude of 4520 m. In 1890, over 100 porters transported the necessary material up the mountain in eight days to build a hut five by three meters with two rooms, which served on the one hand as an observatory and on the other as a shelter. The future Pope Pius XI also stayed there. when he climbed the summit of Mont Blanc. One year after the construction of the first Vallot hut, the scientist Jules Janssen was commissioned to build the first state observatory on Mont Blanc himself, but this fell apart in 1907 (the year he died).
The first observatory at the old Vallot hut, however, was subsequently expanded and rebuilt several times. It was later made extremely comfortable and also featured a Chinese salon . In 1923 Vallot sold the Assan Dina Foundation observatory, named after the engineer and patron Assan Farid Dina (1871-1928), a half-Pakistani born in Mauritius. He had been married to the American Mary Wallace (1876–1938) since 1914, who together with him had expanded the Avenières Castle , located on Mont Salève near Geneva , into a castle hotel, from where there was a spectacular view of the Mont Blanc offered.
The old Vallot hut was finally replaced by today's Refuge Vallot in 1938.
Mont Blanc Observatory in 1890, after a photo by MJ Vallot.
Postcard depicting the Refuge Vallot.
The Vallot Observatory.
The current refuge.
literature
- Robert Vivian, L'épopée Vallot au Mont-blanc: 100 ans déjà , La fontaîne de Siloé, 1998 Plume
- E. Lagrange, L'Observatoire Vallot , EL Ciel et Terre, Vol. 33, P. 320
- Anthony Pinto, Jacques Mariat, La grande adventure de l'aviation dans les Alpes , "Le Ravitaillement de l'observatoire Vallot en 1927", livre et DVD
Web links
- FFCAM.fr: Refuge Vallot (French)
- Camptocamp.org: Refuge Vallot (French)
- Refuges.info: Refuge Vallot (French)
- Refuges-Montagne.info: Refuge Vallot (French)
- Hermetism.free.fr: Assan Dina and the Vallot Observatory (French), in the magazine L'Illustration from November 26, 1926 (with various photos, top: aerial view of the observatory, bottom left is far right, as usual in white suit to see Assan F. Dina, the sponsor).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Alpin.de: French mayor introduces upper limit for ascents via the normal route.
- ↑ VIA-Ferrata.de: Garbage in the Refuge Vallot / Mont Blanc - highest garbage dump in Europe
- ↑ Hermetism.free.fr: Assan-Farid et Amina Dina (French)
- ↑ Hermetism.free.fr: Assan Dina et l'observatoire Vallot sur le Mont Blanc (French)
- ↑ Relaischateaux.com: Château des Avenières (German)
- ↑ Hermetism.free.fr: Le chateau des Avenières (French)