Pavillon du Mont Fréty

The large glacier that shaped Val Ferret had several tributaries, meaning smaller secondary branches that carved less deeply, creating hanging valleys. As a result, the outlets of these valleys lie at a higher elevation than the main valley.

In distant periods, the valley floors of Val Veny and Val Ferret joined into a single large glacier near the valley station of Skyway Monte Bianco. The maximum level, or “trimline”, reached by this glacier can be recognized by looking towards the Dora Baltea valley and examining the different degree of erosion on the rocks. Upstream from the trimline, the ridges not smoothed by the glacier remain sharp.

The suspended serac fall of the Colle del Gigante Glacier visible from the Pavillon is a small part of a larger glacier flowing towards France. At its base lies the Mont Fréty Glacier, now practically extinct. Beneath the debris fallen from the surrounding walls, only a few strips of ice remain, witnesses to the large glacier that occupied the area at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

A “glacial shoulder” is a gentler area located on the side of a glacial valley. Its origin can be traced to ancient valley floors later modified by new glacial expansions and by the glacier’s different erosive capacity along the margins.