UKC

Afternoon,
Looking at doing a six night trek in or around Gran Paradiso Nat Park late July. Any thoughts of possible route? Happy to hut it.
ta.

In reply to simon manc:

It's a wonderful area for trekking. Most of the valleys on the Val D'Aosta side have very good manned huts and there are loads of small bivi huts that are fun (and free) to visit too. Alta via 2 is the main trekking path which is relatively wild compared to for example the tour du Mont Blanc. It basically goes from side valley to side valley by various high but not glacial passes. If you are OK on simple glaciers, it is possible to do a trip that goes right round Grand Paradiso taking in bits of Val D'Orco - the huts from Valnontey would go something like Vitorio Sella, Chabod/Vittoria Emmanuelle, Pontese and back home but there are lots of variations and you could climb GP (glacier but straightforward from the VE hut) as an extra day.

In reply to simon manc:
I entirely agree with MG about the quality of the GP for walking; scenery and wildlife are fantastic. It pays dividends to make sure you’re fit before you go, or alternatively do some warm-up walking from a valley base to start with - Alta via 2 does involve some hefty grunts up and over the ridges between the main side valleys, your reward being a real sense of mountain travel. The end of July and August is the Italian high season; particularly at fine weekends the accommodation both in the valley and at the huts can be absolutely choc-a-bloc (well worth booking ahead if you can) and the usually high standards of welcome and catering can suffer as a result. The VE hut can be a real bearpit, and if you search the Forum you'll find that various folk have thought it preferable to climb the Gran Paradiso in a oner from the valley. Although there are good campsites in the valleys, wild camping officially isn’t permitted in the National Park so you need to use the huts unless you’re prepared to take your chance bivvying.