Queyras: Pic de Caramantran 3025 m revisited

A few years ago, we climbed to Pic de Caramantran (3025 m) from St-Veran.  The summit is one of the easy 3000m+ peaks in the region.

This time we ascended from the valley above Molines-en-Queyras. The forecast, however, for our first day was not good: rain and thunderstorms in the afternoon. We therefore planned a shorter hike, starting from the spacious parking at 2625 m, not far from Col Agnel (2744 m) at the Italian border.

Early in the morning, we took the D205T road from Molines-en-Queyras. After a downpour on the way, the clouds fortunately broke temporarily when we reached our starting point.





A new nature trail (a 30 min. loop), called Nebbia, begins from the parking. We started along it clockwise. At a signpost named Riou du Rocher Long 2630 m, we joined the main GR 58 trail that leads to Col de Chamoussière (2884 m). We ascended along the rocky trail with Caramantran’s steep north face on our left-hand side.

At Col de Chamoussière, we left the GR58 and forked left along a trail that first zigzagged along a steep incline, then levelled off a bit. There were no signposts, only cairns and yellow markings. Just before the summit, on a ridge, the yellow-marked trail continued straight south while we forked left to the nearby summit with two big cairns. We were on the Franco-Italian border.

 By that time, we had a full overcast and heard distant thunder. As on our previous hike! We descended quickly back to the parking along the same trail, just in time before a heavy downpour started.

Climb: 400 m

Duration: 2h 30

Distance: 6.5 km

Map: 3637 OT Mont Viso