Cuneo-Nice, an unforgettable ski touring adventure to discover the wildest Maritime Alps

Cuneo-Nice, day one. The first 2026 departure of our now classic ski touring trip through the Italian and French Maritime Alps begins on February 27 in Borgo San Dalmazzo, at the Global Mountain Guides Office, where we will return after five days of traversing.
Once the luggage is loaded, we move by van to Sant’Anna di Valdieri, where we put on our skins and head along the snow-covered road to Terme di Valdieri before reaching Rifugio Valasco, recently dug out from the snow and opened specifically for us. Here we enjoy an excellent dinner before a well-deserved rest.

On the second day from Rifugio Valasco, following an excellent track, we climb into Val Morta to arrive in about two hours at Colletto di Valasco.
The view is spectacular: before us lies the entire Serra dell’Argentera and the four Fremamorta Lakes, which we cross directly, one after the other, to reach Colletto di Fremamorta. From here the descent, along an initially quite steep slope, is thrilling and still offers us powder snow on its northern side.
Later, as soon as we move onto sunnier slopes, the snow becomes transformed and allows for exciting skiing down to Pian della Casa. The final climb of about 700 meters takes us to Rifugio Remondino, a true eagle’s nest overlooking the Gesso Valley, where we are welcomed with great hospitality.
This second day has the highest elevation gain of the entire tour: we are talking about approximately 1,700 meters.

On the morning of the third day we climb directly behind the refuge and at the foot of Cima di Nasta on a rather sustained slope that takes us in about an hour to Lago di Nasta. From here we move southwest to reach Colle di Brocan and enjoy a beautiful ski on excellent snow that leads us into the valley of Cima Ghiliè, the great classic of Cuneo ski touring. We ski until about halfway down this route, then put our skins back on and climb to the summit.
In the meantime, the sky closes in a bit, but at the top we have time to enjoy a few glimpses of the view before the fog envelops us and accompanies us throughout the descent on the French side of Ghiliè, a valley little known by Cuneo ski tourers, but absolutely wild and very beautiful to ski. Finally, we reach our destination, the Refuge de la Cougourde, at the edge of the pine forests and overlooked by the Caïres de Cougourde, an imposing rock structure known as the Corno Stella of the French Maritimes.

On the fourth day we venture deep into the French Maritimes, practically circumnavigating Cime du Gélas, the Mont Blanc of the Maritime Alps.
From the refuge, we arrive at the shores of Lac de Trécolpas, where we find the remains of a chamois preyed upon by wolves. We stop to observe the carcass and talk about this “encounter” with Erik, our traveling companion and park ranger for the Maritime Alps Protected Areas, who gives us interesting naturalistic and environmental information along the way. After that, we set off again to reach Pas des Ladres from which we enjoy the first beautiful descent on the southeast side, with the snow softened by the early morning sun.

After the ski, we enjoy half an hour of relaxation on a sunny ledge, then, refreshed, we put our skins back on and climb to the inaccessible Pas du Mont Colomb, a real notch beyond which a rather steep couloir descends: the first 30-50 meters reach a 45-degree gradient, so we secure everyone with a rope we brought specifically, then, with skis on and harnesses worn, we lower ourselves along this stretch of couloir which, in reality, is more impressive than difficult, so much so that we clear it safely and calmly.
Afterward, a consistently sustained ski on beautiful snow takes us to the base of the lake where Refuge de Nice stands, an eagle’s nest in the heart of the French Maritimes whose manager welcomes us with omelets, beer, cold cuts, and olives of his own production… And so we worthily celebrate the last evening of our tour.

On the fifth and final day of this edition of the Cuneo-Nice, we take a variation. We climb to Pas de la Fous and from there to Pas Est du Mont Clapier, below the summit of Clapier, which at 3,045 meters is the southernmost 3,000-meter peak in the Alpine arc. From here we climb further with crampons and ice axe on simple mixed terrain to Cime Viglino, from which we enjoy the view ranging from the Côte d’Azur to the Ligurian Sea and Corsica, which we can almost only imagine because Monte Cinto is shrouded in clouds. Next, a superlative ski awaits us in a couloir that descends to Lac Gelé, from where we continue towards Refuge de Valmasque. Here we put our skins back on, passing Lac Vert, Lac Noir, and Lac du Basto one after the other, to complete the climb, again with crampons on our feet, to the notch of Baisse de Fontanalba.

Finally, in fifteen minutes, we climb to Cime Bicknell – named after the English naturalist who at the end of the 19th century documented the rock carvings of Mont Bégo – in what is known as the Vallée des Merveilles, the Valley of Wonders, in the heart of which we now find ourselves.
The final ski, long and interesting, this year with snow in perfect condition, takes us zigzagging through the rock slabs where thousands of carvings dating mostly back to the Bronze Age have been identified. Unfortunately, today we can only imagine them, because the large amount of snow covering this magical place prevents us from seeing them.
The final stretch of the descent winds through very relaxing fir and larch forests: the ideal environment to conclude our tour. After that, passing through the Adventure Park, we arrive in Castérino, where the two vans are waiting to take us back to Italy through the Roya Valley and the Tende Tunnel.