Lac du Génépy

In June to July when you leave the forest and set foot on the mountain pastures, you may find a large plant with purple flowers. The lilium martagon, a rare species, colonises the clearings of the forest boundary. It favours so-called mespophilic meadows that are neither too dry or too moist. This plant, once picked, was threatened. It is now out of danger but will require, like other species, much respect on your part.

Ÿou will notice on both sides of the trail, towards the Randolière, numerous small cembro pines, established in the middle of the pastures. Whereas the entire slope was once grazed and mown, the gradual disappearance of small farm holdings and the change in practices have encouraged this forest species to recolonise the area. Over time, if agriculture were to disappear, it’s in the forest that you would find yourself. The loss of these pasture lands will lead to a decline in biodiversity.

Downhill behind you, you will be able to see the lakes of the Aussois dams. The Plan d’Amont is remarkable for its turquoise colour, fed only by the melting snows and clear streams. Downstream, the Vanoise glaciers feed the lake thanks to 19 km of underground tunnels originating from the Doron de Termignon. The water is loaded with glacial “flour”, fine mineral particles torn from the mountains. This is what gives the Plan d’Aval its grey, milky colour.

This colourful bird did not escape from a garden centre. Despite spending its winter in Sub-Saharan Africa, the common rock thrush regularly inhabits the dry rocky and sunny slopes of our mountains to breed. While it can feed on small lizards and seeds or fruit, it gains most benefit from the abundance of various insects. At the end of summer, it will return to its wintering areas. The common rock thrush has been on the decline in France for several years with about 1,500 breeding pairs left only in France. It is a spectacle to see, so keep a keen eye.

This cushion, punctuated by bright pink flowers, is not a moss. The silene acaulis is one of the champions of adapting to the worst. The cushion-like form allows it to reduce day-time and night-time temperature variations that can be significant at these altitudes. Moisture will also be trapped in this hairy, small-leaved stem. The ancient decomposed leaves of the silène acaulis contain nutrients that will allow it to grow and to bloom. A taproot in the cushion’s core will allow it to cling to the steepest terrain.

In the midst of the sand and rock, a stem loaded with small white flowers appears. The persicaria vivipara grows here. Some plants germinate and develop in the fruit while the latter is still attached to the stock plant. This phenomenon corresponds to vegetative viviparity. If you examine the persicaria vivipara, you will see small green bulbs attached to the stem. The fruits of the persicaria vivipara then begin to germinate on the plant. The seeds of the persicaria vivipara are a delicacy for the rock ptarmigan.

Look around you for flat, damp areas without vegetation. Ÿou are bound to notice that the rock slabs seem to have been sorted and patiently arranged, one against the other. Man is not responsible for this geometric pattern. Here, the alternating freezing and thawing cycles and the weight of the snow encourage the transport of stones and their alignment to create what we call snowy paving. In other cases, these phenomena may create polygonal grounds or stone circles.

As you descend from the lake, you will notice the grassy and flat stretches of terrain. The ancient glacier has gouged out depressions in the bedrock. When the ice retreated, these areas became lakes. Just like the Lac du Génépy, alluvium has filled these depressions, the hygrophilous vegetation then colonised these wetlands. Some of these areas then dried up to become small grassy plateaus amid the ´rocky ground´.

Perhaps you have unintentionally trampled over its small, green and shiny oval leaves? Like Gargantua, you were walking over a forest! The dwarf willow (Salix herbacea) is the smallest tree in the world. Like other willows, its flowers will come together in catkins and cover the rocks with a fine cottony layer in July and August. The male and female flowers are on separate plants.

If you think you will discover a clear expanse of water when you arrive at the lake, you will be surprised. The Lac du Génépy is a glacial lake. At the end of the little ice age (1550-1850) the Labby glacier left a moraine on the right bank of the lake. A moraine is an accumulation of stones transported along the front of the glacier and left in place during its retreat. The glacier gouges out the rock in front of the moraine. The glacial meltwater occurs in this basin, creating the Lac du Génépy. The very fine mineral particles that you can touch on the shores of the lake fill it gradually and give it its milky colour.

The Vanoise National Park is monitored by rangers in every season. They collect data essential to the knowledge of flora and fauna, monitor the territory and welcome and provide information to hikers. For these missions, the park rangers can count on a network of surveillance cabins scattered throughout the heart of the park. Standing before you, the Cabane de Labby, is one of them.

As you begin the steep descent to the Fond d´Aussois, look out for this example of a large-scale glacial basin. Imagine for a moment the glacier descending from the Col d’Aussois: its flow is slowed by the narrowing of the valley, further increasing its erosive power. A depression is created. As the ice melts, a lake is created and fills by accumulating fluvio-lacustrine alluvium. Once completely filled, the site of the lake is occupied by a very flat plain where the Saint Benoit stream gently flows today.

A glacial basin is the name give to the area dug out by a glacial valley. Once the glacier recedes, this depression is generally occupied by a lake of variable size which gradually fills up with fluvio-lacustrine alluvium until it forms a plateau. Here, certain areas retain their swamp-like properties with typical plants such as swertia perennis. These rich and flat grasslands have long been appreciated for livestock farming as evidenced by the presence of old alpine huts.

“Here there is space. Here there is pure air. Here there is silence. The kingdom of flawless dawns and naive beasts...”. It was with these words that Samivel wrote the commandments of the National Park upon its creation in 1963. Ÿou enter a protected area, “the great garden of the French” which it is your responsibility to protect. The regulations are displayed on the various panels intended for hikers.

The pinus cembra is comprised of the cembro or arolla pine. The hardwood is used in cabinet-making. Its long needles, in ascicles of five, make it easily recognisable. Mountaineers consume the cones or seeds, competing with the spotted nutcracker. The cembro pine climbs up to 2,300 m and is fond of acid soil and varied orientations. Together with the rhododendron, bilberries and cranberries, it constitutes the forest boundary.

This shrub adorns the mountain with the most beautiful colours from mid-June until the end of July. In Greek, Rhododendron means “red tree” and its ferruginous qualities come from the rusty colour of the underside of its leaves. The rhododendron finds it is perfectly at home on the slopes where the snow persists and thereby offers it protection against the frost.