View over Lac du Lait

A high-altitude lake surmounted by a summit. Classic mountain landscape shaped by glaciers. To the right of the photograph is the glacier of Belle Place which left its traces as it descended from the eastern side of the Dent Parrachée. A glacier which has now reduced to a few metres in thickness. The last great ice age of the Würm covered the entire Vanoise and descended from Mont Blanc to Lyons. It is therefore difficult to establish the exact origins of Lac du Lait. But its age is certain: the lake is precisely 12,000 years old, as established by analysing the pollen taken from peat. What we have here is the only real peat bog currently known in the heart of the Vanoise National Park. It draws another part of its originality from its exceptionally high altitude for this type of environment. At more than 2,200 metres, the basin dug out by ice was filled with water after their retreat and a wetland was created. This has now closed imperceptibly, filled with vegetation that eliminates the water. It is, in some way, the last stage of this lake’s evolution, the twilight of its life.