Grande Traversata delle Alpi - GTA: Tratto Nord Piemonte

Highlights and tour details

The long route of the GTA in Piedmont, which is more than 1000 km long, has been divided, also for practical data downloading and management reasons, into 3 large sections corresponding to the northern, central and southern areas of the region. The northern part starts from Cannobio on Lake Maggiore and develops through a remarkable variety of contexts of great environmental and landscape value. It first climbs northwards through the Swiss part of the Maggia Valley or, as a variant, along the wild Alta Valle dell'Isorno towards Val Formazza, the extreme edge of Piedmont wedged between the Swiss cantons of Ticino and Valais. From the hamlet of Riale, the northernmost point from which the connections to the hills of nearby Switzerland branch off, the long descent towards the south begins, initially passing through the enchanting plateaus of the Veglia and Devero Alps and then descending to Varzo. The route then leads to the nearby Val Bognanco where the route splits and you can choose whether to follow the main route that remains in the mid and lower Antrona, Anzasca and Sesia valleys, or to take the more demanding variant that crosses high mountain areas and reconnects to the main route near Alagna Valsesia. From Alagna the route leads to Riva Valdobbia and finally to the Biella area from where the central section of the GTA begins.