Mountain refuge Ancien four à pain de Valabres

From the environment of Valabres , within the term of Roure , this old bread oven works mainly as a walking coat and useful reference to move along the half-mountain that links with wider sector itineraries. The closeness of the GR 52A , known as Sentier panoramique du Mercantour, places the place in a strip where the progression can change quite according to the hillside you step on: more open and sunny sections alternate with guidelines that better retain moisture or cold, something to take into account already from a moderate level of 1,230 meters. It is not an extreme altitude, but it is enough for time to change quickly if you gain height to the next cords. In the planning also adds a practical detail: there is a very close source, practically next to the coat, although in the mountain it is appropriate not to take for granted its flow without checking it before.

His interest grows as he looks around. Up there are reliefs like Mont Gravières , Cime de Sistron or Mont Saint-Sauveur , summits that draw an increasingly alpine terrain and that make this point a reasonable basis for one-day departures or to break through the local routes of Valabres and Roure. The approach and continuity of the advance will depend much on the change of orientation, the insolation and the state of the path, especially on routes that seek secondary hills or crest. This is why it is necessary to read this shelter more as logistical support than as a destination in itself: a low point of start or guard from which to organize the effort before entering longer slopes, exposed to the wind and with levels already specific to the Mercantour mountain.