Mont Bego, Cime du Diable

Peaks: Mont Bego (2872m), Cime du Diable (2685m)
Area: Maritime Alps, France
Left the hut at 6am, feeling much better, to a glorious clear morning. I crossed the Lac Long dam wall and immediately started the climb up Mont Bego. By the usual Mercantour standards, this was well tracked out: clearly a popular route. It twisted round the southern spur of the mountain, up grass and scree, to finally gain sunshine and a fore summit. Then a lovely little ridge led across to a final scrambly ridge and the summit. I was up in around an hour, by 7am, and the view was superb. This peak really does have a claim to be the 'end of the Alps' - you do get that feeling, as the land south and east drops away to the Med. Views over Capelet, Gelas and the central Mercantour were excellent and it was nice to fill in this obvious gap in the range. I jogged down, without incident, and breakfasted just above the Merveilles Hut. I felt my normal self now, and was looking forward to putting my plans for the rest of the day into action. I headed towards the Pas du Trem from the hut, past an exquisite sequence of lakes. First came Lac Fourca, then the delightful Lac du Trem - a perfect foreground for pictures of Mont Bego. The path then contours past the much larger Lac de la Muta to gain gentler slopes leading up to the tiny Lacs du Diable and then the Pas du Trem. Another tremendous spot: a small col linking Merveilles with Gordolasque. Before I descended, however, I wanted to get up Cime du Diable, and again this proved very straitforward. A small path gained a steeper section then the vague east ridge to the summit. The day had stayed clear, giving fine views over to Gelas and back to Bego (which looked pleasingly distant). To the south, the GR52 follows long grassy ridges down to L'Authion: fine running terrain. I descended to the Pas, before enjoying a superb descent down the Vallon des Verrairiers. This was highly rewarding. Not a waymarked trail, but a small path weaved down through snowfields before negotiating the inevitable 'clapier' zone, finding a route through huge boulders, to the lush greenery of the lower valley. Wonderful stuff, and I prolonged my time here as much as possible. The verdant lower section was enlivened by a large toad literally landing on my foot as it leapt out of the vegetation fringing the narrow path near the river. The route became harder to follow as the valley merges with the Vallon de la Mairis - it kinked south through a forest to emerge in St Grat right next to the Relais des Merveilles, where I enjoyed a modest but splendid late lunch before walking back up the valley to the car at Pont du Countet. Drove round to the Madone de Fenetre via St Martin, and spent another excellent night in that refuge.