Fenêtre de Durand

Seen The Pass of the North (left: Mont Gelé, right: Mont Avril )

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The Fenêtre de Durand is a 2797 meter high mountain pass in the Swiss Alps. The mule track connecting the Swiss Rhone valley of the Val de Bagnes with the Aosta Valley. The gap between the 3347 meter high Mont Avril and the 3518 meter high Mont Gelé ( Chanrion ) is the only ice-free crossing of the main Alpine ridge east of the Grand Combin massif and west of the Monte Rosa massif. Just below the pass is located on the Italian side of the small Lac Fenêtre.

History

From 1348 to 1475 several outbreaks of plague had decimated the population in the Bagnes such that the locals no longer had enough cattle to bumped all the Alps. Farmers from the Aosta Valley pushed to do their cows and sheep over the pass Fenêtre de Durand on the Alp Grand Charmotane. At the beginning of the 16th century, the population of the Val de Bagnes had so far recovered from the plague that she wanted to summer grazing on all Alpine their cattle again. The shepherds from the Aosta Valley gave the Grand Charmotane but not price resistance. The dispute over grazing rights dragged on for six decades. Times plundered peasants from the Aosta Valley cheese cellar of the Valais neighbors and stole them cattle, sometimes broke Bagnards to raids into the border area on.

About this transition was since the occupation of the Aosta Valley by the Germans in mid-September 1943, a well-worn escape route to Switzerland. Many of the refugees took the road over Valpelline Ollomont and on to Alpe Berio, where experienced mountaineers from among the resistance fighters ensured the leadership over the border passes. To avoid arrest, also happened to the future president of Italy (1948-1955), Luigi Einaudi, along with his wife Ida on September 26, 1943 here Fenêtre de Durand. A bronze plaque on the summit reminded. By Valpelline also reached many anti-fascists Switzerland, as German and Italian troops early November 1944 a major attack took to retake the Val di Cogne.

Today the pass is among other things a popular passage for mountain bikers.