La Sengla/ Gran Becca Blanchen : Climbing, Hiking & Mountaineering : SummitPost

Overview

In this page, La Sengla and Gran Becca Blanchen will be included in the same page because parts of the same massif.

Placed on the border between Swiss and Italy and rising above the Glacier d'Otemma and the higher Valpelline.
Very good panoramic point to thePennine Alps.

All the massif is mostly composed by gneiss rocks, not very good in the southern part.

Pano

La Sengla (3714m)

"La Sengla" is a name may be derived from the Latin or the local Patois lenguage.
The sense could be "La Sega" (the saw) or "La Cengia" (the ledge).

It's an enormous rocky ridge long one Km with a north-south direction.
It's composed by 3 main summits and many pinnacles, that give it the shape of a saw(probably that gives the sense of the name).

The massif start from Col d'Oren(3262m), and it's delimitated from the huge Otemma glacier (Swiss side)on the north ond the Blanchen glacier on the west.
The east side is a big rocky flank that rise above the Comba d'Oren.

The most and typical route is the traverse of the ridge for the entire length, climbing over all the pinnacles of good gneiss.

Gran Becca Blanchen (3680m)

Gran Becca Blanchen is the fourth summit situated on the southern part of the massif.

It's not the higher,but topografically very important; and signed on the maps as indipendent mountain.

The name "Blanchen",derived from the local Patois lenguage and it means "white firm ground".

It's divides the major structure (La Sengla), in two ridges.
One on the border extended to south-west with the groups Tseuque-Rayette-Chardonney, and the other that separates Comba d'Oren from Comba de la Sasse.

The summit is easily climbed from the Bivouac de la Sasse.

Getting there

From Italy:

Location Alta Valpelline. From Milan motorway A4 and from Turin
motorway A5 to Aosta.
Take the direction to Pass.Gran S.Bernardo, and turn right at the village of Valpelline direction Diga Place Moulin.

From Swiss:

Along the route from Martigny reach Sembrancher where a route follows
the Val de Bagnes till Mauvoisin (1840 m) near a big dike.
By a white narrow route (some danger, not always open) you can reach the Cabane Chanrion 2460 m and Bivouac de la Sengla near the end of Otemma glacier.

Routes and history

LA SENGLA

South summit (3690m)
-East spur-Ettore Canzio,Felice Mondini 18/08/1898
-South ridge-Alexander Jenkins 30/07/1913
-West flank-Alessio Alvazzi,Umberto Balestrieri 16/08/1919

Central summit (3704m)
-East flank-Maurice Gilbert 28/09/1924

North summit (3714m)
-West flank-Carl Shroeder,Seraphine Bessard 22/07/1867
-North ridge-Alexander Jenkins 27/06/1911
-East spur-Gino Costa,Bruno Martinazzi,Leopoldo Saletti 22/07/1922

Traverse
-Total length 2000m from Col d'Oren and Col Blanchen.
30 pinnacles.Difficulties IV°/V° max.
From 8 to 12 hours.Very long travesre and not often
climbed

GRAN BECCA BLANCHEN

-South-west ridge-Normal route.
Nice and funny climb (F+/PD) 2/3 hours from Biv. de la Sasse
-North ridge-Stuart Jenkins,Jean Gaudin 30/07/1913
-South-east ridge-Mario Santi,Pompeo Viglino 06/08/1917

Refuges and Huts

Italian side:

Ref. NACAMULI/COL COLLON (2828m)
60 places.At the head of Comba d'Oren,3-4 hours from the dike of Place Moulin.Open summer and spring for ski-mauntaineering.Difficulty E