The Monte Birrone is a high mountain in the

Cottian Alps The Cottian Alps (; french: Alpes Cottiennes ; it, Alpi Cozie ) are a mountain range in the southwestern part of the Alps. They form the border between France (Hautes-Alpes and Savoie) and Italy (Piedmont). The Fréjus Road Tunnel and Fréjus Ra ...

, belonging to the Italian province of

Cuneo Cuneo (; pms, Coni ; oc, Coni/Couni ; french: Coni ) is a city and '' comune'' in Piedmont, Northern Italy, the capital of the province of Cuneo, the fourth largest of Italy’s provinces by area. It is located at 550 metres (1,804 ft) ...

Geography

The mountain stands on the long ridge which, starting from the

Main chain of the Alps The main chain of the Alps, also called the Alpine divide is the central line of mountains that forms the drainage divide of the range. Main chains of mountain ranges are traditionally designated in this way, and generally include the highest ...

, divides

Maira Valley Maira Valley (in Italian ''Val Maira'' or ''Valle Macra'') is a valley in south-west of Piedmont in the Province of Cuneo, Italy. Etymology The valley takes its name from the river Maira, a right-hand tributary of the Po which flows through the ...

from Varaita Valley. It rises between two well defined mountain passes, ''Colle di Birrone'' (West of the summit, at 1,700 m) and ''Colle di Melle'' (1,871 m, East of it). Close to the Monte Birrone passes an old military road built in order to deserve several military emplacements. It's open to cars and motorbikes during summertime. Administratively the mountain is divided between the

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces ('' province''). The can ...

s of Frassino and

Sampeyre Sampeyre is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Cuneo in the Italian region Piedmont, located about southwest of Turin and about northwest of Cuneo. Sampeyre borders the following municipalities: Brossasco, Casteldelfino, Elva, Fra ...

( Varaita Valley) and San Damiano Macra (

SOIUSA classification

According to

SOIUSA Alps by SOIUSA. SOIUSA (an acronym for - English: ''International Standardized Mountain Subdivision of the Alps-ISMSA'') is a proposal for a new classification system of the Alps from the geographic and toponomastic point of view. It was desig ...

(''International Standardized Mountain Subdivision of the Alps'') the mountain can be classified in the following way: * main part =

Western Alps The Western Alps are the western part of the Alpine Range including the southeastern part of France (e.g. Savoie), the whole of Monaco, the northwestern part of Italy (i.e. Piedmont and the Aosta Valley) and the southwestern part of Switzerland ...

* major sector = North Western Alps * section =

* subsection = Southern Cottian Alps ( ''Alpi del Monviso'') * supergroup = Gruppo del Chambeyron in a broad sense * group = Gruppo della Marchisa * subgroup = Costiera del Pelvo d'Elva * code = I/A-4.I-A.4.d

Geology

From a geologic point of view, the mountain is made of ancient

metamorphic rock Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock to new types of rock in a process called metamorphism. The original rock ( protolith) is subjected to temperatures greater than and, often, elevated pressure of or more, cau ...

s (pre-hercinic and hercinic) belonging to the ''Dora-Maira'' complex. W of the summit, near the colle Birrone, this kind of rocks border with

schist Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock showing pronounced schistosity. This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a low-power hand lens, oriented in such a way that the rock is easily split into thin flakes ...

s ophiolitipher of the complex named ''Pietre verdi di Gastaldi'' (literally ''Green stones of Gastaldi''.Carta geologica d'Italia - foglio 78-79 - Argentera-Dronero

Access to the summit

The summit of the Monte Birrone is easy to reach, and the

normal route A normal route or normal way (french: voie normale; german: Normalweg) is the most frequently used route for ascending and descending a mountain peak. It is usually the simplest route. Overview In the Alps, routes are classed in the following w ...

starts from the old military road which run close to the Maira/Varaita water divide. It's marked by a

summit cross A summit cross (german: Gipfelkreuz) is a cross on the summit of a mountain or hill that marks the top. Often there will be a summit register (''Gipfelbuch'') at the cross, either in a container or at least a weatherproof case. Various other f ...

. It also can be attained by

mountain bike A mountain bike (MTB) or mountain bicycle is a bicycle designed for off-road cycling. Mountain bikes share some similarities with other bicycles, but incorporate features designed to enhance durability and performance in rough terrain, which ...

, carrying the bike in the last part of the ascent. Besides summer hiking the Monte Birrone is also a popular winter destination for

ski mountaineering Ski mountaineering (abbreviated to skimo) is a skiing discipline that involves climbing mountains either on skis or carrying them, depending on the steepness of the ascent, and then descending on skis. There are two major categories of equipmen ...

and snowshoes hikes.

References

Maps

* Italian official cartography (''

Istituto Geografico Militare The ''Istituto Geografico Militare'' (IGM), or Military Geographic Institute, is an Italian public organization, dependent on the Italian Army general staff (''Stato Maggiore dell'Esercito''). It is the national mapping agency for Italy. Over ...

'' - IGM); on-line version
www.pcn.minambiente.it
*

Istituto Geografico Centrale The Istituto Geografico Centrale (IGC, in English ‘’Central Geographic Institute’’) is a privately owned Italian company based in Turin (Piedmont), known for its guide books and hiking maps mainly concerning the Western Alps and their con ...

- Carta dei sentieri e dei rifugi scala 1:50.000 n. 7 '' Valli Maira, Grana e Stura''

External links

* * ''Monte Birrone'': ascent description o
finoincima.altervista.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Birrone Two-thousanders of Italy Mountains of Piedmont Mountains of the Alps Province of Cuneo