Ouille d'Arbéron, Mountain summit between Savoie, France and Piedmont, Italy
Ouille d'Arbéron, called Punta d'Arnas in Italian, is a 3,560-metre summit of the Graian Alps on the France-Italy border, at the head of the Viù valley above the Lanzo valleys. It belongs to the border chain running from Mont Tour past the Bessanèse and Levanna to the Pointe de la Galise. Its steep, fractured grey rock faces hold patches of snow and ice, and loose scree with sparse low vegetation lies at its base.
The sources document no formation date or geological history for Ouille d'Arbéron; they place it on the France–Italy border at 3,560 m (3,563 m in the French article), at the head of the Viù valley in the Lanzo valleys. It belongs to the chain running from Mont Tour through the Bessanèse and Levanna to the Pointe de la Galise, marking the Savoie–Piedmont–Aosta boundary.
The summit marks the head of the Viù Valley, the northernmost of the Lanzo Valleys, and sits on the border line running from the Rocciamelone north toward the Levanne, past the Croce Rossa and the Uia di Bessanese. French speakers call it Ouille d'Arbéron, Italians Punta d'Arnas; the two names are used on either side of the ridge.
The summit is normally climbed from Bessans via the Val d'Avérole and the Refuge d'Avérole at 2,210 m. From the Italian side the summit cannot be reached directly: climbers go through the Rifugio Luigi Cibrario at 2,616 m, cross the Col de la Valette (3,207 or 3,212 m depending on the source), descend onto the Glacier du Baounet to about 2,900 m, then follow the west ridge to the top.
The Italian side cannot be climbed directly to the summit: from the Luigi Cibrario refuge (2,616 m) the route climbs to the Col de la Valette (3,207 m), drops onto French ground on the Glacier du Baounet to about 2,900 m, then follows the mountain's west shoulder to the top.
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