Rifugio Panossiere - ideal for glacier observation

A peaceful place to discover glaciers Grand Combin, Glacier Corbassiere, Glaciers Follat and Glacier Petit Combin.

Rifugio Pannosiere below Grand Combin on Tour des Combins

Positive points:

Fabulous views of glaciers and mountains

Easy to walk to glaciers to look close up if you have the time

iphone charging station provided for free electricity

Hot showers in basement and external cold shower on the terrace if you wish to be aired by the wind too, a bit like a car wash!

Modern wooden alpine bunk rooms, which are well cared for and have relatively clean bedding

Excellent dinner, bed and breakfast, from a food perspective nothing negative to say, it is Switzerland so don't be surprised to find the usual rosti appearing on the list, they do like a potato.

Bar and snacks available all day. There is a chilled fridge with soft drinks, beers, and wine is an option too.

Large interior with tables and benches allows you to shelter indoors from the UV rays when the sun is doing is greatest damage to humankind outside each sunny afternoon.

A good team of people. They are informative, helpful, communicative, polite, caring, friendly but not too much, civil, good at what they do. They operate in a clean environment. They prepare meals and invite you to be seated for dinner time which is a fairly convivial experience with groups of trekkers, and mountaineers aiming for an early start to reach summits of mountains.

Quite at night to allow mountain summits to get up and out at night, or early morning, whilst the snow is frozen, well quiet until the mountaineers exit the building and then it is quiet again until 6am ish when the breakfast is prepared for those wishing to be fed from

6:30 onwards.

Don't forget:

Bring your own soap and shampoo, towels are not provided and there is a pillow and duvet but you may desire your own pillow case and duvet liner cover.

Comfortable shoes and 2 walking poles as the approach is on foot (unless you own a helicopter to land on Petit Combin summit) and it requires energy as paths are a little bit steep in places

Coming from Col Mille there is a metal bridge to cross beneath the Grand Combin to reach the Refuge Pannosiere which is fine but just be aware it is there, it appears to be well secured to well compressed metamorphic rock but I am not a structural engineer, I did notice one rusty spring and one spring missing that would I imagine if replaced would limit the bridge sway from left to right more than it currently does, perhaps it is about to be replaced, even without it there the sway factor was not intimidating or a concern, it was just that inspected the structure and noticed the obvious lack of spring on one side and a rusty one on the other side. No doubt by the time you get there it will have been replaced.

Rusty spring on one side of the responsive bridge mechanism

Missing spring on the other side - between loop and metal structure for the moving responsive bridge mechanism