Lac de la Sassière

Welcome to the Grande Sassière National Nature Reserve. Created in 1973, with a surface area of 2,233 ha, it follows a partial decommissioning of the Tignes-Champagny Nature Reserve to allow the expansion of the Tignes ski area. It is adjacent to the Baillettaz National Nature Reserve. They are both managed by Vanoise National Park. Please respect the regulations to help us preserve the natural heritage.

Go past the 50 m barrier and turn around. Ÿou will be amazed to see a glacial rock bar of quartzite (polished green-white stones) blocking the valley. In two million years of exertion, the valley’s glacier has eroded the surrounding rocks. As the quartzite is much more resistant and compact than the schist (black in colour), the glacier has polished them, thereby preventing the valley from continuing to collapse. This type of valley is called a “hanging valley”.

In addition to the herds of chamois and alpine ibex, the nature reserve shelters 32 protected vascular species. For some species, such as the seslenie ovale, the artemisia borealis or the astragalus leontinus, the reserve protects a significant part of the French populations. In terms of protected species listed on the red lists of endangered species, the Grande Sassière Nature Reserve is the richest reserve in metropolitan France. Here, more than elsewhere, you can touch with eyes only even the simplest of sainfoins!

Many marmot families occupy these alpine meadows. This rodent, weighing 7 kg in adulthood has some very… particular habits. Despite their monogamy, 30% of young marmots are not the head of the family. Infanticide by the father is quite widespread, especially in male marmots, when they are late in leaving the family home, at about 1 and a half years of age… and territorial fights between neighbours are potentially fatal! Is the marmot still so cute?

In addition to the small birds in the alpine meadows (the wheatear, the meadow pipit and the Eurasian skylark) the reserve is home to birds of prey including the royal eagle (2.20 m wingspan, brown plumage and round-edged tail) and the bearded vulture (2.80 m wingspan, beige to red body, black wings, light head, black diamond tail). The first comes to hunt marmots, mountain hares, foxes and chamois and ibex kids. The second is strictly a scavenger who mostly eats bones!

"The large south facing slopes of the Sassière host numerous herds of chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra) called ""chevrées"". In fact, these groups are made up of ""goats"" (vernacular name for the female), accompanied by kids and “éterles” (female subadults). The males (billy goat) live a solitary adult life and approach the females in November in order to take hold of and breed with them. In summer, the kids play on the névés during the warmest hours of the day. Get out your binoculars again..."

At the Chalet du Santel, make sure you take a look at the stream. Ÿou will be able to see a vegetated mound, in the shape of a crescent moon, pierced by the stream and colonised by numerous marmots. This mound is an old moraine that the glacier, which once occupied the valley, (about– 15,000 years) left during its retreat. The stream firstly had to create a lake which caused this natural dyke.

The dammed lake of la Sassière was completed in 1953 in place of a natural lake. It is a “gravity” dam, the mass of materials is opposed to the surge of the water. The rock used for the dyke is quartzite, as at the Verrou du Saut, but it comes from glacial moraines located under the Pointe de la Baillettaz, in front of you. The truck path now serves as a... trail to reach the Col de la Baillettaz.

From this perspective, you have a panoramic view of the peaks bordering the nature reserve. To the north, La Grande Sassière (3,747 m in altitude) lustrous schists, from the old French “sassé” meaning “sieved”: rock; to the east: la Tsanteleina, (3,602 m in altitude) with its glacier of Santel; to the south-east, the Pointe de la Baillettaz (2,989 m in altitude), designating a charcoal miner´s hut in the Piedmontese language, but this summit is a mystery; to the south-west: The Aiguille du Dôme (3,017 m in altitude) in quartzite; finally to the west: the Pointe de Picheru (2,953 m in altitude).