France · FR

Bornes Massif

The Bornes Massif is a range of limestone mountains in Haute-Savoie, lying just west of the Aravis chain between Lake Annecy and the Arve valley. With steep but generally reachable relief, it pairs broad high plateaus and forests with knife-edged crags, its crown being La Tournette at 2,351 m — the highest mountain ringing Lake Annecy and a summit the whole region looks up to. This is a walker's and naturalist's range rather than a glacier-and-high-altitude one: the classic ascent to the Fauteuil rock, the WWII memory site of the Plateau des Glières, and the pastoral hiking around Le Grand-Bornand — Reblochon country, bearded vultures and a string of mountain refuges — all sit within its slopes.