Colma di Mombarone
Italy · Europe
About
Colma di Mombarone (or simply Mombarone) is a mountain of the Biellese Alps, a sub-range of Pennine Alps, in northern Italy. It visually marks, along with Mount Cavallaria on the opposite side, the entrance of the Aosta Valley from the Po plain. In 1900, a huge statue of Jesus Christ, still located there, was built on the top.
The name comes from the Piedmontese language: Colma is a term used in the northern Piedmont to refer to a pass or a high place, while Mombarone is the italianisation of the piedmontese Monbaron, where mon means mount and baron means heap or pile.
The mountain is located between the Dora Baltea and Cervo valleys, on the border between the Province of Turin and the province of Biella, both in Piemonte region. Administratively it is divided between the comunes of Settimo Vittone (in the province of Turin), Donato and Graglia (both in the province of Biella).
According to the SOIUSA (International Standardized Mountain Subdivision of the Alps) the mountain can be classified in the following way:
main part = Western Alps major sector = North Western Alps section = Pennine Alps subsection = Southern Valsesia Alps supergroup = Alpi Biellesi group = Catena Tre Vescovi - Mars subgroup = code = I/B-9.IV-A.1
The easiest routes to the summit are two long but well marked footpaths, one starting from San Giacomo di Andrate (TO) and another from San Carlo di Graglia (BI); both of them converge on the southern ridge of the mountain. Near the mountain's summit, at 2,312 m, there is a permanent mountain hut, the Rifugio Mombarone.
Italian official cartography (Istituto Geografico Militare - IGM); on-line version: www.pcn.minambiente.it Provincia di Biella cartography: Carta dei sentieri della Provincia di Biella, 1:25.00 scale, 2004; on line version: webgis.provincia.biella.it Archived 2019-11-05 at the Wayback Machine
Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.