Barrage de la Grande Dixence (Le Chargeur)

Barrage de la Grande Dixence (Le Chargeur)
	Height	Climbing height - length
	2141m (2364m)	1642m (1865m) - 24.66 km (27.37 km) - 6.7% (6.8%) (Sion)
	Difficulty	Beauty
	4 (5); (4-5 (5) to dam top)	4 (5); (4-5 (5) to dam top)
How to get there	You could conceivably start at different places up the mountainside here like in Euseigne (982m), but the obvious starting point is really at the outskirts of Sion (499m) from where the road over Vex and Hérémence takes you straight up to the biggest of dam in Europe (and apparently the biggest “gravity dam” in the world). It is only the last part of the climb up to the foot of the dam that is steep. Since this a quite long climb it still becomes a quite hard climb.
Other comments	One could continue the climb on a gravel road from behind the hotel at the foot of the dam on a gravel road (not allowed for walkers) and should have done so if I was not so late there myself. The views are of course better up at the dam, but the dam building itself is pretty impressive from below! (I let the short-cut early on in the road remain there despite that it is a private road and the surface fairly bad from what I can see.) Note also the side roads in the Val d’Hérémence to Alpage de Mandelon (2066m) and opposite the road seems to be asphalted up to Orchèra (1993m), but I do not know the state of that later road for certain. [BIG 578]
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