Punta Cornour

The Punta Cornour is a 2,868 metres high mountain on the Italian side of the Cottian Alps.

Toponymy

The mountain is also named Punta Cournour. While Punta Cornour appears in most of the available maps, Punta Cournour is reported by some older sources as, for instance, the Encyclopædia Britannica in its 1911 edition.

Geography

The Punta Cornour is located on the water divide between val Germanasca and val Pellice.
It consists in a prominent peak clearly distinguishable also from the Po plain. The main ridge runs from SW to NE; from the summit branches out another ridge heading South. The summit of the mountain is the tripoint where the comune of Prali meets Bobbio Pellice and Villar Pellice. The SE slopes, belonging to the comune of Villar Pellice, are made of steep rock cliffs, while the other faces have gentler slopes with a lot of blocks.
On the summit a small metallic pillar points out a trigpoint named 067905 Punta Cornour, which belonging to the primary IGM network.

SOIUSA classification

According to SOIUSA the mountain can be classified in the following way:

main part = Western Alps
major sector = South Western Alps
section = Cottian Alps
subsection = Central Cottian Alps
supergroup = Catena Bucie-Grand Queyron-Orsiera
group = Gruppo Bucie-Cornour
subgroup = Costiera Cornour-Cialancia
code = I/A-4.II.A.1.b

Geology

From a geological point of view the mountain belongs to the Dora-Maira massif series, and is mainly composed of gneiss and mica-schists, with lenses of Augen gneiss, dating back to the pre-Triassic era.

Access to the summit

The normal route follows the NE ridge of the mountain. An access itinerary starts from Ghigo close to the valley station of the cable car Seggiovia dei 13 Laghi, which can be used in order to shorten the walk.