Climbing

Bolted, trad, single pitch, multi pitch, bouldering, alpine and ice it's all here and waiting to be climbed on...

The Hautes Alpes region has it all with thousands of modern bolted routes in areas such as Ailefroide and the numerous Durance Valley crags and faces through to giant 4000m+ classic alpine summits in the and around the Ecrins national park..

The village of Les Vigneaux, where two of our apartments are situated, is at the entrance of the Vallouise valley. This makes it an excellent base for a large number of crags, types of rock and styles of climbing. It also gives easy access into the Ecrins national park and the big alpine peaks. The starting point for the Barre des Ecrins 4106m (the biggest mountain in the Southern Alps) is just 25 minutes drive form the apartment.

Closest climbing areas to the AlpSun Apartments

- Sport climbing (bolted) – Les Vignettes 5 minutes drive

- Big Multi Pitch - Le Tete d'Aval walk in straight from the apartments
- Alpine climbing – 10 minutes drive
- Bouldering - 15 minutes drive to Aielfroide (smaller areas closer)

- Ice climbing – 10 minutes drive

There is too much climbing the Hautes Alpes region for us to list it all, but here is a selection of our favourites in the area close to our accommodation:

Traverses and Vignette, Les Vigneaux

Limestone crag situated just 5 mins drive from our apartments in Les Vigneaux village. Single pitch routes of up to 35m on beautifully sculptured limestone. Excellent all year round cragging with very sensibly placed bolts.

100 routes grades in 10 sectors from F4 to F8

Les Vigneaux village

Has two via ferratas (graded PD and D) which take about 3-3½ hours including the walk off descent. These via ferratas are just about two of our apartments, 5 minutes walk from the doorstep.

Tete d’Aval

For those who have what it takes the Tete d'Aval has loads of multi pitch routes (up to 18 pitches) of high end F6’s through to high end F7s.

The Tete d’Aval is the dominant view from everywhere in Les Vigneaux and is reputed to be the highest continuous limestone face in Europe. It certainly looks high!

It is about a 1½ hour walk in to start the routes. A big day out!

Ailefroide

Just 15 minutes from Les Vigneaux. 100’s of granite bolted routes of all grades, single and multi pitch (up to 400m). If you've never climbed on granite then this is a great place to start...you won't believe the friction until you have been climbing on it for a day or two.

Fantastic views, cool in summer, and great atmospheric place to climb. An absolute must whilst you are here.

And if that’s not enough to tempt you there is some of the best bouldering outside of Fontainebleau too!

Each year in July a bouldering event takes place at Ailefroide. The event is called "Tout à Blocs", roughly translated as "everyone on the boulders". During the same week an international level bouldering competition on artifical outdoor boulders is held in the centre of l'Argentière la Bessée (3km from our apartments)

Tout à Blocs this year will be from 27th -30th July 2006. More information is available at http://www.toutablocs.com

L’Argentière la Bessée

Collets and Horloge: 10 minutes max from Les Vigneaux. North and East facing sculptured limestone. Excellent beginners crag and family friendly (even has picnic benches!). 40 single pitch bolted routes of mostly grades F4’s and F5’s.

Beauregard, Oratoire and Conduites Forcées: 10 minutes max from Les Vigneaux. – 33 limestone single pitch bolted routes of mostly grade 5 and 6. West facing. Not great, but worth a quick visit.

There are also 2 via ferratas – one for beginners (Facile) about 1 hour long at the Collets/Horloge crags with excellent views over Argentière. The other is a very well equipped TD (Très Difficile) in the Durance river valley just off the road between Les Vigneaux and Argentiere. This is one of the hardest via ferratas in the area with 5 bridges (one of which is 90m’s long!) and some short over hanging sections. It sounds hard, but it is very safe and a great day out. It will take you between 2½-4 hours.

Rocher Baron

High limestone crag, but accessible right up to the routes by car and as such can get busy in peak holiday times. 60 single pitch routes in lower grades F4 to low end F7. Ego massaging grading and south and west facing so good for the tan too!
Lots of safe space for family picnics etc.

Freissinières

20 minutes drive from Les Vigneaux. Limestone single and multi pitch routes up to 150m in 12 sectors. Mostly south facing and can be very hot in the summer. Around 140 routes of all grades. Two north facing sectors with hard routes on them F7-F8.

Also at Freissinières there is an excellent and very long via ferrata that traverses the entire crag in 3½-4 hours.

Fournel valley

15 minutes drive from Les Vigneaux. 60 single and multi pitch routes (up to 120m) on south-west facing limestone from F5 to F7.

Clarée valley (8 crags in a 10 mile long valley)

25 minutes drive from Les Vigneaux. Mostly single pitch limestone up to 40m, all grades. Most crags are west facing. Top quality grey limestone with water pockets at most crags.

Guisane valley (lots of crags along a 10 mile valley up to the Col de Lautauret)

20 minutes drive from Les Vigneaux. Big multi pitch and single pitch crags. Mostly limestone and in all grades. We haven’t really had time to explore here yet as there is too much to do closer to home.

Maps for the Area

Click here to view the details of the maps covering this area

Recommended Climbing Books for the area

We recommend the following climbing guide books if you are going to make a trip here.

• Oisans nouveau, Oisans sauvage : Livre Est (Ailefroide area)by Jean-Michel Cambon. This guide covers the Ailefroide area granite.

• Oisans nouveau, Oisans sauvage : Livre Ouest (La Bérarde area) by Jean-Michel Cambon. This guide covers the La Bérade area granite.

• Grimper dans le Haut-Val Durance by Yann, Martine and JJ Rolland. This guide is only available locally for 24€. It is currently a good time to buy this guide as it has just been republished containing with updates, new routes and some new crags too (July 2005). This guide covers all the single and multi-pitch limestone in the Durance valley and surrounding valley and some small sectors of Ailefroide granite.

• Les plus belles escaldes calcaires des Hautes Alpes" by JP Bazet, P Giraud and JJ Rolland. This guide is only available locally at around 18€. This guide covers the big multi-pitch limestone routes on the Tete d'Aval (Montbrison) and Serre Chevalier valleys amongst other.

• Ecrins Massif: Selected Climbs by John Brailsford, published by the Alpine climb is a useful book to have for mountaineering routes. The book is in english and has about 85 photo-diagrams in it.

For the books that are available through Amazon in France or UK and we have provide links for them below.