Gietroz, sector Pylon
The somewhat utilitarian name belies an excellent little crag. Gietroz is the easterly extension of Barberine and has a bunch of sectors scattered over the hillside. Pylon is just over […]
Category Archives: French Alps
Lady in Black, Point Gaspard, Aiguilles Rouges
After a week of valley cragging it was time for another adventure further up in the Big Hills, so it was great to be able to call on The Rucksack […]
Coupeau
On Neil’s recommendation we made a trip to Coupeau, a hidden gem of Chamonix Valley cragging – always handy to have a bit of local knowledge! It’s not a huge […]
Vallorcine
Almost 6 weeks in to Helen’s recovery and it’s time for some tentative steps back into multi-pitch adventuring – we’d been saving the friendly granite slabs at Vallorcine for the […]
Le Clis, Vallee d’Arve
We’d exhausted most of the major Chamonix Valley cragging options, and needed a break from granite slabs, so headed back down the Arve to seek out Le Clis. This is […]
Roc Dément and Les Bossons boulders – rest day recce
A bit of a look back through the blog suggests I have climbed on each of the last 14 days – not necessarily caning it, but put boot to rock. […]
Le Chapeau
This one isn’t featured in the Rockfax, but gets rave reviews in the local guide: “Site majeur de l’escalade dans la valee de Chamonix”. Unfortunately, my hastily snapped shots of […]
Barberine
This extensive granite crag is at the top of the Chamonix Valley, just over the Col des Montets – it’s actually in Switzerland (by a couple of hundred metres), though […]
Le Fayet, Grande Falaise
We’d been working towards a rest day, to coincide with the forecast monsoon which was supposed to hit today. This was downgraded to an overnight downpour, and even that failed […]
Chamonix Valley cragging – La Joux and Les Gaillands
After the lengthy approach to Les Cheserys yesterday, we opted for roadside today, so checked out La Joux. Accessed from the station of the same name, it’s a very pleasant […]
L’Aiguillette d’Argentiere and Les Cheserys
No, NOT The Aiguille d’Argentiere, but this diminutive and shapely near namesake gives a fun micro summit in absolutely fabulous surroundings. The Aiguillette can be found about an hour’s pleasant […]
Servoz
With the weather perking up around Chamonix, and bizarrely looking better than the usual fleshpots of Provence, we decided to take advantage and spend a few days enjoying an out-of-season […]
Climbing around Le Grand Massif
Based around Samoens for a couple of days, we decided to explore the wealth of climbing in the hinterlands around Mt Blanc. There are three guidebooks-worth of cragging accessible within […]
Aiguilles Rouges, Chamonix Mt Blanc
The happy coincidence of a forecasted weather window in Cham overlapping with Dave being resident in Samoens opened up the possibility of an unexpected hit of high altitude cragging – […]
La Bérarde, Les Oisans
The magical Veneon Valley runs roughly eastward from Bourg d”Oisans to dead-end at the tiny village of La Bérarde, passing the start point for the refuge du Soreiller approach at […]
Aiguille Dibona
The Oisans region lies between the Vercours and the Ecrins and is home to some magnificent peaks. One of these: The Aiguille Dibona, must rank as one of the most […]
Presles, sector Daladom
Presles is undoubtedly the Queen of Vercours climbing – a 7km wide crag of grey and orange limestone around 300m high and offering hundreds of routes of around 8 to […]
L’Albenc and into the Vercours
The Isere Valley marks the northern border of the Vercours national park and the river has sliced the end of this high plateau leaving towering limestone cliffs impressively lining its […]
Ablon – un petit peu de cragging
The Grand Beaux Temps were forecast to end in storms in the Val d’Arve and up into chamonix, and my toes weren’t fit for any more multipitch madness, so a […]
La Balme – Vieux de la montage.
More like deux Vieux de la montagne – a very appropriate name. … l certainly felt like an old man of the mountains after this one. La Balme is almost […]
