Chamonix is famous for Mont Blanc and mountaineering involving peaks over 4,000m high. This type of mountaineering often involves mixed climbing and/or moving over glaciers. It usually takes more than a day to complete these routes meaning on overnight stay in a hut or bivving, which means carrying a lot of kit.

However there are many pure rock routes in the Chamonix valley (particularly on the Aiguilles Rouges side) that can be completed in a single day and even many sports routes. Running from Le Fayet all the way to Switzerland are a series of valley crags offering good sports climbing. These are free of snow from May onwards and give a good mixture of single and multi-pitch sports routes across a good range of grades. The type of rock is a mixture between granular gneiss and granite. These crags are at various altitudes from a few hundred metres to over 2000m giving plenty of choice depending on how hot it is.

There is a guidebook covering all the sports routes in the Chamonix valley called "Crag Climbs in Chamonix" and covers 27 separate crags in this area. Buy this guidebook from our shop.