Rock Climbing in the Durance Valley, Hautes Alps

The Hautes Alps are situated in Provence between Gap (to the south west), Grenoble (to the north west) and the Italian border (to the west). The area is sometimes referred to as the Southern Alps or the Ecrins and enjoys better weather than the Northern Alps around Chamonix and it is considerably quieter. In fact this area claims to have 300 days of sunshine a year, stays a lot drier, and offers year-round rock climbing by choosing your crag carefully.

The area is dominated by the 4,000m+ peak of Massif Des Ecrins plus several other 3,000m+ peaks, giving 1,000's of Alpine routes across all grades. There are also around 1,500 sports climbing from single pitch to multi-pitch up to 600m long - of which the majority are well bolted. This climbing is mainly situated in the Durance Valley around the towns of Briancon, Ailefroide, L'Argentiere-la-bessee & Guillestre, and includes over 75 crags. All of these crags have solid rock with a wide choice of grades to choose from. The type of rock here is very varied from limestone, conglomerate, quartz, gabbro to granite and gneiss - offering many different styles of rock climbing. There is also an excellent bouldering area near Ailefroide.

The map below shows the major crags in the area and the table opposite shows a selection of the popular crags.

Map of the rock climbing areas in the Durance Valley, in the Haute Alps

Popular Crags in the Durance Valley, Hautes Alps
Crag	Nearest Town	Type of rock	No. of Routes	Max Height	Grade range	Best Season
Rocher Baron	Briancon	Quartz	60	20m	F3 - F7c	Spring
Plampinet	Plampinet	Limestone	90	40m	F4c - F7b+	May to October
Mont Dauphin Fort	Guillestre	Conglomerate	75	40m	F3c - F8a+	May to November
Ailefroide	Vallouise	Granite	160+	400m	F3 - F8b	April to November
Fessourier	Vallouise	Limestone	34	40m	F6a - F7c	May to October
Clapeyto	Arvieux	Limestone	40	250m	F4b - F6c	May to October
La Grande Falaise	Freissiniers	Limestone	140	150m	F5 - F8c	March to November
Le Ponteil	Champcella	Limestone	60	200m	F5c - F7c+	March to November
Les Traverses	Vallouise	Limestone	130	35m	F4c - F8b+	All Year
Le Pouit	Champcella	Limestone	70	80m	F4c - 7c+	All Year

There is a guidebook available, which covers all the sports routes and some classic Alpine routes in the Haute Alps called "Escalade en Brianconnais, Haut Val Durance & Queyras". Buy this guidebook from our shop.

For accommodation and rock climbing guides/instruction look no further than AlpBase, who are well established in the area.

To view a larger photograph showing the variety of rock climbing and sports climbing to be found in the Durance valley, please click on the thumbnail images.