UKC

I'm looking (ideally) for a crag/crags/area that satisfies the following requirements, and I'm completely clueless about climbing on the continent:

1. Reasonably accessible by plane from Scotland.
2. Reasonably accessible by public transport (don't mind a walk in), would be willing to hire a car if this is an unreasonable suggestion.
3. Climbable in high summer (August).

Does such a place exist? All suggestions/tips welcome.

In reply to verygneiss:

Are you looking for sport or trad or minimally bolted destinations?
And are you looking for single pitch, multi pitch or big wall type routes?
Do you have a preference for rock type? (Most popular EU destinations are limestone or granite but there is sandstone and gneiss to be found)

Off the top of my head, popular places people go in the summer to climb in Europe are:
Ceuse - 45 min walk in, single pitch sport.
Dolomites - 5 min to 3 hours walk in, multi pitch to big wall length. Mainly trad. Buses run during summer but a car is useful.
Chamonix - 5 min to 6 hours walk in, multi pitch to big wall length. Mix of bolts and trad. Lots of lifts that cut hours off the walk in but you do need to pay quite a bit for a pass.
Lofoten - lots of lovely pictures, granite, don't know much more about it. Except that with 24 hours of sunshine, you can never get benighted and if it rains all day, you can just snooze and then climb all "night" when it stops.
Ecrin - don't know much about this. More granite mountains like Chamonix but lower.

You can get to all these places with a plane and public transport (a couple places might need a thumb for the final stretch from a town to the base for climbing.

Give a bit more information on what type of climbing you are looking for and you will get more useful input I think.

In reply to verygneiss:

hi

i live in the Vallouise valley, just out side the Ecrins park France, that time of year is great for rock climbing here, many think of this area as just alpine climbing (it is great for that) but the cragging is amazing, there are 85 sports crags, on limestone, gneiss, granite and conglomerate, mainly single pitch but lots of multi pitch such as Ailefroide (which is amazing but gets busy that time of year) but also lots of other multi pitch venues such as the Cerces.

there are lots to go at at every grade level, and 15 good via ferrata's for rest days,

getting here the best airport this side is Turin 1.5 hours away (in car) posable by public transport, but Grenoble, lyon and even some of the south coast airports are only 3 hours away, you could do by public transport and hitching, but a car would be best to get the most out of the area,

let me know if you would like and more info, ideas about your grade range

all the best Rob

In reply to ecrinscollective:


You forgot the quartzite

Great area, was there a couple of years ago, loved it.

In reply to ecrinscollective:

Recommended guidebooks? Cragging and/ or alpine around ailfroide.
Thanks in advance

In reply to henwardian:
With regards to style of climbing, I suppose a mixture of sport and trad, with a bit of a bias towards multipitch stuff for both. Thanks for the suggestions, they'll help me get a better idea of what's available/realistic.

In reply to woppo:

'Escalades Autour d'Ailefroide' - available from the climbing shop in the village.

In reply to verygneiss:

On that note, I'd definitely recommend the Ecrins, especially around Ailefroide. Ailefroide has tons of single and multipitch sport on beautiful granite slabs, as well as a handful of trad routes. There's also plenty more to do in the surrounding area (although if you don't have a car you'd probably be best remaining in Ailefroide), from burly sport routes on limestone to long alpine routes.

In reply to woppo:

hi
as Mark said Ailefroide has its own little guide book, but its covered in a number of other local guides to

the local cragging guide covers all the sports stuff in the area, multi and single pitch, and has the Ailefroide routes in
http://www.needlesports.com/Catalogue/Books-Maps-DVDs/Foreign-Climbing-Guid...

also there is the Oisans Nouveau Oisans Sauveau Livre Est which is the multi pitch, big wall, alpine rock guidebook for this side of the Ecrins, it has all the multi pitch routes in Ailefroide, but not the single pitch stuff, dont think it can be picked up in the UK.

and question ask away

cheers

ps and theres a bouldering guide to Ailefroide to,

In reply to ecrinscollective:

Thanks very much for info

In reply to AlanLittle:

good point Alan don't wont to forget the quartzite

I know I am biased but I love it here, I moved here for the rock

In reply to verygneiss:


OK, that rules out my other suggestion which was going to be the Frankenjura. Not much trad cragging around Ailefroide either unless you want to try some of the higher alpine routes - on which I gather things can get *very" trad. But still a great area and definitely worth a visit.