UKC

I'm heading to val d'isere in July for 2 weeks moubtain biking. Is there any mountain rock climbing/alpine climbing near there? Possibility of a snow plod up the grand casse? 

Either for soloing or dragging the girlfriend up? 

I'm not familiar with the alps so any help to be pointed in the right direction would be amazing 

 

Thanks 

In reply to Kemics:

The peaks on the Italian-French border there are good.  I know them a bit from the Italian side but there are French huts too.  Mostly fairly easy (PDish) and about 3500m.  Take a look at Tsantelina and Levanna.  Some information on C2C and Gulliver.

In reply to MG:

thanks, thats great to get the ball rolling. Do you know of any guidebooks which cover the region? 

In reply to Kemics:

There's nothing I know that is up to date.  The Italian definitive guides are works of art but from the 1980s mostly.  Online sources are pretty good however, camp2camp for the French side and Gulliver.it for the Italian.

In reply to Kemics:

Le Topo de la Vanoise claims to cover the Tarentaise

http://www.james-merel.com/Les_Topos.html 

In reply to Kemics: there used to be bolted sports crags in the Vd'I vicinity (walkable from). Didn't climb on them but saw some bolts. This was a few years ago so no idea about current status.

One of the best French VFs starts from just down the road at le Daille (Roc de Toviere). Hard for a VF but ok if you're a climber but with mega-wodges of exposure. Well worth doing.