UKC

Anyone been climbing in the Maurienne area? We normally go to Briancon for our holidays but a french friend suggested this area - anyone know of a topo that covers it? The climbingaway website suggests there is a fair bit around that way, but the topo they link to dates from 2005 and is out of print.

Cheers!

We are there at the moment, nice quiet area with a decent and varied set of cliffs.

The recent Jingo Wobbly France East covers a fair selection up and down the valley,

I am working on an App to several of the cliffs but that is a while away,

Chris

Topo Escalade en Maurienne by Patrick Col is the most recent guidebook as far as I’m aware (2005) so probs the one you found a link to.

For roadside cragging St Leger is good and Rocher des Amoureux has some good routes too (caveat: have only been down there when I have been climbing 6b max so can’t comment on harder stuff).

The long routes on Croix des Tetes are meant to be very good as are the multi-pitch routes on Grand Chatelard above Aussois. There have been some new routes put up in the vicinity if the lacets de Montvernier area (I think) in the last few years by a couple of the guys at Petzl - pretty sure they are on camptocamp, as are the Croix des Tetes and Gd Chatelard routes above.

In the lower valley (below Modane) you have to accept the fact that the autoroute runs down the valley so any low level cragging comes with associated noise, but from Modane up it is quieter...

Thats great - thanks all - I've got the france roc east book, didn't even consider whether it covered that.

We're pretty rubbish climbers, so low grades are what we're after, maybe with some long easy multi pitches.

Do you know if the tourist info office has any other topo?

Yes Escalde en Maurienne by Patric Col is the main guide book for the valley but it covers more of the valley below Modane. There is also Cicerone Mountain adventures in the Mauriennne  which gives a good overview of cragging, walking, via ferrata and scrambling plus road biking and mountain biking routes all in the area above Modane which is the nicer mountain area. If you did everything in that guide you could fill more than a fortnight. We stayed in Termignon which was central to everything and has a good campsite. It is not as good an area for climbing as The Ecrin but is definitely worth a visit, the crags are generally smaller and there is a lot of easy routes (6a and below)

W ridge of the Pointe de l'Observatoire is a good day out if you are keen for some mountain multi-pitch. Night at the Fond d'Aussois hut then a bit of a trek over the col to get to it, but about 400m-ish of good climbing - lots of 3, a bit of 4 and one short pitch of 5 - up to a 'pointy' summit which you can walk off the back of down to the hut/valley...

https://www.camptocamp.org/routes/54665/fr/pointe-de-l-observatoire-arete-w

Some good routes further right on the face for more continuous climbing in the 5s/low 6s

Just watch out for the Patou shepherd's dogs on the way up to the hut - they can be a bit vicious...

That sounds awesome thank you - do you know if there is any decent topo kicking around? Or is it obvious? Does it have many bolts or do I need to take a rack?

Think it is best described in one of the Vanoise guidebooks - bit flat out right now but if I have time over the weekend I will look out which it is.

Are there any routes on the giant slabs across the lake near St Michel?

Enty

I’m not aware of anything on those slabs. (If we’re talking about the ones on the right as you drive towards St Michel from down-valley?).

Ah great - if you could have a look that would be great.

Have had a quick look and the Topo de la Vanoise has a description of the W ridge on the Observatoire in it too, though not much more detailed than the one on camptocamp - for some reason I though tit had the harder routes in it too but they don;t seem to be there. I have an old edition though and it has been updated in recent years with more routes in it...

Super - will need to see if I can get that out there, as its 68 quid on amazon!

Depending where you are travelling from/through Vieux Campeur in Albertville normally has copies (about €30 i think) - and some book shops have it too...