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 Durance Valley is a huge glacier valley with steep sides where many of the rock climbing areas are located, often with a short approach.


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 more than 1,500 sport routes from single pitch to multi-pitch routes 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 and Guillestre, and includes over 85 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. 


Ailefroide is home to long bolted multi-pitch sport routes on superb granite rock. Many of these routes are between 200m and 300m long, and graded between F5a to F6c. Ailefroide is also an excellent bouldering area and has many single pitch sport routes – all on granite rock.


There is a guidebook available, which covers all the sport routes and some classic Alpine routes in the Hautes Alps called "Briancon Climbs Guidebook". Buy this guidebook from our shop.

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

Map of the rock climbing areas in the Durance Valley, in the Haute Alps
Popular Crags in the Durance Valley, Hautes Alps
NoCragType of climbingNo of routesGrade RangePopular Grades
1Superpene/Pene HauteSport2133c to 8c5c to 8a
2CalamesSport1854 to 8b+6a to 7c
3Le CarolSports513+ to 8a6b to 7c
4SinsatSport1683c to 8a5c to 6c
5AlliatSport1255 to 8b6b to 7c
6AuzatSport1844 to 7b+5 to 6c
7OrluBoulderingN/NN/NN/N
8TargasonneBouldering421Fb 3b to 8bFb 4a to 6c
9CavallersSport2204- to 8a5c to 7b
10The Gaves ValleySport and Trad1,000+4 to 8b5 to 7b

Mountaineering in the Ecrins

The Massif Des Ecrins has two peaks over 4,000m, which are the Barre des Ecrins (4,102m) and the Dome de Neige des Ecrins (4,015m). Both of these peaks offer excellent Alpine routes that are more isolated than those in Chamonix.  There are a number of selected guidebooks covering the mountaineering and ice climbing in the Ecrins that are avaiable to buy from our shop that describe many excellent peaks above 3,000m such as La Meije and Mont Pelvoux.

AlpBase are a well-established company providing instruction and guiding services in the Haute-Alps, as well as providing accommodation for the area.