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Chapter 2

DAUPHINÉ

Including the Cottian Alps, Queyras, Massif des Écrins & the Pre-Alps of Vercors

The mountains of Dauphiné contain the highest and most important summits, in terms of mountaineering appeal, of all the South-West Alps, and the various groups offer an unrivalled diversity of landscapes for the enterprising walker. There is a world of difference, for example, between the soaring, glacier-etched scenery of the Massif des Écrins and the vast limestone plateaux of the Vercors, but both provide a wealth of walking opportunities as, of course, does the more remote Queyras in the Cottian Alps with its small, rugged peaks reflected in dozens of little tarns.

Dauphiné consists of the French départements of Isère, Drôme and Hautes-Alpes. Here the green hills of the Pre-Alpes, including the Vercors, create a long wall running north to south parallel to the Isère which flows down the western side, while the higher mountains stand in great blocks towards the Italian border. The Cottian Alps spread over both sides of that border, but only those that lie within France are included in the Queyras massif. North-west of the Queyras, across the Durance, Central Dauphiné is the largest and most attractive mountain block; the group known as either the Massif des Écrins, l’Oisans, or Massif du Pelvoux, which has the distinction of hosting the most southerly 4000 metre summit of the Alpine chain. Beyond the large and complex peaks of the Écrins several comparatively minor massifs continue the appeal of Dauphiné. These include the Chartreuse massif, the Chaine de Belledonne which culminates in the Grand Pic de Belledonne, the Grandes Rousses massif, and Les Aiguilles d’Arve.

Monte Viso is the undisputed monarch of the Cottian Alps

Queyras

The Cottian Alps, of which the Queyras forms a small, yet important part, stretch from the road pass of Col de Larche northwards to Col du Mont Cenis, effectively running in a narrow strip along the Franco–Italian border which acts as the watershed between the Po and the Rhône. The highest, and without question the most distinctive, of its peaks is that of Monte Viso (3841m), first climbed in 1861 by the Victorian pioneers William Mathews and F. W. Jacomb, with their guides, M and J. B. Croz. But apart from this notable peak, the district holds little of mountaineering interest beyond the attention of local activists, although there are a good many summits attainable by strong mountain walkers, offering extensive views as their reward.

Col de Larche (1991m) takes traffic from the French valley of the Ubayette, flanked on the south by the Réserve Naturelle du Lauzanier, into the Italian Valle Stura. From St Paul on the French side another low pass, Col de Vars, crosses the mountain rim that marks the boundary between the départements of Hautes-Alpes and Alps-de-Haute-Provence, on the north side of which access by road is made possible to the Queyras district.

With the Massif des Écrins rising to the north-west, the Queyras lies fully within the old administrative region of Dauphiné, and presses like an elbow of mountains against the Italian frontier which curves round it in a protective wall on three sides. Monte Viso has a dominating influence on much of the region, but since it stands just across the frontier it is thereby not counted as one of the Queyras peaks. Of these the major summits are Pic de Rochebrune (3320m), Grand Glaiza (3293m), Le Pain de Sucre (3208m), Tête des Toillies (3175m) and Le Grand Queyras (3114m). There are no glaciers, although evidence of past glaciation is abundantly clear in many valleys and the rugged scenery reflects its Alpine pedigree.

Parc Naturel Régional du Queyras

It is an isolated district, tucked quietly away in a seeming back-of-beyond with only one year-round road of access. In 1977 the Parc Naturel Régional du Queyras was established in order to reconcile the demands of ecology and local economy, to check a steady population drift away from the harsh demands of mountain life, while at the same time protecting the quality of the environment. With an area of some 650 square kilometres, the boundaries of the park extend from the Gorges du Guil in the west to the Tête du Pelvas in the east, and from Col Girardin in the south to Col des Thures in the north. The classic approach from Briançon is via the spectacular road pass of Col d’Izoard, which is open for only a few weeks in mid-summer, and which links the valley of the Durance with that of the Guil, the main Queyras river whose valley is the major geographical feature.

Draining the west flank of Monte Viso and those frontier peaks grouped around it, the Guil cuts right through the Queyras from north-east to south-west, its major tributaries flowing from attractive valleys on the southern side, while the northern half is drained by a few short glens. At first the Guil flows north-west, collecting a few early tributaries on the way, then curves south-westward at Abriès, which sits at the confluence of the Guil and the Bouchet flowing from the north. Beyond Abriès the river passes Aiguilles, the so-called capital of the valley, before rushing below the medieval, fortified Château-Queyras (with the inevitable Vauban additions) perched on an outcrop, and soon after enters the deep and narrow Combe du Queyras. A hundred years ago the only ways out of the valley below Château-Queyras were along paths that climbed hillsides high above the river. ‘Now a remarkable road traverses the gorges,’ announced one commentator just before the last war, ‘crossing and recrossing the torrent and often gouged out of the perpendicular sides of the immense cleft which it has cut.’ Above the left bank the lovely village of Montbardon sits amid flower-rich meadows dotted with pine and fir trees. Further down, near Guillestre, the Guil washes into the Durance, the river that drains the eastern slopes of the Écrins.

Château-Queyras, perched above the Guil

Set in an open basin surrounded by low mountains Guillestre, with its attractive medieval streets and 16th-century church guarded by marble lions, is very much the entry point to the central Queyras. A four-kilometre branch road off the N94 Gap-Briançon highway is an important link with the rest of Dauphiné, while the Col de Vars route also comes down to that little market town. Visitors coming by train should aim for Montdauphin-Guillestre in the Durance valley. Buses from there serve the main Queyras valleys.

In these southerly mountains the climate is heavily influenced by the Mediterranean and is therefore more amenable for active walking or climbing holidays than almost anywhere in the Alps. The peaks, though not as high nor as dramatic as those of the Écrins, are certainly no less attractive, and have an appealing, rugged charm. East of Château-Queyras the Haut Queyras are largely formed of mica-schist, while in the Bas Queyras limestone is also evident. On the way to the Col d’Izoard the lunar landscape of the Casse Déserte reveals numerous rocky pinnacles, curious eroded formations of limestone, dolomite and gypsum sprouting from a mountainside of grey screes. Large forests of larch and pine edge meadows noted for their spring flowers. Marmots are numerous; so too are chamois. There are many small lakes, the gift of long-departed glaciers, and mountain streams tumbling in waterfalls from bare cliffs and snow-clad peaks. So far the region has been spared any major ski development, and the walking is excellent.

In order to give some idea of the district’s charm, and its appeal for walkers, the following summary of opportunities will serve as an introduction before we outline the route of the multi-day GR58, otherwise known as the Tour du Queyras.

Vallons du Mélezet, d’Albert and Cristillan

These glens lie to the east of the Guil and may be reached from Guillestre by bus as far as Ceillac, a low-key cross-country ski centre where two valley systems merge, the upper reaches of the Cristillan which flows from the north-east, Vallon du Mélezet from the south-east. Built on a sloping terrace Ceillac has hotel and gîte accommodation, and there’s a campsite in the Mélezet valley. The village makes a fine base for a few days of a walking holiday, as there are several high cols accessible by reasonable trails, among them: Col Girardin, Col Albert, Col des Estronques, Col de Bramousse and Col Fromage. In addition to these, walkers may be tempted by a few modest summits that provide superb viewpoints, while there are valley-based walks to the popular lakes of Ste-Anne and Mirroir, and less-trod trails in the wild upper valleys of the Cristillan and d’Albert.

Reached by way of the Vallon du Mélezet Lac Ste-Anne, or rather the tiny chapel on its shore, is the focus of a pilgrimage that takes place each year on 26 July by villagers from Ceillac and Maurin. The route of that pilgrimage is a short one from the roadhead at Chaurionde, but an alternative approach may be made via the Lac Mirroir (also known as Lac des Prés-Sebeyrand) following the trail of the GR5 which, sadly, is rather devalued for a short stretch by the presence of a ski-lift. However, above this the turquoise Lac Ste-Anne is a gem cupped among soaring, wild-looking peaks. Rarely, on a fine summer’s day, will you enjoy it in solitude.

Of the walkers’ cols accessible from Ceillac, Col Girardin (2699m) is an obvious saddle in the cirque wall that curves behind Lac Ste-Anne, from which it may be gained in an hour over rough ground of rock and fairly steep scree. The col marks the border between the départements of Hautes-Alpes and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, and is crossed by the GR5 on the way to the valley of Ubaye. From it views to the north-west show the snowy mass of the Écrins with the Pelvoux massif looking especially fine, while the Aiguille de Chambeyron is seen to the south-east. The tiny chapel-adorned summit of Tête de Girardin (2876m) rises above the col to the east, and makes a tempting destination for enterprising walkers, while in the bed of the Ubaye, a little under two hours from the col, the stone-built Refuge Maljasset (CAF owned) provides an opportunity for walkers to explore yet another valley system, returning perhaps by way of Col Tronchet (2658m) which rewards with still more grand views.

Although the Ubaye valley lies outside the Queyras district proper and flows down to St Paul, it has some good walking opportunities amid wonderful high mountain scenery. The upper reaches are hemmed in by big peaks, including the Aiguille and Brec de Chambeyron, and near the head of the valley a collection of little tarns lies just beneath the frontier ridge.

Vallon d’Albert branches off the Mélezet glen to the south-east behind the hamlet of La Riaille and has about it a singularly wild appeal. It’s a short glen, uncompromising both in the nature of its trails and the beauty of its upper meadows. At its head Col Albert (2846m), again overlooking the Ubaye, is an obvious destination for a walk, but it’s a strenuous one on a trail that is not always clear.

As for the Vallée du Cristillan, it is the glaciated upper valley that has particular appeal for walkers based in Ceillac, for there are numerous possible routes to follow with varying degrees of waymarking. Some trails apparently begin promisingly enough, only to fade and disappear. Others are blazed with paint marks and appear to be well-trodden. Among the many destinations, either signposted, or hinted at from the map, the following selection provides an idea of what is in store: Lac de Clausis, Col du Cristillan and Col Nord du Cristillan, Col Ceillac and Col Longet. There’s also Col de la Cula and the 3121 metre summit of Tête de la Cula immediately above it that provide excellent views of the high peaks of the Ubaye.

Ceillac, of course, occupies a prime site in the Cristillan valley, and is on the route not only of GR5, but also that of GR58 and one of its variants. Between them, these multi-day routes cross three cols above the village: Col de Bramousse (2251m) to the north, the grassy Col Fromage (2301m) to the east of that, and Col des Estronques (2651m) south-east of Col Fromage. By linking Col de Bramousse and neighbouring Col Fromage, for example, an enjoyable day’s circuit could be achieved. Between the two cols the Crête des Chambrettes is exposed in places, but the trail along it should be good enough for all but those with a tendency towards vertigo. As for Col des Estronques, this is overlooked by the Tête de Jacquette (2757m), a superb viewpoint that should be on the list of all walkers spending time in Ceillac.

Vallées de l’Aigue Blanche & l’Aigue Agnelle

These two valleys come together as one near the old settlement of Molines-en-Queyras and then flow roughly northward as the Aigue Agnelle to enter the main Guil valley at Ville-Vielle, a short distance upstream of Château-Queyras. Of the two, the Vallée de l’Aigue Agnelle carries an unpaved road over the frontier ridge at Col Agnel where, it is thought, Hannibal crossed on his epic trans-Alpine journey with his elephants in 218BC (another conjectured crossing place is Col de la Traversette further east by Monte Viso), while the highlight for many in the Aigue Blanche valley is the rather commercialised, yet still-charming village of St-Véran which lays claim to being the highest community in Europe. However, despite the fact that St-Véran is perched on a steep, south-facing slope at an altitude of 2040 metres, this claim is a little wide of the mark since the village is still some 86 metres lower than Juf in the Averstal in Switzerland. Be that as it may, St-Véran has a heavy, old-fashioned air about it, with many of its stone and timber buildings dating from the 17th or 18th centuries hugging narrow streets overhung with massive eaves and wide balconies. Walkers planning to use it as a base for a few days will find there are two gîtes d’étape and a choice of hotels, and the village is reached by an infrequent bus service from Guillestre.

Among the many walking possibilities in the Vallée de l’Aigue Blanche, one of the most popular leads to the easy Col de St-Véran (2844m) which is on the Franco–Italian border. This is taken as an alternative by the GR58 and is recommended for the quality of the scenery experienced from the ridge. East of the col the small peak of Pic de Caramantran (3025m) with views of Monte Viso and Pain de Sucre, is easily gained in about 30 minutes, and by continuing down to the north you come to Col de Chamoussière where the ‘official’ GR58 comes up from St-Véran. A combination of these two cols allows a loop-trip to be made using St-Véran as a base.

Another day-long loop from St-Véran makes a circuit of the Tête des Toillies (3175m; also known as Tête Noire). Three cols are used on this tour: Col de la Noire, which overlooks the Ubaye district, Col de Longet and Col Blanchet, the last two being on the international border. It’s a fine, energetic walk with lots of dazzling mountain tarns in view, and counts as one of the best days out in this part of the Queyras. But good clear conditions are essential.

Molines-en-Queyras gives access to the upper valley of the Aigue Agnelle, in which a trio of small villages, Pierre Grosse, Le Coin and Fontgillarde, remain pretty much unspoiled despite their use as cross-country ski centres. Walkers will find a choice of routes to attempt in the vicinity.

The Upper Guil Valley

Above Abriès the narrow upper reaches of the Guil taper towards Monte Viso. A road projects into the valley, passing Ristolas, La Monta and L’Echalp, and then becomes wild and uninhabited as it rises to the Belvédère du Cirque (or Belvédère du Viso) which, as its name suggests, gazes at a tremendous amphitheatre of mountains. Monte Viso soars above a saddle in the centre of this crowd of peaks, all of which are in excess of 3000 metres and include Monte Granero, Pointe de Marte, Pointe Gastaldi and Mont Aiguillette (otherwise known as L’Asti). Within the cirque, on a site that enjoys glorious views and the alpenglow on Monte Viso’s summit snows, stands the Refuge du Balif-Viso (2460m), built by the CAF in 1976.

The valley provides plenty of walking possibilities; some short and popular, others quite arduous. There are tarns to visit, cols to cross, summits to reach and a few circuits that could be achieved by the fit and enterprising, which stray over the border into Italy. One of these is the three-day Tour of Monte Viso, a scenic route achieved by way of a trio of passes and with no less than three huts and a mountain inn providing accommodation along the way. The Tour du Queyras also comes down the valley of the Guil, and the route of that classic multi-day circuit will be outlined later. But for our walker who wants to focus on the Guil valley for a few days, accommodation may be had in Abriès, where there are hotels, a dortoir and gîte d’étape, Ristolas (hotel and gîte d’étape), and La Monta (gîte d’étape), as well as the CAF refuge already mentioned.

Vallon de Bouchet

Flowing from the north, the Torrent de Bouchet drains the second of Abriès’ valleys. This forks near the hamlet of Le Roux, and forks again a little higher. All the tributary streams come down from the Italian border which arcs around the head of the valley. Le Roux has a gîte d’étape, but no shops, and there’s a campsite at Valpreveyre. Visitors planning to spend a few days here may need to stock up with provisions in Abriès. Once again the Tour du Queyras passes through on its way from La Monta via a high ridge crossing, and next day leaves to cross Col des Thures and Col du Malrif. There are, of course, plenty of other trails worth exploring, including routes from Valpreveyre up to the cols of Bouchet and Malaure, both of which mark the frontier ridge.

The Brunissard Valley

Coming down from the Col d’Izoard, this is the largest of the northern valleys in the Queyras and, accessible by road all the way from Château-Queyras, offers a choice of walking routes. On the way to the col there’s accommodation to be had at Arvieux; the hamlet of La Chalp has a hotel with lower-priced dortoir beds, while Brunissard, at 1746 metres the highest village below the hairpins that lead into the Casse Déserte, has a gîte d’étape and a campsite nearby.

Brunissard, on the descent from Col des Ayes in the Queyras district

Brunissard is sited at the confluence of two streams. The Torrent de la Rivière flows from the north-west, while the Izoard squeezes through a gorge below the road to the col. Two major walking routes converge on the village; GR5 and GR58. The first, having come from Briançon, crosses the blocking ridge at Col des Ayes which, when reversed from Brunissard, would make an interesting excursion, as indeed would a visit to the Col de Néal (2509m), south-west of Col des Ayes. To reach Col de Néal from Brunissard entails following GR5 to the Chalets de l’Eychaillon, then along a gravel road to a second collection of houses shown as Chalets de Clapeyto on the map. Above these you come to some splendid high meadows littered with tarns, beyond which you climb easily to the col and look down on another, larger tarn, Lac de Néal nestling on the far side.

By following GR58 north of Brunissard, one gains good views of the spiky formations of the Casse Déserte before reaching Col du Tronchet, a 2347 metre pass in the dividing ridge that separates the main Brunissard valley from a glen that drains down to Château-Queyras. Midway down that glen the hamlet of Souliers has a gîte d’étape used by trekkers on the Tour du Queyras. Instead of, or before, crossing Col du Tronchet and descending to Souliers, it would be worth bearing left along a footpath spur that leads to Lac de Souliers. This tarn enjoys a superb situation below Pic Ouest and the craggy Crête des Oules. Pic Ouest itself is accessible to any fit walker with a head for heights. From the summit a full circular panorama includes Monte Viso, of course, a maze of peak, ridge and hinted valley of the Écrins and, farther away, La Grande Casse in the Vanoise.

This brief summary of valleys has done little more than scratch the surface of possibilities available for keen mountain walkers. It will be evident that much awaits those who are drawn by country that has seldom been fashionable, whose villages, glens, peaks and ridges are largely unknown outside a small circle of enthusiasts, yet whose landscape quality is as rich and varied as almost anywhere in the Alps. If there’s one sure way of having that variety unfolded day after day, it will be by following that multi-day route already referred to several times in the preceding paragraphs, the GR58, better known as the Tour du Queyras.

Tour du Queyras

The standard circuit of about eight days remains entirely within France and is thus parochially contained by the boundaries of the Queyras district, but there are assorted variations available that stray beyond these boundaries and even follow a short section of the Italian Tour of Monte Viso. Since it is my intention in this book to offer the best walking and most spectacular scenic viewpoints throughout the Alpine ranges, the following outline tour will include some of these variations, thereby increasing the length to one of 12 stages. It’s a route that would appeal to first-time trekkers in the Alps since some of the stages are rather modest in length. Accommodation is available at the end of every stage, with meals provided during the main summer season. But as there are few shops along the way there will be many sections where food will need to be carried for several days at a time to provide refreshment along the trail.

Montdauphin-Guillestre to Ceillac

The ‘official’ start of the Tour du Queyras is made in Ceillac, but Alan Castle, author of the English-language guidebook to the circuit on which the following outline is largely based, suggests Montdauphin-Guillestre in the Durance valley as being more appropriate, since most trekkers will approach the district by rail. His guide, therefore, begins the route at the railway station and makes as his destination of this initial stage, the Refuge de Furfande set in a verdant pastoral basin below Col St-Antoine on the west flank of the Guil valley, not far from the Chalets de Furfande, the only mountain farms in the district not accessible by road. For a first day of a multi-day walking circuit it’s quite demanding, with almost 20 kilometres to cover and two cols to cross, Col de Moussière (2354m) and Col St-Antoine (2458m). The ascent to Col de Moussière is long and will, no doubt, be fairly punishing to those who are not yet in full mountain-fitness. But the change of landscape on reaching the col will be reward enough, for there’s a transformation from forest and pasture to true mountain austerity marked by craggy crests rising from apparently barren screes. It should be noted that there are no accommodation alternatives between Montdauphin-Guillestre and Refuge de Furfande, and that a full day’s walking of about eight hours should be allowed for this stage.

Having begun the tour by heading roughly eastward, the second stage joins the GR58 proper and follows it southward, across the main Guil valley to Ceillac along what is normally taken as the final section of the ‘official’ Tour du Queyras. Should our walker prefer to follow the standard tour, however, the first day’s route outlined in the preceding paragraph should be ignored, and instead Ceillac reached from Montdauphin-Guillestre railway station by bus, there to begin the walk in earnest.

Coming as we are though from Refuge de Furfande the day begins with a descent to Les Escoyères, a hamlet overlooking the gorges of Combe du Queyras. The route goes down to the main valley road and crosses the river by footbridge. There follows a steady climb, much of it through woodland, to the Col de Bramousse (2251m), but an alternative to this crossing exists, being the one adopted as a GR58 variant as well as by the GR5 later on. The variant leaves the main trail at the hamlet of Bramousse, which is reached by road from the Combe de Queyras, then skirts eastward through the Bois de Riou Vert into the glen of the same name, through which the trail climbs to Col Fromage, there to join GR5. Col Fromage (2301m) lies to the east of Col de Bramousse along the Crête des Chambrettes. As noted earlier, there’s a fine linking trail along this ridge, although as our route is quite long enough in itself, few trekkers will be tempted by this diversion.

Col de Bramousse, with its fine view south to the Pics de la Font Sancte at the head of the Vallon du Mélezet, makes an obvious passage over the wall of mountains that hems the north flank of the Cristillan valley. From it a 600 metre descent leads directly to Ceillac nestling at the confluence of the Cristillan and Mélezet rivers.

Ceillac to Refuge Agnel

The next stage, Ceillac to St-Véran, is normally tackled on the first day of the standard circuit. Although it makes the highest crossing so far (Col des Estronques; 2651m), it is the shortest of our three days, a factor which may encourage the additional ascent of Tête de Jacquette that is easily accessible from the col. Col des Estronques neighbours Col Fromage, and is gained from Ceillac by way of a series of steep zig-zags enlivened by gradually expanding views. An undemanding path strikes away from the col to ascend the nearby Tête de Jacquette, an excellent viewpoint from which Monte Viso appears in the east for the first time. The summit here is marked by trenches and barbed wire, presumably relics of the last war – barbed wire is also a feature of some of the cols on the Franco–Italian border. Over the col the trail descends, steeply at first to a natural terrace, then down a ravine before coming to woodland. Through this the well-marked trail crosses the Aigue Blanche stream at the Pont de Moulin, goes up to Le Raux (dortoir accommodation), then on a road which climbs to St-Véran where there are several hotels, two gîtes d’étape and foodstores, the latter being important as the next opportunity to buy food does not occur for a further four days until we reach Abriès.

Stage four leads to Refuge Agnel, a popular GTA hut situated high in the Aigue Agnelle valley with tremendous views out to the Écrins. The GR58 standard route crosses Col de Chamoussière in the ridge which divides the valleys of Aigue Blanche and Aigue Agnelle, but an alternative fine-weather option goes first to Col de St-Véran on the border with Italy, then climbs over Pic de Caramantran (3025m) and descends to join the standard trail at Col de Chamoussière. Should conditions be favourable, this is the recommended route to take. Views will certainly reward the extra effort involved. Among the mountains in view is Pain de Sucre (3208m), a very popular summit tackled by numerous walkers staying at Refuge Agnel. A Scottish friend who scrambled up this on a day off whilst walking the Tour du Queyras described it as: ‘... a bit like Union Street on a Saturday afternoon ... We didn’t linger long on the summit [but] dropped down to Lac Foréant, then back up to Lac de l’Eychassier and on to Pic de Foréant, a much better summit in my opinion, with not a soul in sight and an equally magnificent view.’ Trekkers planning a second night at Refuge Agnel might find one or other of these peaks worth considering, but only if conditions allow. The ascent of Le Pain de Sucre may be quite energetic for some, and the way could be tricky in mist, but the route is waymarked to the summit.

Refuge Agnel to Refuge du Balif-Viso

Walkers determined to stick to the ‘official’ Tour du Queyras will leave Refuge Agnel and cross Col Vieux (2806m) on the way to La Monta in the upper Guil valley. This makes an entertaining stage, but the alternative offered here strays out of the Parc Naturel Régional du Queyras by trespassing into Italy, where Monte Viso dominates the landscape. The supremacy of this mountain is undeniable. Whether it is viewed from a distant summit, from one of the many walkers’ passes accessible on three sides, or from the plains round Turin, Monte Viso’s signature is unmistakable. From the Agnel refuge a short walk of about 40 minutes leads to Col Agnel (2744m). Over this the way descends into the Italian Vallone dell Agnello which yields lovely views to the Maritime Alps in the south. Then you turn into the Valle de Soustre through flower meadows raucous with the shrill call of marmots. At the head of this a stiff climb brings you onto the Passo della Losetta (2870m), from where a scenically-spectacular belvedere trail leads to Col de Valante (2815m), Monte Viso looming magnificent nearby. Before tackling this belvedere trail, however, the nearby Pointe Joanne (3052m) beckons. It only needs 30 minutes of effort from the Losetta Pass, but the summit vista is incredible – given good conditions, that is. Of course, Monte Viso looks impressive as ever, but the extensive panorama also includes the Écrins, Vanoise, Mont Blanc and even the sharp tip of the Matterhorn far off. Much depends on your planned destination for the day whether you linger on the summit. Should you intend to cross back into France and descend to Refuge du Balif-Viso, then you’ll need about two and a half hours to achieve this from the summit of Pointe Joanne. If, however, your plans are to remain in Italy and spend the night at the Rifugio Vallanta, you should have a little longer to enjoy summit views.

The guidebook tour of the Queyras crosses Col de Valante (Passo di Vallanta) and descends a tight little ravine, then screes, before reaching a tarn (Lac Lestio) from where a trail leads directly to Refuge du Balif-Viso. An alternative to this, as hinted above, adds an extra day to the tour by remaining for two nights in Italian huts. The first, Rifugio Vallanta, the second Rifugio Sella beside a little lake, the latter an extremely popular hut used as a base for climbers tackling Monte Viso, and normally reached by trail from the Valle del Po. Gazing across the lake one sees Monte Viso’s east face soaring in a great shaft, the summit actually hidden, but a tower on the east ridge providing much of the drama in this view. The day’s route between these two huts goes down the Vallone di Vallant, then crosses Passo Gallarino. On the following day the return to French soil is by way of Col de la Traversette (2947m) and down to the Balif-Viso hut. Below the Traversette col a tunnel, the so-called Buco di Viso, was forced in the 15th century as an aid to the transportation of salt from Provence. It is still possible to pass through this, thus avoiding the final climb to the col proper, although anyone carrying a large rucksack may find it a bit of a squeeze.

Refuge du Balif-Viso to Abriès

When the standard Tour du Queyras left Refuge Agnel for the gîte d’étape in La Monta it made a direct crossing via Col Vieux and the Lacs Foréant and Egorgeou. Our suggested route from the Balif-Viso hut to the same destination is a devious one that crosses back into Italy again – despite the fact that La Monta is, of course, easily accessible by a straightforward downhill stroll through the upper glen of the Guil. On our route there are two cols to cross (Col Sellière; 2834m and Col Lacroix; 2299m), with two Italian huts between them. These are Rifugio Granero and Rifugio Jervis. Above Rifugio Granero the 3166 metre Monte Granero makes a tempting diversion, but since it will entail about four hours for the ascent and descent with some scrambling involved, this would be better attempted from an intermediate overnight base at either the Granero or Jervis hut – which is fine if you have the time and energy to devote to it. Once again, a tremendous panorama of mountain and valley is spread out from the summit.

Without the ascent of Monte Granero it will take about six and a half hours to reach La Monta. If, however, this climb is added to the route and you decide to overnight at Rifugio Jervis, the better plan next day will be to cross back into France by the unfortunately-named Col d’Urine (2525m), adding the summit of Tête du Pelvas (2929m; excellent views) to your tally of peaks, and then descend either to Le Roux or Abriès. Once again the ascent of Tête du Pelvas involves some scrambling and danger of stonefall, and should not be attempted unless you have a degree of experience. The route is cairned from the col. Since our suggested Tour du Queyras also crosses Col d’Urine on the stage leading from La Monta to Le Roux or Abriès, those who chose the Italian alternative will have caught up with the outline tour described here.

Abriès to Souliers

Assuming Abriès is chosen as the finishing point for stage seven, the next day begins with a decision to be made as to which route should be adopted for the crossing of Col du Malrif, by which the gîte d’étape at the summer-only hamlet of Les Fonds de Cervières is reached at the head of the Cervières glen. There are two ways; the shorter of course is the more direct and goes by way of a good waymarked trail to the deserted hamlet of Malrif and via the charming Lac du Grand Laus. The longer alternative heads north up the Bouchet glen first and will be favoured by walkers who chose Le Roux for their previous overnight accommodation. From Le Roux continue upvalley a little farther, before breaking away on a two and a half hour climb to Col des Thures (2797m) on the frontier ridge. Thereafter there’s some pretty rough country to trek through, at first along the frontier crest to Col de Rasis (2921m), then down to a tarn and over wild, barren hillsides before coming to the Crête aux Eaux Pendantes leading to Col du Malrif (2866m). Yet again views of an impressive nature greet the eye, particularly of the central block of snow and ice mountains of the Écrins, while much of the Tour du Queyras so far trekked will be on display. An even broader view may be obtained from the summit of Pic du Malrif nearby.

Both routes having joined at the col the way now descends into a surprisingly lush glen with trees, meadows and streams softening the landscape after the pseudo-wilderness experienced a little earlier. In this haven of peace sits the little hamlet of Les Fonds de Cervières and its gîte.

Stage nine is a short one, requiring little more than a morning’s walk to reach Souliers across the 2629 metre Col de Péas, and it would be quite feasible to continue as far as Brunissard the same day should you be running short of time. But the occasional short and easy stage slipped into a multi-day circuit such as this, is no bad thing and will have a value all its own. Those with an abundance of energy and enthusiasm will not be short of ideas to fill the day, either on this or tomorrow’s stage.

Souliers to Montdauphin-Guillestre

Between Souliers and Brunissard a diversion to Lac de Souliers and Pic Ouest is recommended, although you’ll need good weather to make a visit worthwhile. Without straying to these stage ten becomes an even shorter one than yesterday’s, and again, for those running short of time, it could be added to the next stage which leads for a second visit to Refuge de Furfande, albeit the approach is from a different direction.

A possible alternative to the GR58 route from Brunissard to Refuge de Furfande would be to follow the GR5 north from Brunissard over the rim of the Queyras district at Col des Ayes, and down from there to Briançon, from whose railway station trains depart for Lyon or Vallence. Remaining true to the spirit of the Tour du Queyras, however, for this penultimate stage we take the trail heading down-valley along the steep right flank (west side) along a forest track. Much of this stage is among trees, but the final climb to Col de Furfande (2500m) is through open country above the Bois du Devez. A dirt road also leads to the col which is marked by a large wooden cross. From it you look directly down into the lovely basin of Furfande, and on the descent it is important to bear left at a junction of trails, the alternative here being GR541, the route used on stage one from Montdauphin-Guillestre.

For the final day’s walking on this tour a number of options are available. The first is to wander the main GR58 to Ceillac, and take the bus from there to Montdauphin-Guillestre for the journey home – but this would mean walking a section already followed on day two. The second option would reverse our initial stage one across Col St-Antoine and Col du Moussière – no bad thing since views would be quite different to those experienced on the way in. But the third alternative is that which the guidebook recommends. It returns to Montdauphin-Guillestre by way of the grassy Col Garnier (2279m), then down to woodland overlooking the Combe de Queyras before coming to the ruins of Les Girards and the hamlet of Gros on the way to the Durance valley; a mostly downhill walk of about six hours with the sun in your face.

Day 1:	Montdauphin-Guillestre – Col de Moussière – Col St-Antoine – Refuge de Furfande
Day 2:	Refuge de Furfande – Col de Bramousse – Ceillac
Day 3:	Ceillac – Col des Estronques – St-Véran
Day 4:	St-Véran – Col de St-Véran – Pic de Caramantran – Col de Chamoussière – Refuge Agnel
or:	St-Véran – Col de Chamoussière – Refuge Agnel
Day 5:	Refuge Agnel – Col Agnel – Passo della Losetta – Pointe Joanne – Col de Valante – Refuge du Balif-Viso
or:	Refuge Agnel – Col Agnel – Passo della Losetta – Pointe Joanne – Rifugio Vallanta
Day 6:	Refuge du Balif-Viso – Col Sellière – Col Lacroix – La Monta
or:	Refuge du Balif-Viso – Col Sellière – Monte Granero – Rifugio Jervis
or:	Rifugio Vallanta – Passo Gallarino – Rifugio Sella
Day 7:	La Monta – Collette de Gilly – Col d’Urine – Abriès
or:	Rifugio Jervis – Tête du Pelvas – Col d’Urine – Abriès
or:	Rifugio Sella – Col de la Traversette – Refuge du Balif-Viso
Day 8:	Abriès – Col du Malrif – Les Fonds de Cervières
or:	Abriès – Le Roux – Col des Thures – Col de Rasis – Col du Malrif – Les Fonds de Cervières
Day 9:	Les Fonds de Cervières – Col de Péas – Souliers
Day 10:	Souliers – Col du Tronchet – Lac de Souliers – Pic Ouest – Brunissard
Day 11:	Brunissard – Col de Furfande – Refuge de Furfande
Day 12:	Refuge de Furfande – Col Garnier – Montdauphin-Guillestre

The south face of La Meije dominates the upper Vallon des Etançons

Massif des Écrins

At the very hub of Dauphiné, midway between the Queyras and Vercors, rise the mountains of the Massif des Écrins, variously known as the Massif du Pelvoux or l’Oisans, a relatively compact, yet complex region, much of which is protected by national park status. On its periphery a few hideous ski centres have been built, but elsewhere the peaks, passes and valleys represent a wild and seemingly little-developed refuge of Alpine beauty. Rich in wild flowers this wonderland of savage, shapely mountains and extensive ridge systems contains steep little glens with an undeniable charm all their own. High passes, some of which are accessible to walkers, cross these ridges to link the glens and the valleys they feed, while in those valleys few villages provide more than the most basic of amenities. Those that do have largely managed to avoid compromising their intrinsic character.

The two highest mountains are the Barre des Écrins (4102m), the most southerly 4000 metre summit in the Alps, which lends its name to the whole area, and the famous Meije (3982m), the last major Alpine peak to be climbed. Although they may be only about 10 kilometres apart, between them a chaos of glaciers and snowfields forms a girdle round a group of attendant peaks, such as Roche Faurio, La Grande Ruine, Pic Gaspard, Le Pave and the western extension of the Meije’s bold profile, Le Rateau. Their glaciers may not be quite as extensive as those of the Pennine or Bernese Alps, nor as well-known to the general tourist as some of the ice-sheets of the Mont Blanc range, but their significance to the quality of the scenery is considerable.

Writing about the area in his Histoire des Hautes-Alpes, J. C. F. Ladoucette found it difficult to contain his enthusiasm:

Filled with high mountains, rearing their heads as if to reach to heaven, crowned with glaciers, and fissured with immense chasms, where lie the eternal snows guarded by bare and rugged cliffs; offering the most varied sights, and enjoying all temperatures; and containing everything that is most curious and interesting, the most simple and the most sublime, the most smiling and the most severe, the most beautiful and the most awful; such is the department of the High Alps.

La Meije towers above the village of La Grave near the northern edge of the massif, with the Barre des Écrins not far away to the south-south-east. Then in a block to the south of this, beyond Pic Coolidge, rise Mont Pelvoux (3943m) and the region’s third highest, L’Ailefroide (3954m). Between these last two Pic Sans Nom and Pic du Coup de Sabre are close neighbours, while a little farther south-west, Les Bans (3669m) throws out a ridge that effectively separates two fine valleys: Val Gaudémar to the west and the valley of Entre-les-Aygues that flows eastward to Vallouise. In addition, Les Bans blocks the upper Vallée du Vénéon with its glacier- plastered cirque, and makes a north-south division as well as an east-west divide.

South of this line only the group headed by Pic de Bonvoisin, Pointe de Verdonne and Le Sirac still hang onto their glaciers, while elsewhere within the boundaries of the Parc National des Écrins isolated peaks and groups of peaks, such as L’Olan and Les Rouies, shine their little napkin icefields from afar. That is not to suggest that other mountains fanning out from the central core fail to attract through a lack of ice or snow, for the whole region is one of generous proportions. But the overall effect is of a great mountain mass whose bare outer rim serves to protect a cluster of inner peaks upon whose flanks the development of mountaineering interest has been concentrated.

Great names from the Golden Age, and even earlier, made their mark here: Forbes and Bonney, Tuckett, William Mathews, Edward Whymper – who climbed the Barre des Écrins in 1864 with A. W. Moore, Horace Walker and the guides Christian Almer and Michel Croz – and W. A. B. Coolidge (the ‘Boswell of the Alps’), who made the first ascent of L’Ailefroide in 1870, also with Almer as his guide. In the early 1870s it was Coolidge and his indomitable aunt, Miss Meta Brevoort, who concentrated on a systematic exploration of the range, and who subsequently made more than 250 ascents – a number of which were new. Often Coolidge was accompanied by his dog Tschingel, which also reached the summits of Le Rateau and La Grande Ruine, among others. ‘I am not quite sure what it was that made us choose Dauphiné as our battleground,’ he wrote, ‘but I believe it was ambition. There was a whole world to explore there and that was enough for us.’

For the modern mountain walker, exploration remains a personal journey of discovery, and it does not matter how many others might have crossed a pass, photographed a view or given directions in a guidebook, each ‘new’ valley, tarn or col visited becomes a ‘first’ to be celebrated and enjoyed to the full. The Massif des Écrins will surely not disappoint in this respect.

Vallées du Vénéon & Étancons

Taking the Barre des Écrins as the pivot in our mountain hub, the two main glaciers that drain its western flanks flow into the Vallée du Vénéon, the head of which is not the Barre des Écrins itself, but Les Bans whose dramatic glacial cirque faces almost due north. Here the Glacier de la Pilatte is an unevenly textured plaster spreading from one side of the cirque to the other, broken here and there by ribs of dark rock that project through the snow and ice. On the left bank of the glacier, not far from its snout, stands the Refuge de la Pilatte, reached by a delightful walk through the valley from La Bérarde.

The upper Vallée du Vénéon drains northward, then curves round the flank of the Tête du Chéret. On the right bank of the stream a path climbs steeply to the Refuge du Temple Écrins, above which soars Pic Coolidge and the uncomfortably-named Pointe des Avalanches. There’s yet another hut nearby, in the bed of the valley, that is well patronised by walkers since it may be reached in only an hour’s walk from La Bérarde. Refuge du Plan du Carrelet gazes on some savage mountain scenery from its position opposite a tributary glen with the narrow tongue of the Chardon glacier straining down from Col des Rouies. The Chardon is a narrow glen, typically wild as are so many that feed the Vénéon.

La Bérarde stands at the roadhead in the midst of some of the finest scenery in the French Alps. When T. G. Bonney made his first visit in August 1860 he thought it a miserable hamlet. ‘Fowls and goats, pigs and people, occupy harmoniously the squalid huts, and the cows are as well lodged as their masters.’ (Outline Sketches in the High Alps of Dauphiné)

Well over a hundred years later, and despite its having become a Mecca for active mountain enthusiasts, La Bérarde remains little more than a small hamlet, all-but deserted by the outside world during winter. Its reputation as a superb walking and mountaineering base is well justified, for there are some tremendous mountains and mountain tours accessible from it. Served by infrequent buses along an exciting road that used to be known as the first obstacle in reaching the village, it has a campsite, a couple of hotels, a CAF refuge, modest shop – and a variety of trails that lead to viewpoints of splendour.

Two valleys converge on La Bérarde. The Vénéon, as has already been mentioned, comes in from the south-east and is dominated at its head by Les Bans, and Mont Gioberney. Departing the hamlet it then veers westward as a deep and narrow gorge-like valley. To the north the Étancons glen entices with its mystery, and as you wander into it from La Bérarde so a huge rock wall topped by a ragged spine is seen to rise directly from the Étancons glacier. This is the south face of La Meije, so different to the northern side which looks down upon La Grave. Whymper wrote disparagingly of this glen after descending through it from the Brêche de la Meije in 1864. He called it ‘a howling wilderness, the abomination of desolation; destitute alike of animal or vegetable life ... suggestive of chaos, but of little else.’ Nowadays it is generally viewed more favourably and with greater appreciation for its wild grandeur.

Tête de la Maye

Above La Bérarde the dome-like Tête de la Maye (2581m) guards the entrance to the Vallon des Étancons, and its easily-accessible summit provides a wonderful panorama of all the neighbouring high peaks, including La Meije and Barre des Écrins. An orientation table aids identification of the main points in that view. A path climbs from the hamlet, and near the top fixed cables safeguard a few rocky sections, while south of La Bérarde a similar path climbs to Les Clots (2529m) for more fine views.

Dome de Neige des Écrins, seen from the viewpoint of the Tête de la Maye above La Bérarde

The main trail north of the hamlet crosses to the eastern side of the Étancons torrent and rises gently upvalley towards the south face of La Meije and its flanking peaks of Le Rateau and Pic Gaspard, and goes directly to the CAF’s Refuge du Châtelleret (2232m) in the very heart of big mountain country. Surprisingly, in the mid 1950s this refuge was described as being little more than a broken-down, three-walled hovel built against a huge boulder. It had a stone floor covered with leaves, a pot-bellied stove and rudimentary furniture. In fact little had changed since it was inaugurated in 1882. How different it all is now!

About three kilometres downstream from La Bérarde, Les Étages, with its impressive view to the Écrins, squats at the junction of the Vallon des Étages, another tributary glen which flows from the south. A path projects part-way into that valley, while another climbs steeply behind the hamlet to confront an astonishing triangular granite spear, the Aiguille Dibona. Like something transported from Chamonix, this is very much a rock-climber’s playground. A small hut, Refuge du Soreiller, provides overnight accommodation with views south across the Vallée du Vénéon.

Still flowing westward the Vénéon alternates between being very narrow and then somewhat wider; the road that traces its northern bank is a marvel of engineering and demands full concentration of all who drive along it. There are many tales from the past of vehicles negotiating this route with one or two wheels overhanging a precipice, or of the road disappearing overnight into the torrent.

St-Christophe-en-Oisans

Midway between Les Étages and St-Christophe-en-Oisans another glen drains from the south, with the bulk of L’Olan at its head. The Muande, or Vallon de la Lavey, actually takes the melt of the little glaciers of Les Rouies, caught in a shelf of a hanging valley near the head of the cirque under the Glaciers de la Lavey. This is an utterly delightful valley, halfway along which Refuge de la Lavey is reached by a footpath spur off the main valley path that links St-Christophe with La Bérarde.

A road snakes above St-Christophe towards the hinted Vallée de la Selle that effectively cuts east to west through the mountains behind the village. While the road itself does not project far, a path climbs through the glen alongside the Torrent du Diable to reach the Refuge de la Selle at the head of the valley, with Le Rateau rising in a tease of ice to the north-east, and the Massif du Soreiller opposite, to the south. The path continues from the hut to the edge of the Selle glacier where, for those with the necessary equipment and expertise, a crossing could be made of Col de la Selle (3201m) in the eastern ridge, and a subsequent descent to Refuge du Châtelleret in the Étancons glen above La Bérarde.

The trail through Vallée de la Selle is not the only one worth considering from St-Christophe, for another mounts the Tête de la Toura (2885m) which acts as the glen’s northern gatepost. There a broad panorama enables a fresh perspective to be gained of this part of the region. North of the Tête cableways string the mountains from Les Deux-Alpes, a major ski resort on a high terrace midway between the valleys of Vénéon and Romanche. As the name implies Les Deux-Alpes comprises two resorts that have merged into one; Alpe de Vénosc and Alpe de Mont-de-Lans. Almost entirely devoted to the whims of the ski industry, one of the cableway systems links the resort with the glaciers of Le Rateau at the western end of the crest spreading from La Meije. Les Deux-Alpes may be reached by walkers along a variant of the GR54, or by cableway from Venosc just outside Bourg d’Arud.

Above St-Christophe-en-Oisans a long and attractive valley leads to Refuge de la Selle

Bourg d’Arud

Bourg d’Arud is another small village astride the road that makes its tortuous way along the valley to La Bérarde. It boasts a couple of hotels, a gîte and a large campsite, while just to the south, on the opposite bank of the Vénéon, the neighbouring hamlet of l’Alleau also offers camping facilities at the foot of a pathway that climbs steeply to the Refuge, Lac and Col de la Muzelle on the route of the GR54, Tour de l’Oisans. The lake is a particular favourite with walkers based in the valley, as is the beautiful Lac Lauvitel in the neighbouring glen to the west. A waymarked path links these two by way of Col du Vallon (2531m), and an excellent two-day circuit could thereby be achieved using Refuge de la Muzelle as the overnight base. Strong walkers could manage the circuit in a single day, no doubt, but the two adjacent glens are so delightful that they ought to be treated with the respect they deserve. On a one-day circuit there would be little time available to enjoy them both at leisure, and some landscapes are just too good to race through.

Bourg d’Arud is served by bus from Bourg d’Oisans, and the little village would make an admirable base for several days of a walking holiday, as would the smaller hamlet of La Danchère nearby. La Danchère does not have the main valley road passing through, for it sits on a spur of wooded land above the Vénéon and below the entrance to the Lauvitel glen. As such it is a quieter place, attractive and with hotel accommodation. Walkers with their own transport might find it worth considering as a short-stay base in preference to some of the valley-bed villages. Lac Lauvitel is reached in an hour and a half by one of two paths. Above the lake Brêche du Périer (2491m) makes it possible to achieve a crossing to a choice of valley systems lying west and south of the mountain barrier walling the lake, with a very fine circuit of two or three days’ duration being an obvious challenge.

Another trail, much less strenuous than that to Lac Lauvitel, descends among lush vegetation to Les Gauchoirs, then continues on the left bank of the Vénéon heading south-west through the steadily-broadening valley. Five kilometres before reaching Bourg d’Oisans, just after passing the Cascade de la Pisse, the Vénéon is swollen by the lesser flow of the Romanche which enters from the right and gives its name to the valley thereafter.

Bourg d’Oisans

For a small town Bourg d’Oisans is a busy place on a site very much seen as the gateway to the Écrins massif, for it serves as a funnel linking the rest of France with the National Park. Downstream the Romanche swings in a south-westerly arc before correcting its course and joining forces with the Isère in Grenoble, the city from which fan out all routes of access to the various corners of Dauphiné. Buses ply the route from Grenoble to Bourg d’Oisans, and from there a brutal twist of hairpins takes a road to the ski resort of Alpe d’Huez on the edge of the Grandes Rousses, which still carry a covering of snow throughout the summer. Another heads upstream into the Romanche valley proper by way of the Gorges de l’Infernet, Le Freney d’Oisans, the dammed Lac du Chambon, La Grave and Villar d’Arêne, and finally departs by way of the Col du Lautaret (2057m). While views from the col are very fine, especially to Pic Gaspard and La Meije, the higher Col du Galibier (2642m) provides additional interest as from it, not only can many of the major peaks of the Écrins be seen to advantage, but northward rise the Vanoise mountains, and far off even Mont Blanc is evident on the proverbial clear day.

The Romanche Valley

The Romanche forms the most northerly moat to the central block of the Écrins massif, and may be considered one of the most important of the whole region. It does not rise at Col du Lautaret, but in a glen further south below the Glacier de la Plate des Agneaux and between the peaks of La Grande Ruine and Roche Faurio. Soon after its birth it is joined in the Plan de Valfourche by the first of its many tributaries, the Torrent du Clot des Cavales. This stream comes out of its own lovely glen carved between the block of La Grande Ruine and the southern flanks of La Meije, here given additional character by the summits of Le Pavé and the tower of Pic Gaspard.

Villar d’Arène stands a short distance upstream of La Grave

Both glens are accessible to walkers by way of the Refuge de l’Alpe de Villar Arêne, set in buckled pastures an hour and a half’s walk from the roadhead. From the hut a trail rises south-westward and forks in the Plan de Valfourche. The left-hand option follows the infant Romanche to its source, then climbs steeply for 850 metres to Refuge Planchard (3169m) on the eastern slopes of La Grande Ruine overlooking the curving Glacier de la Plate des Agneaux. The alternative trail heads west into the glen below Pic Gaspard, on the flanks of which, Refuge du Pavé hugs a knoll at the southern end of a small tarn with a very lonely outlook.

In the pastures below Refuge de l’Alpe de Villar Arêne a wooden post marks another junction of paths, with one cutting round the north-eastern hillside to gain the unseen Col du Lautaret road pass, while the main trail either climbs past the hut to cross Col d’Arsine (2340m), or descends in tight zig-zags to the gravel beds of the upper Romanche valley. La Meije is badly foreshortened above and to the west of this part of the valley, where its great bulk looms overall.

At the roadhead a campsite on the right bank of the river is backed by pines in an open situation, with a hint of good things up towards Col d’Arsine, and more gentle, pastoral country curving away down valley. No more than three kilometres downstream the Lautaret road enters Villar d’Arêne, a village with gîte and hotel accommodation, rather less developed for tourism than is La Grave, the main mountain base in the valley and one of the massif’s three centres for mountaineering; the others being La Bérarde and the hamlet of Ailefroide below Mont Pelvoux.

La Grave

Much of La Grave stands above the road, a huddle of stone-built houses with narrow alleyways between, happily safe from the worst excesses of modern architectural blight that goes under the name of sophistication and which has afflicted many resorts in mountain France. There are old-fashioned hotels in the original part of the village, more modern lower down, and two campsites by the river. Alongside the main road the Bureau des Guides is found not far from the Meije cable-car which, despite its name, does not rise to that mountain, but instead deposits tourists, climbers and skiers onto a high point near Col des Ruillans overlooking the Glacier de la Girose which spreads from Le Rateau.

The north face of La Meije soars gracefully above La Grave for more than 2500 metres, a face climbed first in 1898 and one that dominates this part of the valley. ‘The view of this mountain from the village of La Grave can hardly be spoken of too highly,’ commented Whymper. ‘It is one of the finest road-views in the Alps ... But from La Grave one can no more appreciate the noble proportions and the towering height of the Meije, than understand the symmetry of the dome of St Paul’s by gazing upon it from the churchyard. To see it fairly, one must be placed at a greater distance and at a greater height.’

Walkers are able to do just that by climbing a waymarked footpath to the hillside villages of Les Terraces and Le Chazelet. But even better views of La Meije and Le Rateau are won from the shores of either Lac Lérié or the slightly higher Lac Noir well to the west of Le Chazelet on the Plateau de Paris. These tarns provide sparkling foregrounds to some of the loveliest mid-height views in the Écrins range. Between tarn and mountain the deep valley of the Romanche lies hidden as a shadow-filled trough out of which snow-gilded peaks challenge the clouds.

The Romanche continues to flow westward with only one other hamlet to note on the 12 kilometre journey from La Grave to the dam at the end of Lac du Chambon. Les Fréaux lies in the valley immediately below Le Chazelet. From it a trail rears up the southern flank of the valley to gain Refuge Chancel perched above a tarn in a scoop of mountainside below Le Rateau. One fairly level path, which links the hut with the intermediate station on the Meije cableway, passes the end of Lac du Puy Vachier, while a more strenuous trail rises to the upper terminus.

The North Flank of the Romanche

Beyond the dam at the western end of Lac de Chambon another tributary stream flows down from the north to join that of the Romanche. Mizöen guards the entrance to this northern valley through which a minor road forces passage to the small, unsophisticated hamlets of Clavans-le-Bas and Clavans-le-Haut, then crosses Col de Sarenne for a rough approach to Alpe d’Huez. Another road branches north-eastward from just below Clavans-le-Bas and wriggles up the hillside to the handsome village of Besse-en-Oisans. Not much more than a kilometre beyond Besse the tarmac ends, yet the continuing dirt road twists and turns agonisingly to reach an enchanting high pastureland basin with distant views of the Meije. Of more interest, however, is the footpath route which claims right to those same views, and better.

Adopted as a variant stage on the classic Tour de l’Oisans, the path makes an exposed rising traverse above Lac du Chambon before cutting up broad verdant hillsides, gazing on waterfalls and seemingly endless rolling hills, along another dirt road, passing an occasional gîte, then heading into that enormous grassland basin between Col Bichet and Col du Souchet. By taking GR54 to Col du Souchet a better view of La Meije is won, while an even more delightful panorama is that seen from the shores of Lac Noir and Lac Lérié – the tarns mentioned above as providing a better opportunity to study La Meije than was possible from La Grave. A vague trail leads directly to them from Col du Souchet.

This vast region of undulating pastureland on the edge of the Maurienne north of the Romanche valley offers tremendous possibilities for walkers. There are easy flower-covered passes to cross, broad ridges to wander along, modest summits to aim for. Though not among mountains of the first order, these walks provide scintillating views to a distant coronet of peaks farther south. Also in view are the glacial dustings of Les Grandes Rousses to the west, the horn-like Aiguilles de la Saussaz and du Goléon, and the Aiguilles d’Arve off to the east. In between, a soft scoop of grass and marshland, with gentle streams meandering through and a scattering of small chalets that provide the human touch. Accommodation is available in Refuge du Rif Tor, a few minutes’ walk from Col Bichet.

Valleé de la Guisane

Third of our valleys that encircle the Écrins massif is that of the Guisane which links Col du Lautaret with Briançon. The Lautaret was used by the Romans who built a small temple there. No sign of that remains today, but views from the col are quite lovely as one gazes over a foreground of sweeping green hillsides to the shapely Meije and neighbouring Pic Gaspard. East of the Lautaret, and walling the upper valley, the limestone Massif des Cerces is criss-crossed with paths, making this area something of a treat for walkers. GR57 and its variants make a thorough exploration of the mountains and glens that lie rucked between the loftier Écrins and the Italian border, and GR5 creeps through too, edging the district on its way to Briançon.

The valley of the Guisane flows south-eastward with the National Park boundary tracing the right bank almost as far as the attractive small village of Le Casset; perhaps the valley’s best base for walkers content with gîte accommodation. Thereafter the ski industry has carved pistes and strung mechanical hoists up the north- and east-facing hillsides, making it necessary to delve deeper into tributary glens in order to regain nature’s tranquillity.

Coming down the valley, here a flat- bedded, broadening trough, Monte Viso can be seen far-off – that cone-shaped, pre- eminent mountain of the Cottian Alps already studied from the Queyras. Forest clothes the lower hillsides, and meadows spread across the valley, while between Le Casset and Monêtier-les-Bains tents and caravans stand almost camouflaged by riverside scrub. Monêtier is a large village with ambitions to be taken seriously as a ski-station. It consists of an assortment of traditional dwellings and modern apartments, with hotels, restaurants and enough shops to be of use to backpackers passing through. Walks up through the forests and into wooded glens nearby can be delightful, but there have been some harsh things done to the upper slopes in the cause of downhill skiing that make one scurry away in search of wilder country.

Below Monêtier several villages gather in close proximity, ski-slopes to the right, unfussed hills to the left. Along the upper left-hand flank of the valley a linking of trails makes it possible to avoid all habitation in a long and sunny belvedere walk from just below the Col du Lautaret to Briançon. At Briançon the Guisane loses its identity. Thereafter it is the Durance which forms the far-eastern boundary of the Massif des Écrins, collecting the waters of several fine mountain valleys as it works southward to Argentière-la-Bessée, Embrun and Savines-le-Lac where it relinquishes all claim to the range of l’Oisans.

Fortified by Vauban in the late 17th century, and reckoned to be the highest town in Europe, Briançon holds much of interest and is worth retreating to in the event of bad weather forcing escape from high cols and ridges. It also has an important railway link with Paris, and road access via Col d’Izoard with the Queyras massif, but its valley is too busy, too fussy, to make it worth using as a base for a walking holiday.

Downstream, Argentière-la-Bessée also has a railway station, and with easy access to the Vallée de la Vallouise and a clutch of splendid glens, is perhaps a better place to aim for if the plan is to concentrate a walking holiday in this south-eastern corner of the range where some of the loveliest high mountain scenery is on show.

Vallée de la Vallouise

Midway along the Vallée de la Vallouise, at a junction of glens with some tremendous high mountains nearby, is its main village, a busy little resort that shares the same name as the valley itself. The old village of Vallouise faces south, its back to the mountains and with more recent development spread out below. It has a choice of hotels, two gîtes and a municipal campsite. There are a few shops and bars, a summer bus service into neighbourhood glens, and an atmosphere of excited anticipation with so much dramatic scenery close at hand. Mont Pelvoux dominates as you approach from the south, although it cannot be seen from Vallouise itself due to intervening ridges.

The main valley here drains from the north, while another, Val de l’Entre-les-Aygues, flows from the west. Both of these divide again to collect the melt from assorted glacier systems. The first we need to consider is the Vallon de Chambran which runs roughly north to south, with a westward kink in its uppermost reaches. It is formed in a little glacial cirque under the Crête des Grangettes, east of Pointe des Arcas, which is itself merely part of a long ridge extending south of Montagne des Agneaux. In that cirque Lac de l’Eychauda makes a popular goal for walkers on day trips from the Vallouise, and in summer a bus service daily journeys as far as the buvette at Chambran midway through the main part of the valley. Chambran is not even a hamlet, but several rough buildings with a lovely outlook.

This glen is itself subdivided above Chambran, for the Crête de l’Yret, which extends below Lac de l’Eychauda, effectively contains a little hanging valley on its eastern side that has now been exploited for skiing. Walkers heading south from Monêtier-les-Bans on GR54 cross Col de l’Eychauda and descend through that wasted hanging valley before dropping in steep zig-zags to the Vallon de Chambran upstream of the buvette. Above Chambran the Eychauda stream glides in silver braidings, then gathers into a semblance of order to dance through a steepening cleft among masses of wild flowers and the raucous summer sound of the cicadas. Wandering down the pathway that accompanies this stream is to be reminded of the southerly nature of these mountains. While snow and ice may coat the upper peaks, deep valleys embrance the light, fragrance and flavour of the Mediterranean.

Ailefroide

St-Antoine and neighbouring Les Claux stand either side of the confluence of the Eychauda torrent with that of the Ailefroide. The road from Vallouise curves leftward through rocky narrows with woods on the lower slopes, and all eyes are eager to catch the first exciting views of Mont Pelvoux that rises directly ahead. Close to Ailefroide the valley forks yet again; the western glen is watered by the glaciers of l’Ailefroide and Pointe du Sélé, the northern glen by the Glacier Noir and Glacier Blanc; the first coming from Mont Pelvoux, the second from Barre des Écrins.

Like La Bérarde, Ailefroide is a summer-only hamlet, a magnet for climbers and with opportunities for outstanding walks to the very edge of the glaciers. There are campsites, two hotels and a gîte, and meadows thick with flowers in early summer. Not surprisingly it’s extremely busy during the high season. Above the hamlet the road continues below the huge walls of Pelvoux as far as the drab boulderfield of Pré de Madame Carle, and Refuge Cézanne. There the scene is typically Alpine, being one of big mountains and glacial moraines. The summit of Pelvoux is more than 2000 metres above the road and the Glacier Noir has carved a highway round its northern buttresses; ahead Glacier Blanc appears from behind the Barre des Écrins. A short, almost level, walk leads to a junction of paths. One veers left to follow the north bank of the Glacier Noir on a narrow moraine crest, while the other climbs to the snout of Glacier Blanc and a CAF refuge at 2543 metres. While the Glacier Noir trail passes beneath the southern wall of the Barre des Écrins and overlooks the rubble-strewn glacier to the north face of Mont Pelvoux, that which climbs to Glacier Blanc shows even more grandeur. Just below Refuge du Glacier Blanc it passes the first hut to be built in the region, Refuge Tuckett, now a small museum. Views from here are absolutely stunning, for the hut gazes on an incredible seven-kilometre spread of crusty peaks, glaciers, buttresses and ice-choked couloirs, with Mont Pelvoux regal-looking to the south across a foreground brightened by a small tarn.

The moraine path beside the Glacier Noir gives a direct view of Mont Pelvoux and its near neighbours

The western glen cutting away from Ailefroide is deep and narrow, and was once described as a ‘cheerless and desolate valley [which] contains miles of boulders, débris, stones, sand and mud.’ A path heads into it from Ailefroide and then divides. The right-hand trail continues directly beneath the south face of Pelvoux to reach a pair of climbers’ huts provided by the CAF, Refuge Pelvoux and Refuge du Sélé, while the left-hand option enters another sub-glen, Vallon de Clapous, with a scrambly col at its head by which Entre les Aygues may be reached.

Val de l’Entre-les-Aygues

The Val de l’Entre-les-Aygues is another lovely narrow valley that begins beneath the mass of Les Bans and flows eastward, soon among patches of meadowland, then splendid forests that lead nearly all the way down to Vallouise. Part-way along the glen there’s a camping area on the right bank of the river at Pont des Places, otherwise there’s no accommodation to be had except for two huts; one in the cirque at the upper end of the valley, the other in its tributary glen, Vallon de la Selle. The roadhead is about nine kilometres upstream from Vallouise, at Entre les Aygues itself, where there is a buvette and space to park cars. There the valley divides. The continuing, western branch, is that which leads to a cirque topped by Les Bans. The south-west branch, the Vallon de la Selle, is longer and rises to a curious, though strangely attractive, amphitheatre rimmed with a crest of bare rock from which extensive screes and slopes of black grit fan to rough pastures. At the head of that crest Col de l’Aup Martin (2761m) provides access to a secondary valley that plunges eastward and is drained by the Fournel to join the Durance at Argentière-la-Bessée.

The upper, western, extent of Val de l’Entre-les-Aygues is closed at its head by a bold-looking group of mountains. Pic de Bonvoisin forms the southern limit of this cirque, then come Pic Jocelme, Pic des Aupillous, Les Bans, Pointe des Boeufs Rouges and Pointe Guyard, each one well in excess of 3000 metres, but appearing even higher. In the ridge linking Les Bans and Pointe des Boeufs Rouges two cols suggest strenuous possibilities for achieving a crossing to the upper Vénéon. Whymper’s party made the first crossing of one of these in 1864 (he called it Col de la Pilatte, although his description better fits that of Col des Bans), but that and its neighbour lie outside the scope of this book, for one need only look at the Glacier de la Pilatte which hangs on the other side of the ridge to know that considerable mountaineering skill is a prerequisite for anyone toying with such a proposition.

South of Les Bans, between Pic des Aupillous and Pic Jocelme, Col du Sellar (3084m) provides another challenging route over the mountains, not to the Vallée du Vénéon, but to the upper Val Gaudémar. This pass also has a small glacier to negotiate on its western side, but Whymper claims that local peasants told him sheep and goats could easily be taken across. The Didier and Richard map, however, marks this col as being both difficult and dangerous, so caution is advised should the route be chosen.

Below the cirque walls east of the col Refuge des Bans serves as a climber’s base; it’s also a popular destination for short walks from the roadhead on a good footpath that sticks to the true left bank of the Torrent des Bans. At the Entre-les-Aygues roadhead an alternative footpath is directed by signpost across the multi-stranded river and into the Vallon de la Selle, in which the small Cabane du Jas Lacroix stands above the left bank among grassy hummocks and lichen-patterned boulders and with Pointe de Verdonne rising nearby. It is through this glen and over Col de l’Aup Martin and its neighbouring Pas de la Cavale, that the easiest, though certainly not the most direct, route for walkers leads from the Vallouise to the south-western valleys of the Oisans region.

Begun from Ailefroide, the route to Refuge du Sélé involves the ascent of a rock barrier with the support of fixed ropes and cables

Val Gaudémar

Val Gaudémar is the principal, though by no means the only, one of these. Beginning in the shadow of Les Bans it drains westward at first, then flows south-west below the small village of Villar-Loubière along the outlying flanks of the range, before its river curves in a great northerly sweep towards Grenoble. Approach from Grenoble by road is first made along the N85, then south of Corps and the Lac du Sautet a minor road (D985) breaks away north-eastward. Its upper limit is reached about eight kilometres upstream of La Chapelle-en-Valgaudémar at the Chalet-Hotel du Gioberney in the tributary glen of Muande Bellone below the west face of Les Bans. From there a number of trails climb to vantage points on the slopes of the surrounding mountains; that which visits Lac du Lauzon on the flank of Les Rouies provides especially fine views.

Les Bans once again shows itself to be a pivotal mountain, for here it offers a generous outstretch of ridges that effectively create a long wall to close off the end of Val Gaudémar; a knuckle of rock, scree and steeply-plunging grass. The southern limit of that knuckle wall is marked by the block of Le Sirac (3440m) that sends out a dark, slender schistose arête roughly westward to Pic de Vallonpierre and the higher Aiguille de Morges. From the latter, or rather from a subsidiary of it, another ridge extends northwards, thereby containing a steep but extravagently beautiful glen, the Vallonpierre, which counter-balances the Muande Bellone glen opposite.

Vallonpierre

Vallonpierre is a true gem, its small tarn below the screes of Le Sirac blocked above the north bank by a low ridge of boulders, its eastern shoreline being a broad grassy meadow as level as a bowling green. The CAF has provided a small, mottled, stone-built hut in this idyllic setting. Refuge de Vallonpierre attracts, not only for the romance of its setting, but by being on the route of the Tour de l’Oisans, as well as having ease of access to Le Sirac and some safe but airy ridges. The main walking interest in the glen is focused on the crossing of Col de Vallonpierre (2607m), by which Vallouise may be reached by a linking of four other walkers’ passes. But for experienced trekkers coming clockwise from the direction of Vallouise an alternative to the direct descent to Val Gaudémar is worth considering. From the hut a minor trail curves round the mid-height slopes of Le Sirac and Pointe de Verdonne to gain Refuge de Chabournéou in a cirque topped by Pic de Bonvoisin. A continuing high-level path remains well above the valley bed and curves northward along that knuckle wall, eventually zig-zagging into the glen of Muande Bellone at Chalet-Hotel du Gioberney. That route requires some care, while the main path through the glen is by no means uninteresting but faces some very steep sections below Refuge de Vallonpierre, with streams and cascades and a steady change of vegetation being evident the deeper it goes.

The Torrent de Muande Bellone joins that which drains the Vallonpierre to boost the Séveraisse at the head of Val Gaudémar. On the right bank, among groves of silver birch and boulders partly covered with vegetation, squats yet another hut, Refuge du Clot (or Xavier Blanc), easily reached by a short footpath spur descending from the valley road. Between this hut and La Chapelle the valley descends in steps and with little habitation other than a huddle of farm buildings and the hamlets of Le Bourg and Le Casset. Waterfalls spray from narrow cleaves while the mountain walls soar steeply both to the north and the south. Few trails assault these soaring walls, but the valley path is a delight of insect jungles, wild blackberries and raspberries hanging heavy on either side. There’s camping to be had on the right bank of the river opposite Le Bourg, and gîte accommodation at Le Casset. But at La Chapelle there’s plenty of both as well as modest hotels, a good store and a restaurant or two. Although it’s only a small village, La Chapelle makes a reasonable base from which to explore the surrounding mountains and their glens. The boundary of the Parc National des Écrins runs through the valley and cuts across the southern flank of L’Olan, a huge mountain block to the north. From Les Portes, a hamlet just to the south of La Chapelle, a good view is to be had of that mountain block opposite.

From the northern outskirts of La Chapelle an invigorating walk leads up to Refuge de l’Olan (2344m), crosses Pas de l’Olan another 200 metres higher, then heads westward to Col de Colombes (2423m) and Lac de Lautier before descending to Refuge des Souffles by way of Col des Clochettes. The hut is set upon a sun-trap of hillside way above Villar-Loubière where the Val Gaudémar makes its leftward curve. To the west, across a vast green bowl of hillside, another path can be seen snaking up to the Col de la Vaurze, by which access is provided to Le Désert from Val Gaudémar.

Val Jouffrey

While the southern slopes of L’Olan fall into Val Gaudémar, its western side drains to a narrow glen that becomes the Val Jouffrey. This glen, with the waters of the Bonne river flowing through, turns distinctly pastoral lower down around Le Désert, a hamlet that, despite providing basic dortoir accommodation for walkers passing through, retains its traditional farming values with haybarns and cattle byres crowding the alleyways. Below the hamlet the valley slopes off to Les Faures, La Chalp and La Chapelle-en-Valjouffrey where the Béranger glen enters from the north, but upstream a farm road continues beyond Le Désert as far as the Cascade de la Pisse. A walker’s trail continues from there, following the stream all the way to the CAF hut, Refuge de Fond Turbat, built in a wild combe below L’Olan.

The valley of the Béranger torrent that joins the Bonne at La Chapelle-en-Valjouffrey is shorter than its neighbour, but it is every bit as charming, and well protected under the auspices of both the National Park and its own Réserve Naturelle du Béranger. There’s only one very small village in that glen. Valsenestre is a pretty little summer-only hamlet whose houses are almost clinically neat, with troughs of geraniums and petunias at every window and water gushing from fountains at practically every corner. There’s a gîte in the village with overflow accommodation in a nearby building. The head of its valley is formed by a cirque topped by Pointe Swan, seen through a screen of pine and larchwoods not far away to the east, while a lesser corrie invites interest to the north, the Vallon de Valsenestre. Trails give an opportunity to study both from close quarters. In addition there’s a path that climbs into the Combe Guyon north-west of Valsenestre, to Lac Labarre, 1100 metres above the village, with a continuation that goes up to a col with a spur path tracing a ridge to the summit of Tête de Rame. It’s an undeniably attractive yet challenging patch of country.

The road which serves Valsenestre breaks away from that which goes to Le Désert at La Chapelle. Down valley it reaches Entraigues at another junction of valleys. Here the Bonne cuts away to the south-west, eventually to link up with the Severaisse on its way to Grenoble, while from the north flows the Maisanne. The D526 road heads along the latter valley and, crossing Col d’Ornon, twists into the Romanche valley a short distance downstream of Bourg d’Oisans.

That route, of course, is for the motorist. Our walker meanwhile has a choice of mountain paths that will link Le Désert, Valsenestre and Bourg d’Oisans by more strenuous but far more rewarding ways, and in so doing provide a series of tremendous panoramas to enjoy hour after hour. The following outline circuit of the massif provides the key to this western edge of the Écrins, as to the rest of the district. It is the GR54, widely known as the Tour de l’Oisans.

Tour de l’Oisans

This is not a mountain tour to dismiss lightly. Although of similar scale and distance to the better-known Tour du Mont Blanc, and being possible to walk in nine or ten days, as is the TMB, similarities end there. GR54 is more strenuous, more demanding and with a much greater sense of remoteness than will be experienced around Mont Blanc. Routes to and from some of the of the ridges crossed by these passes are so narrow that one could sit astride them with legs hanging on either side. It’s a wild district, with many inner glens that are seductively untamed, uninhabited and where the mists of morning and evening spin webs of enchantment.

But mountain walkers with experience of multi-day journeys in other Alpine regions will find in the Écrins massif as much scenic variety and diversity of landscape as they could possibly wish. Huts, gîtes d’étape or modest hotels will be found at the end of every stage, and in almost every valley and glen visited there will be temptations to stray from the waymarked route in order to explore further. For surely to walk round the Tour de l’Oisans will be enough to deepen one’s love of the district and ensure that a return visit becomes a subsconscious demand. The challenge and rewards of such a walk, and dreams conjured for the future, are met in equal measure.

As the western gateway to the Oisans, the little town of Bourg d’Oisans makes an obvious and convenient base from which to begin the tour. Served by bus from Grenoble its shops can supply guidebooks and maps of the region, as well as foodstuffs to fill a rucksack for several days on the trail. Not that such provisioning is necessary, other than for the determined backpacker, for most of the early stages, at least, have an opportunity to buy a few basic items of food to eat on the hoof, while meals will be supplied at each overnight lodging.

Bourg d’Oisans to Besse-en-Oisans

The Tour de l’Oisans is usually tackled in a clockwise direction, and on this, as on most long mountain treks, it is advisable to make an early start to each stage of the walk, especially as summer temperatures in this southerly range can soar through the day. By setting out early it’s possible to make height and distance before the day grows too warm. And nowhere on the Tour de l’Oisans is this advice more apt than on the very first stage, for having crossed the Romanche from Bourg, waymarks lead the ‘trail’ up a steep slab wall from one narrow shelf to the next, at such an angle as to have you gasping from the sudden exertion.

It’s not all like that, of course, and before long the gradient eases, but then the way heads up through forest ankle deep in pine cones and the dried needles of past decades, and the sweat starts running again. There is some road walking here and there, but at the hamlet of Le Rosay a narrow trail strikes off across rough meadows with views to Alpe d’Huez, then plunges steeply to the Sarenne, here a clear stream dancing through forest in a tight wedge of a valley. Some walkers tackling the Tour de l’Oisans choose to avoid the exertions of this initial stage by taking bus or taxi to Alpe d’Huez, then walking along the GR549 which follows a dirt road into the valley of the Sarenne to join the main route of GR54. But by doing so they miss an old Roman bridge, moss-cushioned walls of a one-time mill, and the pleasures (as well as the pains) of the first stretch of the trail.

The first two days are spent high above the Romanche valley heading roughly west to east across minor spurs that seem anything but minor to the walker fresh into the mountains after a lowland winter. They’re long days too and it’s important to settle to an even pace that gently devours both time and distance before coming to the big country that will challenge your fitness in no uncertain manner. The map shows this initial stage as crossing Col de Sarenne, more than 1200 metres higher than Bourg d’Oisans. That crossing, however, is straightforward, for there’s a metalled road over it and the approach is made through the easy valley of the Sarenne stream on a dirt track that allows progress to be made without undue effort. Once over the col a path breaks away for a steep descent to the twin villages of Clavans-le-Haut and Clavans-le-Bas caught in a knuckle of valley tilted to drain south-south-west into the Romanche. Instead of descending with the valley, however, our route drops to the river (the Ferrand) immediately below Clavans-le-Bas, then climbs steeply on the eastern side to gain a spur beyond which the charming village of Besse-en-Oisans faces south from a sunny slope of pasture. At the end of a nine-hour walking day its charms are more than welcome.

Besse-en-Oisans to La Grave

Besse has a reasonable amount of accommodation, a couple of small foodstores, and a campsite about one kilometre beyond the village. The scenery is hardly Alpine. Groves of silver birch line the stream. Grass slopes rise behind the village and sweep below it too, and the next day’s stage spends the first two hours on an ascent of big green hills to the east. Once Col Bichet (2245m) is reached, though, real mountains are in view and the landscape grows not only in stature but in grandeur too.

Col Bichet is found a little south-west of Refuge du Rif Tor with a large wooden cross nearby. All around spreads a scene of pastoral ease, but these pasturelands form a marked contrast to the upthrust of La Meije and Le Rateau whose glaciers dazzle out to the south-east, while to the north-east the Aiguilles de la Soussaz and du Goléon show brazen horns, and north-west Les Grandes Rousses provide a distant barrier of snow above more grass-bound hillsides.

Given time it would be worth diverting here from the Tour de l’Oisans in order to explore country north and east of Col Bichet. Trails entice from the map and assorted tours of a day or more could so easily be created. It’s all good walking country, and from high viewpoints major peaks of the Écrins can be seen as crenellations of rock, ice and snow on the southern horizon.

On the eastern side of the pastureland bowl Col du Souchet (2365m) guards the entrance to the so-called Plateau de Paris which plunges from its southern lip into the depths of the Romanche valley. The GR54 crosses the grassland to it, and midway between Col Bichet and Col du Souchet is met by a variant path that has made a 1200 metre climb from Mizöen. The official Tour de l’Oisans skirts the northern edge of the Plateau de Paris, but two tarns (Lacs Noir and Lérié) lie south of the trail in such exquisite country and with such lovely views, that given decent weather conditions no walker should be so devoted to the main GR54 as to miss an opportunity to stray to them. The diversion is not a lengthy one, but the drawing power of the scenes offered from both lake shores is such that an hour or more could easily be devoted to enjoyment of each. Both are as rich in alpine flowers as they are in visual stimulation, while the tarns provide double value with a mirror image of Meije and Rateau whenever the breeze dies and the waters still to a sheen.

Lac Lérié on the Plateau de Paris provides a foreground to views of La Meije and Le Râteau

The continuing route of GR54 descends interminably to Le Chazelet, a village perched on a hillside shelf above a tributary glen, then swings steeply down to Les Terraces and at last to La Grave in the Romanche valley below the north face of La Meije. With its hotels and campsites La Grave makes an obvious overnight halt, although being on a major road that comes down from Col du Lautaret makes for a noisy contrast to the peace of the hills experienced thus far.

La Grave to Le Casset

Above La Grave the upper Romanche valley is explored by the Tour de l’Oisans after an initial crossing of a wooded spur on the left bank. Crossing that spur involves a 300 metre climb followed by a descent to the river opposite Villar d’Arêne. Thereafter the way traces the river among silver birch and thickets of alder along the very boundaries of the National Park. The Park boundaries then desert the valley bed, while the GR54 continues now on the true right bank as the valley itself is squeezed by converging walls to east and west.

The valley is squeezed to a narrow defile, and all mountain views are foreshortened to a grey looming presence. The path now begins to climb; there’s a cascade pouring from the left, a stream surging through another defile off to the right, and zig-zags mount to a sudden open pastureland in a secretive upper valley whose mountain walls now lean back and appear far more friendly and approachable. In these pastures, where the valley forks, Refuge de l’Alpe de Villar d’Arêne offers welcome refreshment after a good morning’s exercise, and with temptations to call a halt in order to explore the two glens accessible from it. One has been carved out between Pic Gaspard and La Grande Ruine, the other between La Grande Ruine and Roche Faurio; a land of rock, ice and glacial moraines.

South-east of the refuge the trail meanders over more ruffled pastures before mounting the final short stretch below a huge wall of terminal moraine to reach Col d’Arsine (2340m), a broad saddle, drab and desolate with the Glacier d’Arsine above to the right and a limited funnel view ahead. That view allows no hint of the joys of the descent to come. But on the way down to the Guisane valley the path leads beside milky glacial streams, over flower-rich hillsides, a steep plunge to Lac de la Douche followed by forest shade; pleasures in almost every step.

Le Casset to Vallouise

The valley is reached at the small village of Le Casset where there’s gîte accommodation, while less than an hour further downstream Monêtier-les-Bains offers more choice with a variety of hotels. Making a broad moat along the north-eastern side of the Écrins massif, the Guisane valley is only briefly touched upon by the Tour de l’Oisans, although its devotion to the ski industry makes sure its presence is felt even when you’ve turned your back to it. The waymarked trail heads south out of Monêtier, climbing through forest, then in a narrow glen drained by the Torrent de la Selle whose simple delights are rudely interrupted by ski tows and bulldozed pistes on the way to Col de l’Eychauda. Once at the col there’s still no imminent means of escape, for this barren spot merely shows a continuation of broad scarred pistes, and in the desolate hanging valley just below on the south side more mechanical hoists litter the upper bowl.

But there are better things to come, and after scooting down the left-hand side of a great open bowl of mountainside you pass through a narrow cleft and enter a lower level devoid of ski clutter. Marmots shriek from boulder-rough slopes, big mountains tease from a distance, and gazing south the soft light of Mediterranean France floods every deeply-cut valley. In numerous zig-zags the path drops to the Vallon de Chambran, a flat-bottomed glen served by narrow road from the Vallouise. At its head the glen climbs in a curve to Lac de l’Eychauda, and walkers bound upon the Tour de l’Oisans will surely note how tempting that upper glen appears and lay plans for a return visit to explore it in more detail.

Below Chambran with its buvette, few rough buildings and a tiny unadorned chapel, a narrow path descends alongside the Eychauda stream, then forks. The main trail continues south and eventually gains the growing resort village of Vallouise, while an alternative swings back towards the north-west to the mountaineering hamlet of Ailefroide. The Vallouise trail is that adopted by GR54, but it would be a shame to miss the opportunity to enjoy a near view of Mont Pelvoux and Barre des Écrins, having come so close, and with a day or two to spare there’s majestic Alpine country to explore above Ailefroide; a wild and glorious land of soaring rock walls daubed with snow and with glaciers carving from them.

Ailefroide has two hotels, a gîte d’étape and campsites, but walkers with energy to spare could push on further upvalley to Refuge Cézanne below the terminal moraines of Glacier Noir and Glacier Blanc, in readiness for deeper investigation next day, before returning down valley to Vallouise from where the Tour de l’Oisans can be resumed.

Vallouise to Refuge de Vallonpierre

Vallouise has character, despite the obvious intrusion of tourism. It has dormitory, as well as hotel, accommodation, a few shops and restaurants and bureaux de change. And it has access to big mountains. Below the village the rivers l’Onde and Ailefroide combine their mountain torrents and flow south-east to join the Durance. The Tour de l’Oisans declines the temptation to go with the flow down valley, and turns westward along the Val de l’Entre-les-Aygues (the valley of the Onde torrent) for about nine kilometres to the roadhead. Most of the valley is forested, and charmingly so. It’s a narrow shaft, but because of its configuration, is early lit by the morning sun. A third of the way upvalley from Vallouise a semi-official camping area is found on the right bank at Pont des Places; a convenient site for backpackers touring GR54.

The roadhead at Entre-les-Aygues overlooks gravel beds at the confluence of the Torrents des Bans and de la Selle. Our route crosses these, then mounts along the true left bank of the Vallon de la Selle, passes the Cabane (or Refuge) du Jas Lacroix and continues on a gentle gradient towards Pointe de Verdonne towering over the upper corrie. A short distance beyond the Jas Lacroix hut the trail bears left, crosses a stream and then climbs into a high basin of pastureland rimmed with jagged peaklets from which aprons of scree fan out. Climbing from one natural step to the next the landscape becomes more stony and wild, and the final ascent to Col de l’Aup Martin (2761m) consists of an exposed rising traverse of a slope of shifting black shale and grit. But the col, the highest point on the Tour de l’Oisans, produces some fine views, not only of the Vallon de la Selle and its walling peaks, but southward too, across the head of another glen whose amphitheatre mountains display broad bands of strata, and south-south-west where Pas de la Cavale marks the next immediate goal to be won.

On the Tour de l’Oisans, a group of trekkers cross ribs of rock below Col de Vallonpierre

A continuing narrow path edges round the steep mountainside on more scree and grit, crosses a ledge showered by a small cascade, and soon after comes to Pas de la Cavale to be followed by a long and wearisome descent of some 950 metres to the splendid Refuge du Pré de la Chaumette. Set in extensive pastures at a junction of valleys, the Chaumette refuge is a welcoming place at the end of a strenuous day’s trekking. It also marks the southern-most point of the Oisans circuit.

Behind the hut to the north is a short glen into which the GR54 climbs next day, a stage with three high passes to cross in order to reach the Val Gaudémar. First of these is Col de la Vallette (2668m), a bare windswept saddle with dramatic views on the final approach. From it the second col can be clearly seen just below Puy des Agneaux, and it only takes 40 minutes to walk from one to the other. The initial descent from the col, however, demands some care, but potential danger is soon passed, leaving just an easy stroll on a good, clear trail over grassland with a small pool in its midst, then a sharp twist up to Col de Gouiran (2597m).

It takes a little longer to gain the third pass from the second, than it did to gain Col de Gouiran from the first, but it should still be accomplished in less than an hour. Col de Vallonpierre (2607m) is a dip in a sharp ridge sweeping west of Le Sirac, the dominant mountain hereabouts, and is probably the narrowest pass of all those encountered on the tour, with excessively steep slopes plunging to north and south. In dry, snow-free conditions the descent from it is not as bad as at first appears, and you work a way down to the idyllically-situated Refuge de Vallonpierre without too much trouble.

Refuge de Vallonpierre to Le Désert

The Vallonpierre refuge stands on the north shore of a small tarn, gazing up at the soaring mass of Le Sirac. It’s a spellbinding situation for a refuge, with a contrast of smooth meadows, boulder slopes and gaunt mountains peering over all. Regrettably, walkers who spent the previous night at the Chaumette hut will reach Vallonpierre too early in the day to consider stopping – unless, that is, they have several days in hand.

Behind the hut the trail continues to descend in numerous windings; views are consistently fine, and at the foot of the zig-zags the way passes the entrance to a corrie on the right headed by Pic Jocelme, Pic de Bonvoisin and Pointe de Verdonne. There follows a gentle, fairly level stretch alongside the Severaisse with bilberries growing beside the trail, and two hours from Vallonpierre you come to the farmlike building of Refuge Xavier Blanc set in a glade of trees, boulders and shrubs near the head of the Val Gaudémar. A further hour and half, or two hours at most of easy valley walking – past farms being strangled by vegetation, through the little turf-roofed hamlet of Le Bourg and by-passing Le Casset (gîte d’étape) – will bring you to the village of La Chapelle-en-Valgaudémar where there are campsites, hotels, another gîte and foodstores – and temptations to delay progress in order to explore the neighbourhood. The map feeds that temptation with several side trails to follow and remote mountain huts to visit.

Down valley from La Chapelle, where the Val Gaudémar begins its south-westerly curve, the attractive huddle of Villar-Loubière marks another northerly turn for GR54. There is, however, an alternative route which goes almost due north from La Chapelle into a glen drained by the Torrent du Clot, curves left to cross Col de Colombes (2423m) and Col des Clochettes (2183m), and joins the main Tour de l’Oisans at Refuge des Souffles. The GR54 path from Villar-Loubière is a demanding one; not difficult or dangerous, but steep in places where it picks a route up the side of a ravine.

Beyond the refuge the trail swings north-west to cross an amphitheatre topped by Pic des Souffles. At first the path makes a belvedere across the steep flank of the mountain, then enters a broad pastureland basin before turning to the serious business of climbing the western side to Col de la Vaurze (2500m). This is another narrow pass, a brief gap in the south-west ridge of Pic des Souffles before it rises to Tête du Clotonnet, and a huge panorama provides ample reward for the effort of gaining it. Far off and way below, La Chapelle-en-Valgaudémar may be seen huddled in its deep green valley. Above that Le Sirac aids identification of Col de Vallonpierre, while to the east L’Olan, big and handsome, dominates with its bulk. The northern side of the pass appears somewhat forbidding, but more than 1200 metres below Le Désert lies in a cleft of a valley, with the next pass on the list, Col de Côte-Belle, almost due north of Le Désert’s rooftops.

It’s an unrelentingly steep descent to Le Désert, the few houses in sight almost all the way. But it’s an interesting route and the hamlet itself, on arrival, charms with its determination to remain a quintessential mountain-farm community. Its situation makes it an important staging-post on the Tour de l’Oisans, so there’s gîte accommodation, a small restaurant and modest foodstore to satisfy the needs of mountain walkers, but beyond that the hamlet is tied very much to the land with small fields outlined upvalley and hay meadows on both sides of the river.

Le Désert to Bourg d’Arud

The stage from Le Désert to Valsenestre is a short one. The two hamlets are similar in size and situation, and separated by Pic de Valsenestre, their streams coming together below La Chapelle-en-Valjouffrey. Whilst the crossing of Col de Côte-Belle is not unduly arduous, it’s no place to be caught by storm so, almost unique on the Tour de l’Oisans, in inclement weather it would be possible to walk from one to the other by a valley route all the way. Col de Côte-Belle is, however, a broad and grassy saddle and quite unlike most other passes on this circuit. From it the next pass, Col de la Muzelle, is seen ahead slightly east of north, and the descent to Valsenestre made memorable by an amazing variety of alpine flowers and aromatic herbs reminiscent more of Mediterranean regions than of the Alps. The final valley stroll into the hamlet goes through a forest of larch, pine and fir, fragrant on a hot summer’s afternoon.

After Valsenestre only one pass remains to be crossed on the Tour de l’Oisans. Though high, at 2613 metres Col de la Muzelle is not as high as some of those previously tackled, yet it has a character all its own. Little more than a gash in the ridge spreading west from Roche de la Muzelle, it retains its secrets until the very last. With more than 1300 metres to climb from Valsenestre, it also has the reputation of being the most difficult of all those tackled on GR54; the French guide warns about the dangers of attempting it in wet conditions, and the map uses symbols to indicate a ‘hazardous Alpine route’. Such a reputation may be well-founded under certain conditions, but most walkers on the Oisans circuit who have coped with all the previous passes should take it in their stride – unless snow is lying or a storm brewing, that is. It will take three hours or so to reach from the Valsenestre gîte on an approach that begins with a gently rising track through forest, but which then breaks away to tackle steep grass slopes that lead into a hanging valley flowing at right-angles to that which you’ve just left.

The ascent is straightforward until about 40 minutes below the col when a steep cone of black shale and grit has to be negotiated. There are faint signs of a path (or paths) working up this cone, and it should be possible to simply stomp your way up, emerging into a blast of wind, no doubt, that funnels through the narrow gap of the col itself. Behind to the south a grand vista displays the cols of Côte-Belle and Vaurze, and provides a true indication of the helter-skelter nature of the route thus far. Northward the green tarn of Lac de la Muzelle glimmers below a clutter of screes; far-off Les Grandes Rousses line the horizon, with the mid-distance laced in cableways from Les Deux Alpes.

From the col Refuge de la Muzelle is reached in little over an hour. Set on a slope of grassland overlooking its tarn, the hut has the appearance of a timber- and stone-built chalet, bright with flower boxes on its balcony, and with a simple shepherd’s hut nearby. From it the standard descent to Bourg d’Arud in the Vallée du Vénéon is a delightful two-hour jog down a series of tight zig-zags, passing several cascades, then alongside a stream before forest marks the final descent to l’Alleau on the opposite bank of the Vénéon to Bourg d’Arud.

Day 1:	Bourg d’Oisans – Col de Sarenne – Clavans-le-Haut – Clavans-le-Bas – Besse-en-Oisans
Day 2:	Besse-en-Oisans – Col Bichet – Col du Souchet – Lacs Noir & Lérié – Le Chazelet – La Grave
Day 3:	La Grave – Refuge de l’Alpe de Villar d’Arêne – Col d’Arsine – Le Casset – Monêtier-les-Bains
Day 4:	Monêtier – Col de l’Eychauda – Chambran – Ailefroide
Day 5:	Ailefroide – Vallouise
Day 6:	Vallouise – Cabane du Jas Lacroix – Col de l’Aup Martin – Pas de la Cavale – Refuge du Pré de la Chaumette
Day 7:	Refuge du Pré de la Chaumette – Col de la Vallette – Col de Gouiran – Col de Vallonpierre – Refuge de Vallonpierre – Refuge Xavier Blanc – La Chapelle-en-Valgaudémar
Day 8:	La Chapelle – Villar-Loubière – Refuge des Souffles (or La Chapelle – Col de Colombes – Col des Clochettes – Refuge des Souffles) – Col de la Vaurze – Le Désert
Day 9:	Le Désert – Col de Côte-Belle – Valsenestre
Day 10:	Valsenestre – Col de la Muzelle – Refuge de la Muzelle – Bourg d’Arud (or Refuge de la Muzelle – Col du Vallon – Lac Lauvitel – La Danchére)
Day 11:	Bourg d’Arud (or La Danchére) – Les Gauchoirs – Bourg d’Oisans
	The basic tour is reasonably well waymarked on mostly clear trails. Strong, fit walkers could achieve the circuit in about nine days, but there are many tempting options that would easily fill a fortnight’s holiday. Some crossings are high, remote and demanding, and should be not be attempted in adverse weather conditions. The best time to tackle it is from mid-July to October, but some huts can become very crowded during the French school holiday period.

But there is an alternative, longer route to the Vénéon that may be worth considering. This involves a climb of 400 metres or so to gain Col du Vallon just west of Refuge de la Muzelle. From the col a rocky landscape is negotiated in order to reach the northern shore of Lac Lauvitel – a magnificent tarn trapped in a deep well gouged out by a long-vanished glacier. From its northern shore the descent to La Danchère can be made by one of two paths, both of which are steep but uncomplicated. La Danchère has hotel accommodation, while Bourg d’Arud has a gîte d’étape and campsite, as well as hotel beds.

In order to complete the Oisans circuit, a final easy valley walk goes along the left bank of the Vénéon all the way to Bourg d’Oisans, partly in forest, sometimes over open pastureland, through one or two small village communities, and only on tarmac towards the very end. A fine circuit indeed.

Vercors

It is one of the most terrible and gruesome paths which I or any member of our party has ever trodden. There is a half-league of ladders to climb up and a league beside, but the summit is the most glorious place you ever saw. To give you a picture of the mountain, the summit has a circumference of nearly a league. It is a quarter of a league in length and a cross-bow shot in breadth, and is covered with beautiful pasture. Here we found a preserve of chamois which are destined to remain for eternity. With them were new-born young, of which we killed one by accident.

So wrote Antoine de Ville in a letter to the President of Grenoble after reaching the great flat crown of Mont Aiguille on 25 June 1492, the same year in which Columbus ‘discovered’ America. It was a remarkable achievement for the time, and even more astonishing that anyone should even dream of attempting to climb it, for Mont Aiguille, considered then to be one of the Seven Wonders of Dauphiné, looks impregnable, the summit bounded on all sides by near-vertical cliffs. No wonder it was known as Mont Inaccessible throughout the Middle Ages. Of course, today such walls provide a challenge to climbers, but 500 years ago there was no such sport as rock climbing, and mountains in general were looked upon with fear and dread. Be that as it may, de Ville, who was ordered by Charles VIII to climb it, was obviously not deterred, and with 10 companions including one of the king’s ladder- men, a professor of theology, two lawyers and a carpenter, not only scaled the mountain ‘by subtle means and engines’, but clearly loved what he found on top. The official report describes the meadow there as being larger than 40 men could mow in a day, and in addition to the chamois herd, they saw red-legged choughs and released some tame rabbits in the high pastures.

Mont Aiguille (2086m) was not climbed again until 1834 when Jean Liotard, a local shepherd, made the ascent solo and bare-footed after he found his nailed shoes made the climbing somewhat perilous. In 1878 the French Alpine Club secured what was thought to be the de Ville route with metal wires and pegs. Though these may have partly tamed the route, it remains impressive – as does the sight of this great table mountain rising from forest, pasture and scree in a series of gleaming limestone walls.

For many, Mont Aiguille has become the symbol of the Vercors. Although it is not the highest of the district (Le Grand Veymont, 2341m, claims that distinction), it is a truly astonishing sight, yet the attractive little mountains of the Pre-Alps are humble by comparison with the rugged peaks of the Écrins, for example, from whom they are separated by the Romanche and the Drac, and of course the great Mont Blanc massif whose snowfields are seen like a distant floating cloud from most of the higher summits.

First climbed in 1492, Mont Aiguille is the symbol of the Vercors

The northern chain of the Pre-Alps, of which the Vercors marks the southern extent, are predominantly limestone massifs that form a western line of defence to the Alps proper, and were produced by the same earth movements that gave birth to the Jura. Characterised by rocky obelisks, spires and molars, the Vercors is also deeply riven by impressive gorges and surrounded on all sides by steep, fortress-like crags. A large portion is protected as a Parc Régional, while the uninhabited Haut Plateau is a special nature reserve.

Roughly triangular in shape, with Grenoble at its north-eastern apex, the Vercors is enclosed by the Isère, the Drôme and the Drac. A high-level valley drained by the Vernaison and Romayère rivers makes a north-south divide through the centre of the massif, while the deep Gorges de la Bourne slice the countryside between Villard-de-Lans and Pont-en-Royans with vast crags that sometimes appear gold-coloured, sometimes white, ochre, steel grey or even black. The remainder of the Vercors consists of a complex series of plateaux with precipitous limestone escarpments, the dense woodland cover thinning to open grassland grazed by large flocks of sheep as height is gained. In the east the landscape is tilted, with peaks rising in a wave-like crest that terminates in an almost unbroken line of cliffs stretching for something like 80 kilometres from the outskirts of Grenoble to the Col de Menée.

Walking in the Vercors

Walking in the Vercors has its own special appeal. Brian Evans, who has made a number of tours there in winter as well as in summer, enumerated some of the attractions in a chapter published in Classic Walks in the Alps. He wrote of ‘... broad views over roll upon roll of forest and clearing. Snow-covered Alpine giants sparkle to the east, whilst here is dry limestone with rocky paths which twist among tiny tangled pines.’ Elsewhere he described ‘paths [which] traverse their length at different levels, amongst forest or higher on more open crests. White ribbons of limestone crags dance along for miles. It is still possible to find solitude and the best areas are not ruined by commercialism.’ Being limestone and riddled with pits, much of the high land is dry in summer; some of the water sources are sporadic, some distinctly feeble, and anyone making a multi-day traverse or circuit will find their routes influenced by the availability of drinking water. The 1:25,000 maps of the area indicate sources with a small symbol. June and July are said to be the best months, while September (often a good month in the high Alps) can be very difficult in the Vercors following a long dry summer. Camping is forbidden in the Hauts Plateaux nature reserve, but a chain of rather simple huts has been established for backpackers – although potential users should expect no more than the most basic of facilities.

Compared to most other areas described in this book, walking in the Vercors is quite modest, for instead of a constant steep switchback from valley to col and back to valley again, once up on the plateau there are large sections where gentle gradients and almost level walking can be enjoyed. There are walkers’ ways onto the plateau from a choice of villages, and day trips are easily arranged. Longer, waymarked Grandes Randonnées routes exist such as GR9, and the GR91 which makes a traverse of the high plateau, or the north-south traverse by the Balcon Est which provides a marvellous opportunity to understand the true nature of the Vercors. This latter route is said to offer ‘a sporting challenge’ for it contains several exposed sections, especially where steep and awkward ravines are crossed, and if tackled early in the season carrying an ice-axe is recommended. On such multi-day routes walkers will need to carry supplies as there are few opportunities to drop down to a village with a foodstore.

Dauphiné

Location:

Entirely in France. North of the Maritime Alps, and to the south of the Graian Alps. The Pre-Alps range of the Vercors is on the western edge; Queyras on the south-east, and Massif des Écrins midway between the Queyras and Vanoise.

Principal valleys:

In the Écrins, these are Vallées du Vénéon, Romanche, Guisane and Durance, Vallouise and Val Gaudémar. The main Queyras valleys are those of the Guil, Bouchet, Cristillan and Mélezet, while those of the Vernaison, Romayère and Bourne represent the Vercors.

Principal peaks:

Barre des Écrins (4102m), La Meije (3982m), L’Ailefroide (3954m), Mont Pelvoux (3943m) are the major peaks of the Écrins; Monte Viso (3841m) in the Cottian Alps; Pic de Rochebrune (3320m), Grand Glaiza (3293m) and Le Pain de Sucre (3208m) in the Queyras; Le Grand Veymont (2341m) and Mont Aiguille (2086m) in the Vercors.

Centres:

Bourg d’Oisans, La Grave, Vallouise, Ailefroide, La Chapelle-en-Valgaudémar, Bourg d’Arud, St-Christophe and La Bérarde in the Massif des Écrins. Guillestre, Ceillac, St-Véran and Abriès in the Queyras. Grenoble, Villard-de-Lans and Pont-en-Royans for the Vercors.

Huts:

Plenty of huts in the Queyras and Écrins for walkers and climbers, mostly run by the CAF, but others privately owned. A number of valley bases have gîtes d’étape that are useful. In the Vercors refuges built by the PRV are very simple and provide only basic facilities.

Access:

By rail or bus to Grenoble. Buses run from Grenoble into the Écrins region via Bourg d’Oisans, and to the Vercors via Villard-de-Lans. The Queyras region is best approached by train to Montdauphin-Guillestre (on the Briançon line) from where buses serve the central Queyras. Nearest airport – Lyon.

Maps:

The 1:50,000 sheet Écrins, published by Rando Éditions, covers most of the Écrins National Park, and is also worth having by trekkers following the Tour of the Oisans. Otherwise use the IGN Serie Bleu at 1:25,000 for both the Écrins and Queyras.

Guidebooks:

Tour of the Oisans: the GR54 by Kev Reynolds (Cicerone Press) describes this challenging multi-day route in 10 stages.

The Écrins National Park by Kev Reynolds (Cicerone Press) contains a selection of 70 of the best walking routes.

Tour of the Queyras by Alan Castle (Cicerone Press) describes this circular route. Walking the Alpine Parks of France & Northwest Italy by Marcia R. Lieberman (Cordee/The Mountaineers) includes a number of walks in the Écrins and Queyras.

Other reading:

The Outdoor Traveler’s Guide to The Alps by Marcia R. Lieberman (Stewart, Tabori & Chang; New York, 1991) provides an up-to-date view of selected valleys in the Queyras and Écrins.

The Alps by R. L. G. Irving (Batsford, 1939) contains a brief sample of the region.

Scrambles Amongst the Alps by Edward Whymper (John Murray – various editions) for a pioneer’s perspective.

Outline Sketches in the High Alps of Dauphiné by T. G. Bonney (Longmans, 1865). Illustrated by his own sketches, in this book Bonney provides an interesting historical view of the region in the mid-nineteenth century.

Mountaineering Holiday by F. S. Smythe (Hodder & Stoughton, 1940) describes a number of pre-war climbs in the Dauphiné.

Classic Walks in Europe edited by Walt Unsworth (Oxford Illustrated Press, 1987) has a chapter by Andrew Harper on the Tour de l’Oisans, and another by Brian Evans which describes a traverse of the Vercors by the Balcon Est.

Classic Walks in the Alps by Kev Reynolds (Oxford Illustrated Press, 1991) contains a chapter on a winter traverse of the Vercors high plateau, also written by Brian Evans.

Walking & Climbing in the Alps by Stefano Ardito (Swan Hill Press, 1995) describes a traverse of the Vercors similar to the Evans route mentioned above.

The Mountains of Europe by Kev Reynolds (Oxford Illustrated Press, 1990) contains a good background chapter by John Brailsford.

Alpine Points of View by Kev Reynolds (Cicerone Press) has a number of full-colour photographs of the Écrins region, plus descriptive text.

Cascade de la Sarenne on the outskirts of Bourg d’Oisans