LITMIR.BIZ

      Nearing the end of the Crochues traverse (Alpine Mountaineering, Route 5)

      This is intended to be a guide to introduce you to lots of different activities, sending you in the right direction, giving you the basics but not a comprehensive guide to each activity. It is weighted towards hill walking at many different levels, but there is also plenty of information regarding travel on two wheels and for those who want to scale the cliffs of the region by whatever means. Local guidebooks for each activity are mentioned, where available.

      If you’re coming to Chamonix with your family or a group of friends with different interests, or if you yourself fancy branching out and trying lots of adventures in the mountains rather than concentrating on one, then this is the book to buy.

      Grades and timings

      The walks are graded as Alpine Mountaineering, Adventure, Classic, Hut and Family. No further grades are given (apart from for Alpine Mountaineering routes); but each walk has distance (except Alpine Mountaineering) and altitude gain and you’ll get a good idea of what’s involved from the category a walk falls into and from information given in the text.

      Timings are given for walks, but these are a guideline only. Do not treat the timings as a challenge. They are generally based on an ascent of 300m per hour or around 4km an hour.

      For mountain biking the timings are based on those given in local information. For climbing timings are not appropriate, as the routes in this guide are generally one pitch or very short multi-pitch. The times given for via ferrata come from local information.

      Road biking is so variable in speed that timings are not really possible. I know from personal experience that cyclists have very different speeds, not only for ascents but also for descents, so any attempt to give a timing seems to be of no real use. Distances and altitudes are given and this should be enough to calculate whether you’ll be back for lunch or should take a picnic.

      Maps

      The French Institut Géographique National Top 25 series maps are the best for the activities described here. The ones needed are:

      A 1:50,000 map is useful to get an overview of the region, and for the road biking routes. The whole area is covered by the IGN Rando Editions map A1 Alpes Pays du Mont Blanc.

      If you use a GPS, programme it to datum WGS84 and grid system UTM/UPS otherwise all grid references will be inaccurate.

      Referred to as cable cars, chairlifts or gondolas, lifts are written in French as téléphérique, télésiège and télécabine and shown with a symbol on the maps.

      Equipment