The remarks below apply more particularly to the mountain walks section, but the navigation hints are the same for all the sports described on this site. You can use these pages as you will, but all commercial use is prohibited.
Contents
The Maurienne Valley is not only Vanoise or Haute-Maurienne. It would be a mistake to forget its lower and central parts because they do not boast either a preserved park, or vast glaciers. This region has rarely been covered by guidebooks and has for a long time been ignored by the visiting walker. The author of this mountain walks "webguide", who has been living in this valley for twenty-seven years and was for nine years President of the Maurienne section of the French Alpine Club, thought that it would only be fair to make the Maurienne Valley the subject of one of the first Internet mountain sports webguide.
As for cycling, take the great cols that any cyclist could wish to climb: how many of them actually are in Maurienne?
Which French region or school establishment has, before Lycée Paul Héroult in St Jean de Maurienne, integrated rock climbing to its school cursus? Where else are there so many high-quality via ferrata? Where can one find so many almost perfectly preserved valleys for ski-mountaineering, as for example the Villards valleys? Maurienne has a lot of offer, but has had to fight to change a negative image that now definitely belongs to the past. If this webguide can convince some of you to come and visit us, we will not have wasted our time and you will be very welcome.
This webguide is composed of three "layers". The "Mountain Sports" page and its "Mountain Walks" link take you to a "general map" , i.e. Maurienne from Modane to Aiguebelle (for the time being, but more to come). It gives access to ten so-called "local maps":
and going back down the valley on the Arc's right bank:
You can reach the above sectors by clicking on the links , but it would be a pity, if you are not familiar with the valley, to go directly to the sites without a preliminary survey of the layout of the region, by going from sector to sector in the ten 3D local maps, which are all linked together. On the sites themselves, you can accede to the written route descriptions by clicking on the red lines that represent the described walks. Each local map contains from one to six or seven walks. If you print the page, you will have them all.
The via ferrata webguide contains all the routes that can be climbed today. Their equipment is recent and offers safe climbs.
The photos are almost all in reduced format. You can choose to enlarge them by clicking on the vignettes. You will get a much better picture and additional information.
This webguide is of course unfinished and will always be so, as mountains and places slowly change, but unlike any printed guidebook, the pages will "change along with the changes" and adapt to new situations. With your observations and contributions, these pages will grow, and in so doing will put forth a much more positive image of our valley, an image that Maurienne deserves and has been too long in coming.
This webguide is interactive, like almost anything on the web. On each page, next to the map, you can find a direct e-mail link to the author("E-Mail"). The guide will always be kept up-to-date if you communicate to the authors the changes or errors that you may notice as you you are doing the walks. Any suggestion that would improve the quality of the routes will be welcome and (after some checking out) will be integrated to the guide. You can also ask questions, communicate your impressions or moods as you discover the walks.
The walks described in these pages use mountain paths, sometimes even above 3000m. Any route that would involve glacier or rock climbing passages has been excluded (except L'Etendard). Low altitude walks, which can be done at almost any season of the year, have not been left aside, for example in the vicinity of the major towns. Some passages, however, and not necessarily very high ones, require caution, or the courage to turn back if they happen to be dangerous. These special sections will be written in red in the text.
Nowhere in Maurienne will you find standardized footpaths with abundant fluorescent markings, where the walkers are taken by the hand all the way to their destination and cannot build up any sort of mountaineering experience. Can one learn how to use a map if one is taken from signpost to marker, without ever having to take decisions? What will happen when unexpected conditions will make that help invisible?
Practical as it may be, this webguide must be used along with a map. The altitude references and place names come from IGN TOP 25 maps. They simply cannot be done without. We want to emphasize that this webguide's drawn maps can only at best be considered as "artistic" renditions of the sites and have no geographic accuracy of any sort. Moreover, some routes do not use paths at all.
Some of the described routes link several local maps together. Sometimes it is possible to find footpath combinations and create a long-distance trail that is actually much better than its individual subsections taken separately. Do not try the superb Modane to Montsapey traverse if you are under-trained, or if your experience of mountain terrain is insufficient or too recent. There are other examples, like the more civilized Tour du Thabor (GR 57).
Equipment and general information
You won't find in these pages any advice as to individual mountaineering and walking equipment. Others have done it better than we ever could. Let us only stress that good-quality hiking boots are necessary almost everywhere. Sneakers can be dangerous on most of the paths described in this webguide. As to the rest of your equipment, feel free to use whatever you want. Skiing poles are great! Cellular phones are a pity!
If you try a via ferrata, the basic security gear is indispensable: hard hat, sit-harness, slings with shock-absorbers and cleated boots. Apart from the height and exposure, some passages (marked as "very difficult") will offer very athletic passages that the ordinary mountain walker may not be ready to tackle.
Various Information
CAF Maurienne (French Alpine Club Section) BP19 73300 St Jean de Maurienne 04 79 64 35 31
Maurienne Escalade (Rock Climbing) 04 79 56 66 09 (Association Cantonale d'Animation)
Société Prisme (climbing walls and via ferrata, installation and maintenance) 04 79 83 27 72
Météo Savoie Bourg St Maurice 08 36 68 02 73
| External links : Alpinisme.com | |
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The authors:
Jean-François Cerles (mountain walks, via ferrata and climbs)
Jean-Pierre Derrier (cycling, VTT and via ferrata)
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Mountain Sports - Mountain Walks