The “Mountaineering Villages” label awarded to the municipality of Vallouise-Pelvoux aims to promote and re-enchant mountaineering in the Écrins and thus to pass on Alpine traditions to new generations while raising awareness of the fragility of the natural environment.

Mountaineering is now listed as an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO. Our territory has benefited from it thanks to the famous peaks located in Vallouise (Barre des Écrins, Dôme des Écrins, Roche Faurio, les Agneaux, the Ailefroide orientale…) and also thanks to the very strong presence of the history of mountaineering on the territory of the Pays des Écrins.

A real base camp for climbing and mountaineering, Ailefroide will seduce you with its authenticity, charm and tranquility in the heart of the mountains and the Écrins National Park.

Thanks to the work of the Écrins guides and guides’ office, a bouldering school site has been marked and signposted on Ailefroide as well as the small rocky course of the Pic des Aupillous ridge .These sectors have been signposted to allow younger generations and beginners to access mountaineering more easily.

Here are the 2 sites set up for this purpose in the municipality of Vallouise-Pelvoux as part of this project:

• the Ailefroide bouldering site on the road leading to the Sélé refuge
• the Pic des Aupillous ridge above the Bans refuge in the Entraygues valley

Other climbing schools are also available in the area in Champcella, Ailefroide, Saint-Martin-de-Queyrières (Rocher Baron), Prelle and Argentière La-Bessée.

These sites allow beginners to learn the techniques of climbing to then be able to practice their first mountaineering race.

You can find all the climbing school sites in the Écrins on the “ESCALADE BRIANCON CLIMBS 2022” guidebook.

You can download the “Topo booklet mountaineering villages” below and find it in paper version in our tourist information offices.

A massif and 7 villages to discover around mountaineering. These villages are real base camps, starting points for great mountaineering races to emblematic peaks. They are places of preparation for adventure, walking or hiking, towards one of the particularities of the massif: a summit, a waterfall or a spectacular viewpoint. Going to the mountaineering villages of the Écrins is a bit like disconnecting from society and reconnecting with nature in the mountains. These are places in which conviviality and sharing are the reflection of mountain identity and traditions

Starting from the mountaineering village of Vallouise-Pelvoux and Ailefroide, you can take a car and hike tour to each site, around the 7 mountaineering villages of the Écrins.

Here are the other stages that benefit from the “Mountaineering Villages” label and on which you will discover magnificent places through hikes accessible to all or through high mountain races accompanied by a guide:

• Vallouise-Pelvoux and Ailfroide with the Pré de Madame Carle and its famous legend, the Glacier Blanc and the Glacier Noir, the climbing sites of Ailefroide;
• Le Casset in the commune of Le Monêtier-les-Bains with the departure for the valleys of the Grand and Petit Tabuc, with one of the accesses to the summit of the Agneaux, the lake of the shower and the Réou d’Arsine, the via-ferrata of the Aiguillette du Lauzet and the Col du Lautaret;
• Villar d’Arène with the famous Alpine Garden of the Col du Lautaret and the Pontet lake;
• La Grave with its famous mythical peaks, its cable car, the Girose glacier, the Emparis plateau, the perch of the Chazelet observatory;
• Saint-Christophe-en-Oisans and La Bérarde; the Pisse waterfall and the Valsenestre valley;
• Le Désert-en-Valjouffrey with the unmissable “Hameau du désert” ;
• La Chapelle-en-Valgaudemar with the Gionerbnay refuge, the waterfall of the veil of the bride, the lake of Lauzon and the Oulles du diable.
  

Discover these places of transmission in which the culture of mountaineering has lived for generations.

Each village is unique and composes with its natural environment. As you roam, you will be amazed by the simple beauty of thatched roofs, larch cladding, vaults, arcades, isolated cellars, old cut tuff or blue limestone stones, fountains and washhouses, mills and ovens. You will appreciate the freshness of the cobbled streets punctuated by modest religious buildings.

Planted in the high mountains, the mountaineering villages of the Écrins are on the front line of global warming : retreating glaciers, rock slides, erosion, torrential floods, change in vegetation… Above all, they are within walking distance of an incredible bio-diversity. More than 4,500 animal and plant species are recorded there such as the ibex, the chamois, the rock ptarmigan, the bearded vulture, some discreet and endangered insects such as the torrent locust, of course conifers, the queen of the Alps or 4 species of genepi including the extremely rare glacier genepi.