Chamonix Guide books

I have a hard time finding guide books and info on alpine rock climbing in Chamonix France.... As this is the birth place of alpine climbing there should be plenty of it out there....

I am an Acadian from eastern Canada, so the info can be French or English

Cheers

Here are some guidebooks that I believe contain some info on rock climbing (alpine or not) around Chamonix:

• Crag Climbs In Chamonix, François Burnier and Dominique Potard (2005)
• La Chaîne Du Mont-Blanc, sélection de voies, François Labande (2005, 2 volumes)
• Face Au Mont-Blanc : Les Aiguilles Rouges 1 Du Brévent Aux Dalles De Chézerys, Michel Piola (2008)
• Envers des Aiguilles - Massif du Mont Blanc, Michel Piola (2006)
• Ascensions Au Pays Du Mont-Blanc, Jean-Louis Laroche et Florence Lelong (2000)

I am not familiar with any of these, so can't make any recommendation.

Also check out:
camptocamp.org/
To search for routes:
camptocamp.org/routes/filter
An example of search results:
camptocamp.org/routes/list/…

I spent about 3 weeks in Chamonix in March-April of this year. Everyone seems to agree that "Rock, Ice, and Mixed" by Francois Damilano is the best guidebook out there. (Or "Neige, Glace et Mixte" if you want it in French).

Any climbing or sport shop you enter will have it. It comes in 2 volumes and is about €24 EACH per volume - it's expensive.

Thanks a lot guy's this is great beta!!!

What type of routes are you looking for the Chamonix area (alpine, alpine sport, sport, trad, cragging, etc.) and in what grade range? I have about 20 guide books for the Chamonix/Val D'Aosta and surrounding areas...happy to pass along titles once I get back home to the library and know a little more about what you're looking for.

Chamonix is spectacular, you're gonna love it!

I have the Griffith book (#1) that I will sell if you are interested. It's in nearly perfect shape.

The Damilano books are the standard, I think...you could also email one of the American guides living over there for some info/beta: Miles & Liz Smart (smartguides.com) or Keith Garvey. Michael Silitch and the Banks brothers, too. They'd help you out, I'm sure.

ChamonixInsider.com has good info, too, as well as a list of guides. The dude who runs it is Trey Cook. email him and he'll set you straight. He's an American, been there 15 or so years now.

Good luck, brudda! RC

Joe, we are gonna be climbing Alpine rock\ice, mostly trad but not afraid to clip a few bolts lol... for trad we will got up to 5.10+ ish and sport up to 5.11+/5.12-... thanks for the info!!

Theriault wrote:Joe, we are gonna be climbing Alpine rock\ice, mostly trad but not afraid to clip a few bolts lol... for trad we will got up to 5.10+ ish and sport up to 5.11+/5.12-... thanks for the info!!

Been away climbing for a few days, so just got the opportunity to go through the guidebooks last night. I'd suggest:

Alpine Ice/Rock:

Mont Blanc Massif Vol 1 Selected Climbs (Lindsay Griffin)
The Mont Blanc Range (Laroche/Lelong)
Envers des Aiguilles (Michel Piola)
Ascensions au pays du Mont Blanc (Laroche/Lelong)
Snow Ice and Mixed Vol 1 and 2 (Damilano)

Alpine Sport/Sport:

Vallee de l'Arve (Gilles Brunot)
Plaisir Sud and Plaisir West (Jurg von Kanel - can be tough to find but there's a couple of shops in Chamonix that might have copies)
6A Max Vol 1 (Brass/Vallot)
Arrampicare a Hone, Bard & Pontboset (Tito Sacchet)
Mani Nude 2 (Patrick Raspo)
Aiguilles Rouge 1 (Michel Piola)
Aiguilles Rouge (Dulac/Perroux)

Sport Climbing/Cragging:

Crag Climbs in Chamonix (Burnier/Potard)

Hope that helps and feel free to contact me through my profile page if you have any questions.

Resurrecting this thread for our upcoming trip in June. We'll have ~2 weeks free to climb in SE France (visiting relative in Annecy) and are mainly interested in long multipitch easyish (5.7-9 - 5a-5c?) trad.

We don't really do snow or like the cold much. That said, is it worth our while to get up to one of the huts for a few nights? Is there fun climbing up high that doesn't involve ice/snow?

Also, are any of those guidebooks available in the US with any ease? would be nice to do some planning pre-arrival.

We'd also consider heading to other areas in France (Riviera?), Italy or Switzerland - just want to climb in beautiful locations!

All tips and advice welcome and thanks!

check out jingowobbly.com/index.html and climb-europe.com/index.htm for europe info in general, 2nd website has links for guidebook sales for any place listed