UKC

Hi all, 

I'm sure this is all near & dear to many of you - I love Chamonix in the off season, but now finding myself forced to go "on" season more and more...I'm not loving the crowds & general theme park feeling that's becoming more common. 

I was starting to look at other good French/Swiss/Italian Alp options, mostly for good alpine rock climbing, and nice fun sport crags. 

Was curious where you guys have found your fun, out of the way in those areas, or others? 

If they have, probably they'll be keeping it quiet, or at least well away from a publicly readable forum 😂

Maybe you should ask people to send you their suggestions directly/privately? You might get some then.

Val di Mello would maybe offer what you’re looking for:

https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/destinations/val_masino__val_di_mello-9...

Look at the Ecrins, lots of options from Ailefroide (crags & alpine), less from Le Berard after the recent storms.

I had a great week in Valle dell'Orco and climbing above it in Gran Paradiso National Park last August. 

I had never heard of  Becco Meridionale della Tribolazione before last summer, but it's a fantastic mountain and route we did on it Via Malvassora (D 4b) is a total classic that it seems not many Brits have heard of, which is odd as you need to be able to trad climb to do it (bolted belays/rap piste though, which was nice).

Ailefroide had been getting busier and busier over the last few years, with queuing on many of the well known lines, most days in summer. Even some of the alpine rock routes, outside the Écrins park that used to be very quiet, have seen a big increase in traffic. Plus the sports cragging is also becoming very busy.  It's still all great climbing but just don't expect it to be quiet.

This isn't a complaint, more a statement of fact, and I think it is just the way it is now.

More people climbing and more people heading higher to avoid the heat. Which in turn makes more people looking for quieter venues to avoid the risk of others. I don't think it's just the Écrins but a lot of areas across the alps.

You can still find solitude or at least a quieter venue. I was on a great 13 pitch bolted route, a few days ago. The face has 5 other routes on it, and no climbers on any of them. Today cragging with a crag to ourselves. But you have to pick the spots and times, which is getting harder. A good options is to go for the things that are harder or longer to access and skipping the honey pot or classic routes.

Maybe because of the above, I think people are maybe less likely to share the areas that they know are or have the potential to be quieter. 

A good indication of how busy it has become in Ailefroide is that the new guidebook is sold out in the local shops. I expect queues tomorrow when they have it in stock again. The camp ground is very busy too making it hard to find a spot in the shade. Very enjoyable though. 

Bregaglia is nice and quiet you can get a lift up to Spazzacaldera area. There are some road side crags a short drive away too.

You really can't beat the dolomites though IMO. Tonnes of all types of rock climbing on great features and faces.

I'd second the Spazzacaldera area and add the Kaisergebirge and the Karlwendelgebirge in Austria. Also the Grimsel pass area has great slab routes and more alpine ones in the Furka Pass area.

There are lots of interesting rock climbing areas in the Schweiz Plasir and Schweiz Extreme guides published by Filidor.

Supporting Furka Pass, especially the area around Sidelen Hut and Albert Heim hut. Minor glaciers and granit just as good as Chamonix.

I'm absolutely in love with the Italian side of Mont Blanc. Yes, the area around the Torino is busy, but that the rest is relatively quiet. The excellent Chamonix Granite guide to Val Veny has absolutely loads of routes, from multipitch sport climbs to massive mountain grand courses, and there is loads of good alpine rock climbing on the Croux. The area around the Dalmazzi in Val Ferret is second to none for alpine rock for me - a quiet valley, beautiful views, and genuinely utterly outstanding climbing. 
 

Val Ferret does not have a particularly good guidebook that I know of, but I've got a spreadsheet of routes I've round on gulliver.it camptocamp etc in the 6a-6c granite range, and a PDF guide to climbing around the Dalmazzi. If you email me, I'm happy to send them both over

I'd also recommend Val di Mello. I've done very little of the valley climbing there, we did the big classic E1 Kundalini and it was ace, but I've done a fair bit of the alpine rock and thought it was class. Idk what grades your climbing, but we found it got really good E1 and above, and often the routes were quite sandbagged in the guidebook compared to Chamonix with very limited fixed gear, and the hut guardians are generally exceptionally friendly. The website https://www.sassbaloss.com/pagine/arrampicate.htm has good descriptions and we often found them to be far more accurate than the guidebook 'Solo Granito'.