main valley here drains from the north, while another, Val de l’Entre-les-Aygues, flows from the west. Both of these divide again to collect the melt from assorted glacier systems. The first we need to consider is the Vallon de Chambran which runs roughly north to south, with a westward kink in its uppermost reaches. It is formed in a little glacial cirque under the Crête des Grangettes, east of Pointe des Arcas, which is itself merely part of a long ridge extending south of Montagne des Agneaux. In that cirque Lac de l’Eychauda makes a popular goal for walkers on day trips from the Vallouise, and in summer a bus service daily journeys as far as the buvette at Chambran midway through the main part of the valley. Chambran is not even a hamlet, but several rough buildings with a lovely outlook.
This glen is itself subdivided above Chambran, for the Crête de l’Yret, which extends below Lac de l’Eychauda, effectively contains a little hanging valley on its eastern side that has now been exploited for skiing. Walkers heading south from Monêtier-les-Bans on GR54 cross Col de l’Eychauda and descend through that wasted hanging valley before dropping in steep zig-zags to the Vallon de Chambran upstream of the buvette. Above Chambran the Eychauda stream glides in silver braidings, then gathers into a semblance of order to dance through a steepening cleft among masses of wild flowers and the raucous summer sound of the cicadas. Wandering down the pathway that accompanies this stream is to be reminded of the southerly nature of these mountains. While snow and ice may coat the upper peaks, deep valleys embrance the light, fragrance and flavour of the Mediterranean.
Ailefroide
St-Antoine and neighbouring Les Claux stand either side of the confluence of the Eychauda torrent with that of the Ailefroide. The road from Vallouise curves leftward through rocky narrows with woods on the lower slopes, and all eyes are eager to catch the first exciting views of Mont Pelvoux that rises directly ahead. Close to Ailefroide the valley forks yet again; the western glen is watered by the glaciers of l’Ailefroide and Pointe du Sélé, the northern glen by the Glacier Noir and Glacier Blanc; the first coming from Mont Pelvoux, the second from Barre des Écrins.
Like La Bérarde, Ailefroide is a summer-only hamlet, a magnet for climbers and with opportunities for outstanding walks to the very edge of the glaciers. There are campsites, two hotels and a gîte, and meadows thick with flowers in early summer. Not surprisingly it’s extremely busy during the high season. Above the hamlet the road continues below the huge walls of Pelvoux as far as the drab boulderfield of Pré de Madame Carle, and Refuge Cézanne. There the scene is typically Alpine, being one of big mountains and glacial moraines. The summit of Pelvoux is more than 2000 metres above the road and the Glacier Noir has carved a highway round its northern buttresses; ahead Glacier Blanc appears from behind the Barre des Écrins. A short, almost level, walk leads to a junction of paths. One veers left to follow the north bank of the Glacier Noir on a narrow moraine crest, while the other climbs to the snout of Glacier Blanc and a CAF refuge at 2543 metres. While the Glacier Noir trail passes beneath the southern wall of the Barre des Écrins and overlooks the rubble-strewn glacier to the north face of Mont Pelvoux, that which climbs to Glacier Blanc shows even more grandeur. Just below Refuge du Glacier Blanc it passes the first hut to be built in the region, Refuge Tuckett, now a small museum. Views from here are absolutely stunning, for the hut gazes on an incredible seven-kilometre spread of crusty peaks, glaciers, buttresses and ice-choked couloirs, with Mont Pelvoux regal-looking to the south across a foreground brightened by a small tarn.
The moraine path beside the Glacier Noir gives a direct view of Mont Pelvoux and its near neighbours
The western glen cutting away from Ailefroide is deep and narrow, and was once described as a ‘cheerless and desolate valley [which] contains miles of boulders, débris, stones, sand and mud.’ A path heads into it from Ailefroide and then divides. The right-hand trail continues directly beneath the south face of Pelvoux to reach a pair of climbers’ huts provided by the CAF, Refuge Pelvoux and Refuge du Sélé, while the left-hand option enters another sub-glen, Vallon de Clapous, with a scrambly col at its head by which Entre les Aygues may be reached.
Val de l’Entre-les-Aygues
The Val de l’Entre-les-Aygues is another lovely narrow valley that begins beneath the mass of Les Bans and flows eastward, soon among patches of meadowland, then splendid forests that lead nearly all the way down to Vallouise. Part-way along the glen there’s a camping area on the right bank of the river at Pont des Places, otherwise there’s no accommodation to be had except for two huts; one in the cirque at the upper end of the valley, the other in its tributary glen, Vallon de la Selle. The roadhead is about nine kilometres upstream from Vallouise, at Entre les Aygues itself, where there is a buvette and space to park cars. There the valley divides. The continuing, western branch, is that which leads to a cirque topped by Les Bans. The south-west branch, the Vallon de la Selle, is longer and rises to a curious, though strangely attractive, amphitheatre rimmed with a crest of bare rock from which extensive screes and slopes of black grit fan to rough pastures. At the head of that crest Col de l’Aup Martin (2761m) provides access to a secondary valley that plunges eastward and is drained by the Fournel to join the Durance at Argentière-la-Bessée.
The upper, western, extent of Val de l’Entre-les-Aygues is closed at its head by a bold-looking group of mountains. Pic de Bonvoisin forms the southern limit of this cirque, then come Pic Jocelme, Pic des Aupillous, Les Bans, Pointe des Boeufs Rouges and Pointe Guyard, each one well in excess of 3000 metres, but appearing even higher. In the ridge linking Les Bans and Pointe des Boeufs Rouges two cols suggest strenuous possibilities for achieving a crossing to the upper Vénéon. Whymper’s party made the first crossing of one of these in 1864 (he called it Col de la Pilatte, although his description better fits that of Col des Bans), but that and its neighbour lie outside the scope of this book, for one need only look at the Glacier de la Pilatte which hangs on the other side of the ridge to know that considerable mountaineering skill is a prerequisite for anyone toying with such a proposition.
South of Les Bans, between Pic des Aupillous and Pic Jocelme, Col du Sellar (3084m) provides another challenging route over the mountains, not to the Vallée du Vénéon, but to the upper Val Gaudémar. This pass also has a small glacier to negotiate on its western side, but Whymper claims that local peasants told him sheep and goats could easily be taken across. The Didier and Richard map, however, marks this col as being both difficult and dangerous, so caution is advised should the route be chosen.
Below the cirque walls east of the col Refuge des Bans serves as a climber’s base; it’s also a popular destination for short walks from the roadhead on a good footpath that sticks to the true left bank of the Torrent des Bans. At the Entre-les-Aygues roadhead an alternative footpath is directed by signpost across the multi-stranded river and into the Vallon de la Selle, in which the small Cabane du Jas Lacroix stands above the left bank among grassy hummocks and lichen-patterned boulders and with Pointe de Verdonne rising nearby. It is through this glen and over Col de l’Aup Martin and its neighbouring Pas de la Cavale, that the easiest, though certainly not the most direct, route for walkers leads from the Vallouise to the south-western valleys of the Oisans region.
Begun from Ailefroide, the route to Refuge du Sélé involves the ascent of a rock barrier with the support of fixed ropes and cables
Val Gaudémar
Val Gaudémar is the principal, though by no means the only, one of these. Beginning in the shadow of Les Bans it drains westward at first, then flows south-west below the small village of Villar-Loubière along the outlying flanks of the range, before its river curves in a great northerly sweep towards Grenoble. Approach from Grenoble by road is first made along the N85, then south of Corps and the Lac du Sautet a minor road (D985) breaks away north-eastward. Its upper limit is reached about eight kilometres upstream of La Chapelle-en-Valgaudémar at the Chalet-Hotel du Gioberney in the tributary glen of Muande Bellone below the west face of Les Bans. From there a number of trails climb to vantage points on the slopes of the surrounding mountains; that which visits Lac du Lauzon on the flank of Les Rouies provides especially fine views.
Les Bans once