Le Grand Galibier

July 29, 2025

Le Grand Galibier

Le Grand Galibier - 3228M

635M Prominence

45.06389, 6.43417

July 29, 2025

8.4 KM

780M Ascent and Descent

After my day in the Chartreuse park, I decided to head to the "real" Alps. I walked across the city of Grenoble heading South-East, and then made my way to the outskirts of Eybens, where I would start hitchhiking. I expected it to be a long process to get to La Grave, a village I wanted to visit on my way into the alps, but it turned out to be quite easy. My first ride took me to Bourg d'Oisains, where I had to stop anyway to gather food for the next few days before heading into the mountains. After leaving Bourg d'Oisains and making a quick stop in La Grave, I hitched a ride to Col de Lautaret, where I would start hiking to climb Le Grand Galibier, via the old route. As I started making my way up, the weather started to deteriorate, so I decided to just set up camp early for the night at 2100M. In a series of unfortunate events the evening storm grabbed my tent and snapped the pole, sending it through the rain fly. I panicked a bit, and then gathered myself and hiked back down to tree line where I could be a bit more sheltered for the night. I cobbled the pole back together with a few rusty nails I found on the side of the road, and made it through the night. After all of these shenanigans and with a fresh day ahead, I decided to just take the shorter approach to the peak. I hitched a ride from Col de Lautaret up to Col de Galibier in the morning, then the climb actually began. From 2500M at the trail head, the trail starts by skirting around Pointe de la Tete Noire along a flat and easy trail. After some easy hiking the trail eventually reaches a few small boulder fields. At 2600M some big 150 meter buttresses rise out of the boulder field. At the south end of these walls is the chimney I would climb. The chimney gradually got steeper and snowier as I climbed. The previous 2 days had snowed and there were a few inches of quite frozen snow layering the chunky rocks in the chimney. It was a bit sketchy and a bit exposed in some spots, but maybe that was just me being more careful with the snow as a slip would have been bad news. I didn't even put on my crampons on the ascent, though it probably would have helped, as the upper reaches of the of the chimney had a few inches of snow. At the top of the gulley the terrain levelled out again and I hiked up toward an alpine tarn. Before meeting the tarn I began heading North West toward the summit, passing by the East summit as I went. The trail was simple at first, and then got a little bit scrambly towards the end when blue markers started to appear on the rock. It was all quite chill though and the crux of the day was by far the gully. The East summit could quite easily be mistaken for the main summit as it is less than 10 meters smaller, and looks quite a bit gnarlier upon approach. I hung out on the summit for a little while with another man who had come up from the East by Lac Blanc. The return was the same as the ascent, only the snow was quickly melting and becoming much slushier. I put my crampons on to descend the chimney this time, and it felt much more secure. At the bottom of the chimney in the boulder field I stopped to have lunch and watch some climbers on the buttresses I mentioned earlier. I then hiked back out to Col du Galibier and hitch hiked my way back down to Col du Lautaret. From Col du Lautaret I spent the afternoon approaching the next day's climb.