6 Stunning Moderate Climbs for Your First Trip to the Alps

As an American trad climber living on the road, rotating from Indian Creek to Yosemite and back again, I found planning my first trip to the Alps a bit like being asked to close my eyes and pick between three thousand ancient scrolls, each containing a different quest. I knew I wanted vertigo-inducing views, fast-paced days of nonstop movement, and wild moments of blood-red courage—all on alpine multi-pitch routes in the 5.8 to 5.11 range—but which ones to choose?

By the time I zipped my suitcase around a month’s supply of climbing pants (two pairs) and climbing shoes (three pairs), I had spent dozens of hours doing research from the pavilion at the Ten Sleep Rock Ranch, copy-pasting crag descriptions into Google Translate and clicking on photos of climbers on snow-capped peaks, their silhouettes blazing against the deep blue sky.

At last I had a plan. First, I’d spend a week in the quiet cliffs of Göschenen, Switzerland, home to Salbitschijen, the unskippable El Capitan of the Swiss Alps, before moving on to the world-famous Chamonix, France, with its dramatic spires blooming from the Mont Blanc Massif and the Aiguilles Rouges.

Read on for six of my favorite beginner routes in both regions, how they surprised me, and how I’d recommend you fit them into your trip goals.

Leviathan, Gemsplanggen

Leviathan (6b+/5.10+; 660 feet, 5 pitches) is a crack-filled, type-1-fun granite route that begins 1,600 meters above Göschenen and ends at the summit of Gemsplanggen, the second-tallest of Salbitsijen’s lower, eastern peaks. A popular warm-up for Salbitsijen’s legendary West Ridge (6b/5.10; 3,000 feet, 36 pitches), Leviathan rises from the edge of a boulder field a few hundred meters above the Salbithütte, a platformed, hostel-like refuge that overlooks the Göscheneralp valley.

On our morning approach, my partner and I watched Salbitsijen’s summit dip upward into bronze alpenglow from a view so unobstructed it felt illegal. Hiking up through a sloping boulder field and heading to the right, we scrambled up to Leviathan, whose start is marked with a tiny plaque at the first bolt of a 5c+/5.9+ slab pitch. This leads into a 6a/5.10- offset finger crack, where small gear is useful. Although pitch 3, a left-leaning diagonal crack with satisfying jams, is considered the crux, I felt that pulling over pitch 4’s roof on a bomber hand jam was the most thrilling part of the climb.

If you’re new to the Alps, use this route as an opportunity to practice belaying with double ropes, clipping either both strands or just one into each gear piece. Climbing with two ropes is particularly common—and useful—in the Alps because it helps the leader control rope drag on wandering and zig-zagging terrain. If Leviathan is crowded, the neighboring Incredibile (6b/5.10; 810 feet, 7 pitches) is another popular moderate that summits Gemsplanggen. Feeling great on Leviathan? Go for Salbitsijen’s West Ridge!

Light and fast

Get ready for some mandatory luxury! In the Alps, heavy backpacking is discouraged and dispersed camping is often banned. Instead, climbers are expected to use the pre-built huts, or refuges, as their base camps. The Salbithütte, for example, serves as the home base for climbers attempting routes on Salbitsijen, Gemsplanggen, and all surrounding peaks. This refuge provides food and water, plus bunk beds and heavy wool blankets, so for multi-day climbing trips, the only food and camping material that you have to bring are your day snacks and a lightweight sleeping bag liner.

If you can get hut reservations on good-weather days, then this norm translates into a truly lavish camping experience. However, it also serves as an access barrier whenever the hut spots are booked up–often farther in advance than the 10-day weather forecast becomes available–or when the fee (for the Salbithütte, about $80 USD per night) is out of your price range.

Wädlichlimser, Schöllenen

For those looking for a hut-free roadside experience with a thirty-second approach, perhaps as a bad-weather option, Wädlichlimser (6b+/5.10+; 475 feet, 8 pitches) in the Schöllenen Gorge is a highly-starred, technical route that offers immediate satisfaction for slab fanatics. It features bolted finger cracks, wide stemming, and a few runout sections easily backed up with small gear. With rappel rings on every bolted anchor, it’s a great choice for days when bailing in the rain may be necessary.

Rising above a scribble of asphalt that connects Göschenen to Andermatt, this carefully hidden multi-pitch overlooks the switchbacked roads and covered bridges that push traffic back and forth above the Reuss river. After a short, 5c+/5.9+ warm-up with solid cracks on pitch 1, the climbing amps up on pitch 2, where precise moves off sloping underclings test the leader’s mental game. The third and fourth pitches present a break in the form of a low-angle slab leading up to a left-facing finger crack. Pitch 5 will have you balanced between the right finger crack and the left slab features, and one reachy section will force shorter climbers to perform a dramatic, committing lock-off on a hairline crimp.

Move through the next two long pitches of dihedral climbing, and you’ll be rewarded with the final, 6b/5.10 traverse on sloped feet into a roof. Despite being graded as easier than the two 6b+/5.10+ cruxes, the final pitch (pitch 8) felt unquestionably more difficult to me than the rest. The weather provided a bit of drama for us, too, with fast-moving clouds braiding themselves low through the valley. If the forecast is cloudy, prepare for the possibility that total whiteout mist will overtake your view only to disappear just a few minutes later.

Chapelle de la Glière

From the skies, Chamonix is a long, grooved valley between two parallel mountain ranges: to the southeast, the snow-capped peaks of Mont Blanc, Aiguille du Midi, and its quiver of pointed neighbors, and to the northwest, the much drier Aiguilles Rouges. Generally, the granite routes on the Mont Blanc side are more impressive, but they’re also guarded by glaciers and longer approaches.

The South-southeast Arête of the Chapelle de la Glière (D+ 6a/5.10-; 1,200 feet, 13 pitches) is a well-trafficked trad route that ascends a thin tower on the Rouges side and features the “most photographed pitch in the valley”, according to Chamonix: A Guide to the Region and Mont Blanc by Charlie Boscoe and Luke Davies. Like many climbs in Chamonix, the approach begins with a ride up the Index chairlift, followed by a thirty-minute hike to the rocky base. Since every pitch but the final one is 5b/5.8- or easier, and since multiple pitches consist entirely of fourth-class terrain, this route dunked me in the cinematic feel of Alps climbing: moving fast up sharp ridgelines, beneath coiling clouds, with the tiny Chamonix rooftops visible thousands of feet below. Linking pitches can be a challenge due to rope drag, but it’s possible to build anchors almost anywhere, so this is a good opportunity to push your speed and efficiency in low-angle terrain and refine your double ropes technique.

The famous Razoir pitch (pitch 8) involves a brief traverse up and over a massively exposed but low-angle slab. What the guidebook doesn’t tell you is that the legendary photo is always of the follower, so if you want to be in this shot, let your partner lead it! I found the penultimate 12th pitch, a steep face climb on an angled sheet of gneiss, to be underrated in quality and almost more fun than pitch 13, the sporty 6a/5.10- crux up the well-protected arête of a narrow, standalone tower.

After celebrating at the top, climbers have three options: (1) scurry down by 4pm to get the last chairlift (if it’s running, which it isn’t in late September); (2) descend 1,000 meters of elevation on a switchbacked trail back to the village; or (3) hike over to one of the refuges in the Aiguilles Rouges to kick off a multi-day mission.

The south face of Aiguille du Belvédère

The highest of the Aiguilles Rouges is the Aiguille du Belvédère, after the Italian word for “beautiful view.” Belvédère’s fin-shaped south face rises over a sloping valley behind Lac Blanc, which, despite its name, is a lovely emerald color. Approaching the south face at sunrise yields a piercing view of the other side of the Chamonix valley, where black, knifelike peaks crow up from the glaciers around the Aiguille du Midi like wicked kings above thrones. The approach trail terminates in a small snow field, which one must either cross on crampons or circumvent to reach the base.

Here I discovered what would become my greatest fear in the Alps: a randkluft. This is the particular crevasse that exists where the base of a cliff meets the edge of a glacier or snowfield. On Belvédère, it was a four-foot gap of pure darkness under a crumbling edge of ice. This sliver of abyss, I knew, would slide me beneath the snow field itself, and drain my screams to silence. I jumped over it and scrambled up to a flat surface of loose pebbles, which felt insecure enough to justify building a belay anchor from the first two bolts on Le Mariage de la Terre et du Vent (ED2 7a/5.11d; 900 feet, 9 pitches).

Le Mariage is a steep, crimpy route that tackles the center of the south face. It is one of two fully-bolted routes that reach the summit, the other being Arsene-Lucini (TD+ 6b+/5.10+; 900 feet, 10 pitches) to the left. The technical crux of Le Mariage comes early, in pitch two, where a giant, cube-shaped boulder requires combining balance on sloping ledge feet with powerful movement on the boulder’s arête. The routes share a pitch three anchor on a broad section of fourth-class terrain, so it’s possible to start on Le Mariage and then switch, as we did, to the easier Arsene-Lucini, or vice versa. After this intersection, the terrain on Arsene-Lucini unfolds in six pitches of sporty corner climbing, with plenty of jugs and solid feet at every stance. For an easy ending, a short, third-class choss pitch leads to the summit. Abseiling will bring you face-to-face once more with the randkluft, where you can choose to either rappel or jump back onto the glacier, then butt-slide and boot-skate your way down the slope in childlike triumph.

La Piège, Tour Verte

On the Mont Blanc side of Chamonix, the Envers des Aiguilles region offers a sensational 360-degree view of snow-capped peaks, near-total freedom from signs of human civilization, and access to dozens of classic multi-pitch climbs. It’s a definite step up in commitment from the Aiguilles Rouges, so one should plan for two-day trips at minimum. One of  the most beginner-friendly routes is La Piège (TD+ 6a+/5.10; 600 feet, 6 pitches) on Tour Verte, a small tower behind the Envers des Aiguilles refuge.

Approaching this refuge was one of the most exciting challenges I’ve had in Chamonix. To start, one must take a train from town to the Montenvers outpost, descend a few hundred feet on metal stairs to the ice cave tourist attraction, and step up onto the Mer de Glace. From the Montenvers balconies, one can see this glacier’s surface covered by thousands of parallel cracks resembling wrinkled skin. Up close, those fissures reveal themselves to be waterfalls and crevasses up to thirty feet high. Climbers must carefully navigate this terrain until they can reach an enormous yellow square painted on the western cliff. Below this marking, a single vertical ladder leads up and out of sight. The top of this ladder leads you to a via ferrata system of switchbacked railings that ascends to flatter ground, where a regular trail begins. Follow this trail for 1.7 miles as it wraps south in a long arc, several hundred meters above the Mer de Glace, until it suddenly winds back on itself and reveals the Envers des Aiguilles hut.

Due to its two-minute approach from the hut, La Piège is one of the easiest routes to combine with the 3-5 hour Envers des Aiguilles approach if you want a single long day of movement, but most people stay a night or two and pursue other objectives as well. Mostly protected with trad gear, but featuring bolts where protection is unavailable, La Piège begins with a clean, 5.10 hand crack and short offwidth section. Pitch 2 contains a fun 5.10 layback crack, followed by a brief arête and an enormous ledge belay. From this natural platform, the third pitch follows a broken crack system and requires considered route finding. The best pitch by far is the fourth, which climbs a pancake flake before leading to a finger crack roof crux that can be unlocked with strong fingers, slab moves, or a combination of both. A corner hand crack and easy 5th-class pitch lead to the summit. With all-day sun, this short tower can serve as a warm-up for other Envers des Aiguilles missions or as a desperate reward for those of us who want to kick off our wet mountaineering gear and just climb.

Aiguille de la République

On Chamonix’s Mont Blanc side, the Aiguille de la République is instantly recognizable as the sharpest peak on the horizon. To me, that made it iconic. Named for the Phrygian cap shape that French Revolutionaries used as a symbol of freedom, République’s summit appears less like a floppy hat and more like a 2,000-foot-tall dagger sticking out of a black mountain that already stands 5,000 feet above the valley floor.

To approach République from the Envers des Aiguilles hut, one must cross the sloping Trélaporte glacier, being careful to step over crevasses. Getting onto the first pitch of either climb requires hopping another bottomless randkluft. Below the Voie Normale (D+ 5c/5.9; 2,100 feet), I found myself using my mountaineering ax to lead a short mixed pitch to get over the final block of ice. The Voie Normale is the easiest route up the spire and consists mainly of scrambling over fourth-class slab and the occasional corner.

By contrast, République Bananière (ED2 6c/5.11-; 1950 feet, 25 pitches) is a more challenging and stacked trad route, with 17 out of 25 pitches being 6a or harder. Both routes share the final few pitches onto the iconic summit slab. This ultimate pitch, which goes at A0 or 5.11 slab, was first climbed in 1904 with the aid of a crossbow—yes, you read that right—when Joseph Simond shot over a toprope from the Grand Charmoz. For the next 67 years, it was typically ascended by lasso. Once pitons were installed, it became the commonly aided pitch that it is today.

At the top of pitch 7, the small, wooden Tour Rouge bivy hut holds six bunk beds and wool blankets, providing an opportunity for climbers to spend an extra night on their way up or down the 2,000-foot vertical path. For those attempting either route, the Tour Rouge is a key checkpoint: the first chance to descend without downclimbing or leaving gear. Fixed lines lead back down to the glacier, where climbers can put their crampons back on, make the final rappel across the randkluft, and retrace their boot prints across the snow. If you’re returning to the Envers des Aiguilles at sunset, as we did, you’ll watch the gold-rimmed alpenglow drape itself over the range like a long scarf of light. The upper sky will darken and breathe out its stars. Your fingers will chill, but the refuge’s wool blankets await.

Author’s Note

There have been several moments in my life where I’ve felt like I was finally a “real” climber: my first climb outdoors, first lead climb, first trad climb, first big wall. My first trip to the Alps felt real in a different sense. To explore the birthplace of alpinism in a self-directed way is to cross into your own TV screen and promptly inherit the gravity of your climbing heroes. Surrounding you are mountains of black rock, wearing dustings of snow like proof of immortality. You have a topo map and a mission, and all the messy context of the world falls away beneath your immediate view. I returned from my first Alps trip feeling physically worked from the vertical gain and mentally exhausted from the nonstop awareness of sharp details like exposure and meters of rope left and how many hours remained until sundown. That was expected. But there was also a numbing sting that only grew as the tiredness faded. An emptiness that felt good. Looking back at the photos while I sat on the floor at the Malpensa airport, I realized that feeling was awe.

Related:

• This Alps Classic Should Be at the Top of Your Bucket List 

• Hard, Historic, and Alone. A 3,600-foot Route in the French Alps Gets Its First Winter Solo

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