The 82/Mont Blanc/Aiguille du Jardin
71 / 82LauteraarhornDürrenhorn
The peak · FR · Mont Blanc Alps

Aiguille du Jardin

4,035 m

'Needle of the garden' — named after the Jardin de Talèfre, the small rocky 'island' in the middle of the Talèfre glacier below the peak. The Jardin was a 19th-century curiosity that Chamonix guides used to take tourists up to admire its summer wildflowers.

Card
Coordinates45.9286° N · 6.9758° E
UIAA rank№ 71 / 82
CountriesFrance
Normal gradeAD · assez difficile
First ascent1904 · Émile Fontaine with Joseph Ravanel & Léon Tournier
Typical seasonJuly to August
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Photo of Aiguille du Jardin
Photo: Apoutsiak · CC BY-SA 3.0

A summit on the east ridge of Aiguille Verte, technically more challenging than its neighbours Verte and Les Droites.

History

A granite tower on the long crest east of the Aiguille Verte, just above the Jardin de Talèfre — the rocky 'island' in the middle of the Talèfre glacier that early Chamonix visitors used to walk up to as a curiosity. First climbed on 27 July 1904 by the Irish alpinist V. J. E. Ryan with the two great St-Niklaus guides Franz and Josef Lochmatter, in a season in which the Ryan–Lochmatter rope made an extraordinary string of first ascents on hard granite (the Täschhorn south face, the Aiguille du Plan east ridge, the Aiguilles du Diable). The peak is now usually traversed in combination with the neighbouring Grande Rocheuse and the Aiguille Verte.

Location

Summit · huts that serve as bases for routes on this peak

Major routes
Arête du Jardin from Couvercle / Argentière
D-
Vertical / summit day1,450 m gain · 10h
Aiguille du Jardin is most often climbed as part of the Arête du Jardin — the SE ridge of the Aiguille Verte chain — over Aiguille du Jardin (4035 m), Grande Rocheuse (4102 m) and on to Aiguille Verte (4122 m). From Couvercle the route climbs the Talèfre glacier and Col Armand Charlet; from Argentière it climbs via the Glacier de Talèfre side. Sustained III/IV mixed climbing on excellent granite.
Sections
Montenvers (1913 m)Refuge du Couvercle (2687 m)+774 m3h
Refuge du CouvercleAiguille du Jardin (4035 m)+1,348 m8h
Huts on this route
Nearby huts
Refuge du CouvercleCAF · mid-June to mid-September2,687 mRefuge d'ArgentièreCAF · mid-June to mid-September2,771 mRefuge d'ArgentièreCAF · mid-March to mid-September2,771 m