Barre des Écrins

4,102 m

French for 'bar of the Écrins' — barre is a Dauphiné mountaineering term for a long horizontal cliff or ridge, and the Écrins are the highest sub-massif of the Dauphiné Alps. Écrin is the modern French for 'casket' or 'jewel-box', but the regional toponym is likely older and unrelated, possibly from a Celtic root meaning 'enclosure'.

Card

Coordinates44.9214° N · 6.3681° E

UIAA rank№ 53 / 82

CountriesFrance

Normal grade

PD · peu difficile

First ascent1864 · Edward Whymper, A.W. Moore & Horace Walker with Michel Croz & Christian Almer

Typical seasonJuly to September

Photo of Barre des Écrins — Photo: Jmcc150 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Westernmost 4000er and only 4000er south of Mont Blanc.

History

The southernmost 4000er in the Alps and the highest peak of the Dauphiné, climbed by Whymper's party on 25 June 1864 — a year before the Matterhorn — by a difficult route on the north face. The Écrins remained obscure to most of the Golden Age alpinists, who concentrated on the more accessible Pennine and Bernese ranges; even today the massif feels markedly wilder and more remote than the Mont Blanc or Zermatt groups.

Location & routes

Major routes

Brèche Lory / N face (Normal route)

PD · peu difficileTopo ↗

Vertical / summit day1,730 m gain · 6h

The standard route from Pré de Madame Carle in the Vallouise. The approach climbs the Glacier Blanc to the Refuge des Écrins (3170 m, not in our hut catalogue); summit day continues up the Glacier Blanc to the Brèche Lory and finishes up the rocky NW ridge (II–III) over the Dôme de Neige to the summit.

Sections

Pré de Madame Carle (1874 m)→Refuge du Glacier Blanc (2542 m)+668 m2h

Refuge du Glacier Blanc→Refuge des Écrins (3170 m)+628 m2h 30m

Refuge des Écrins→Brèche Lory (3974 m)+804 m4h

Nearby huts

Refuge du PromontoireCAF · late June to mid-September3,092 m Refuge des ÉcrinsCAF · late June to mid-September3,170 m Refuge du Glacier BlancCAF · mid-June to mid-September2,542 m

← Mönch · 4,107 m · № 52

53 / 82

Aiguilles du Diable — Pointe Médiane · 4,097 m · № 54 →

Brèche Lory / N face (Normal route)

Route lines are approximate — drawn from guidebook waypoints, not GPS tracks. Don't navigate by them.

Brèche Lory→Summit (4102 m)

+128 m2h

Editor's note

Figures approximated from FFCAM topos. Refuge des Écrins is the standard high hut and is not yet in our hut catalogue (only Refuge du Promontoire is, which serves La Meije / not this peak).