'Grand Combin' is the Franco-Provençal cumbin or combin, a Valais word for a high pasture or summit, ultimately from Latin culmen ('crest'). Grafeneire is a local toponym from the hamlet below, possibly from Romansh/Old French grave-noire ('black scree').
Highest summit of the Grand Combin massif in the western Pennine Alps of Valais. A heavily glaciated peak typically climbed from the Cabane de Valsorey or Panossière via the Corridor route.
The Combin is a sprawling glacier-massif at the head of the Val de Bagnes, and its summit was disputed throughout the 1850s. After a partial ascent by Combin de Valsorey in 1857, Charles Sainte-Claire Deville and four guides from Bourg-Saint-Pierre reached the true summit (Combin de Grafeneire) on 30 July 1859. The classic Corridor route on the west face is exposed to serac fall from the suspended glaciers of the Plateau du Couloir and has produced some of the worst single-incident accidents in Swiss alpinism.
Route lines are approximate — drawn from guidebook waypoints, not GPS tracks. Don't navigate by them.
