In geology, a massif is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole. The term also refers to a group of mountains formed by such a structure.
The French Alps are the portions of the Alps mountain range that stand within France, located in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions. While some of the ranges of the French Alps are entirely in France, others, such as the Mont Blanc massif, are shared with Switzerland and Italy.
The mountains of the Massif des Écrins form the core of the Écrins National Park in France.
Écrins National Park is a French national park located in the southeastern part of France in the Dauphiné Alps south of Grenoble and north of Gap, shared between the departments of Isère and Hautes-Alpes.
La Meije is a mountain in the Massif des Écrins range, located at the border of the Hautes-Alpes and Isère départements. It overlooks the nearby village of La Grave, a mountaineering centre and ski resort, well known for its off-piste and extreme skiing possibilities, and also dominates the view west of the Col du Lautaret. It is the second highest mountain of the Écrins after the Barre des Écrins.
The Barre des Écrins is a mountain in the French Alps with a peak elevation of 4,102 metres (13,458 ft). It is the highest peak of the Massif des Écrins and the Dauphiné Alps and the most southerly alpine peak in Europe that is higher than 4,000 metres. It is the only 4,000-metre mountain in France that lies outside the Mont Blanc Massif. Before the annexation of Savoy in 1860 it was the highest mountain in France.
The massif des Cerces is a region of the French Alps on the Franco-Italian border. On the French side it lies in the departements of Hautes-Alpes and Savoie.
The Vanoise massif is a mountain range of the Graian Alps, located in the Western Alps. After the Mont Blanc Massif and the Massif des Écrins it is the third highest massif in France, reaching a height of 3,885 m at the summit of Grande Casse. It lies between Tarentaise Valley to the north and the Maurienne valley in the south. The range is the site of France's first National Park in 1963, the Vanoise National Park. The ski resorts of Tignes and Val-d'Isère and the 2,770-meter-high Col de l'Iseran are located in the eastern part of the range.
Freissinières is a commune in the Hautes-Alpes department in southeastern France.
Villar-d'Arêne is a commune in the Hautes-Alpes department in southeastern France, between Grenoble and Briançon. It is in the French Alps, in Massif des Écrins. Near this village located in the Romanche valley, there is La Grave and Col du Lautaret. The access of the valley and its communes is departmental route 1091.
Matour is a commune in the department of Saône-et-Loire in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France. Its territory is classified Natura 2000. The commune is located in a zone de revitalisation rurale.
Le Râteau is a mountain in the French Alps. Located in the Massif des Écrins, the mountain is 3,809 metres (12,497 ft) tall.
L'Oisans is a region in the French Alps, located in the départements of l'Isère and Hautes-Alpes, and corresponding to the drainage basin of the River Romanche and its tributaries. Between Livet-et-Gavet and Le Bourg-d'Oisans, the Romanche forms a deep gorge.
Henri Cordier or Henry Cordier was a French mountaineer. In his short two-year career, he became the first Frenchman to reach the level of the English members of the Alpine Club, in the silver age of alpinism in the second half of the 19th century, which was dominated by the development of mountaineering in the Alps. With some of the Alpine Club's mountain guides and mountaineers, he led significant first ascents in the Mont Blanc massif and in the Dauphiné Alps.
Pierre Gaspard was a French mountain climber, one of the greatest mountain guides in the silver age of alpinism. He made the first ascent of La Meije on 16 August 1877 with his son and Emmanuel Boileau de Castelnau. Their ascent followed the south buttress Arête du Promontoire, which became the "normal route".
Roche Méane is a two-summit peak in the Massif des Écrins in the French Alps. It is located on the crest between Barre des Écrins and La Meije. The west summit is 3,728 metres (12,231 ft) high and is called Pic Maître; it is on the border between the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of the département of Hautes-Alpes and the Rhône-Alpes region of the département of Isère. The east summit is 3,712 metres (12,178 ft) high and is entirely within Hautes-Alpes. The two summits are located in the small massif of La Grande Ruine, the highest summit of which is that of Pointe Brevoort, which is next to Roche Méane. Below the summits are rocky cliffs and three glaciers: the Clot des Cavales, the Grande Ruine glacier, and the Supérieur des Agneaux. In 1907 Baedeker described the mountain as a "very difficult" two-and-a-half-hour ascent from this last.
Roche Faurio (3,730m) is a mountain of the Massif des Écrins in the Dauphiné Alps in Isère, France. It lies in front of the mighty north face of the Barre des Écrins and towers over the Glacier Blanc. The mountain lies inside the Écrins National Park. It is a popular summit with hikers, taking about four hours to climb from the Écrins Hut, and ski mountaineers.
Jean-Michel Cambon was a French climber.
Ulrich Almer was a Swiss mountain guide, born on 8 May 1849 in Grindelwald where he died on 4 September 1940. He made many premieres in the Alps, at the beginning with his father Christian Almer, one of the great guides of the golden age of mountaineering, and was one of the first Swiss guides to visit the Caucasus.
