The Cime de la Charvie

Date of your route : Aug 04, 2025
Reliability of the description : ★★★★★ Very good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

A magnificent hike above Cervières that allows you to discover a summit with a 360° view.
The route is efficient and elegant, winding its way between passes and ridges. It has all the qualities of a beautiful mountain hike: varied landscapes, summit crossings, and trails and off-trail sections.

You need a little sense of direction and experience of walking off-trail, but the hike is not particularly difficult.

At the start, after the bridge, there are numerous tracks climbing up through the larch trees and crossing each other, but they all seem to eventually join the sheep track.

Many thanks for this suggestion!

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Thank you for your feedback.
Jean-Yves, author of the guidebook

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Date of your route : Aug 28, 2024
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★☆ Good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

A magnificent route that requires excellent physical condition and a very good knowledge of off-trail navigation.
As the author says, the climb to the Prafauchier Pass can seem gruelling, especially on the final scree slope, but the view at the top is magical. What's more, we were lucky enough to see chamois not only in the Lasseron valley on the way down, as promised, but also on the way up to the pass.
Many thanks for sharing this with us.

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Date of your route : Aug 12, 2024
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

A beautiful hike. To start, follow the trail that climbs to the left until you reach the edge of the forest, just below the cabin, where the route becomes clear. Follow the trail all the way to avoid having to follow the GPX track through the forest, which is off-trail and therefore more complicated.
We didn't see any chamois. We passed through the Combe du Lasseron around 2 p.m. and, given the weather conditions that day (very hot, yellow alert), it was probably nap time in the shade. Be careful, as the last part of the descent into the Lasseron valley is quite steep. It follows a well-marked trail but is on loose stones and could be difficult for some people.

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Thank you for this interesting comment.

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Date of your route : Sep 06, 2017
Reliability of the description : ★★★★★ Very good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good

Hello!
There were three of us paragliders (hikers) doing this route on 6 September; we climbed in the opposite direction, directly via the Combe du Lasseron, starting from waypoint 7!
The path, which is very steep at the beginning, is well marked until Col du Lasseron. That's where the difficulty begins: you have to make your own trail through the steep scree slopes up to 2,750 metres, then the scree gives way to an easy grassy slope up to the summit. Breathtaking views... even the Barre des Ecrins looks small!

The upper part of the Combe, resembling a grassy plateau, seems to be the playground of dozens of chamois...

We descended about a hundred metres to find a more suitable take-off spot... more than 3 hours of climbing... barely a quarter of an hour to descend...
Eric

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Hello again Pierrot, and well done for completing this beautiful route, which I admit is not very easy.
In any case, it's one of my favourites.
Did you see any chamois?
The start of the hike in the forest is indeed quite challenging.
However, we followed the left bank of the Cerveyrette without too much difficulty, which allowed us to take the bridge
at the end.
As for crossing the river on foot, we know how to do that. See the hike and the video of Lasseron.
https://youtu.be/ehiK9R_i7rM?si=ilK4Flfk...
You'll have fond memories of it.
Jean-Yves

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Date of your route : Sep 04, 2016
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★☆ Good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good

Hike completed in 8 hours and 45 minutes, covering 12.3 km and 1,075 metres of elevation gain.
It seems that a path has been bulldozed along the first part of the route.
Unsure, I followed the route using GPS.
There weren't many markings, as indicated in the description.
The descent after La Charvie is quite difficult for most of the route.
There was no passable path on the left bank of the Cervereytte, so we ended up crossing the river barefoot to reach the road.
In conclusion, it was difficult for us, but the landscape and 360° views were magnificent.

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Hello

Yes, June can sometimes be tricky for hiking.
But it's just bad luck, because last week's storms brought snowfall at this altitude.
Feel free to try this route again a little later in the season.
I've just come back from a hike to Galibier and I had to use crampons to get across the snowfields.
In principle, from mid-July to mid-October, there is no longer a problem with snowfields.

Thank you for your encouraging comments on the guidebook.

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Date of your route : Jun 23, 2016
Reliability of the description : ★★★★★ Very good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good

We did this hike yesterday in good weather. We encountered snow as soon as we started climbing the Prafauchier Pass. There was still plenty of it on the ridges. Without gaiters and tired of having our shoes full of snow, we gave up at the 2,840m mark on the map and settled for climbing the 2,860m peak overlooking this pass. We did this hike 10 days too early... or we should have been more prepared in terms of equipment!
It's a superb hike off the beaten track and we hope to be able to do it again in its entirety.
Thank you for this guidebook.

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