Grandes Jorasses
Rising along the border between France and Italy, the Grandes Jorasses form one of the most imposing mountain walls in the entire Alps. Rather than a single pointed summit, the mountain consists of a roughly kilometer-long crest crowned by six major tops, culminating at Pointe Walker, approximately 4,205 meters (13,795 feet) above sea level.
The mountain is famous for two dramatically different personalities. On the Italian side, glaciers and broken ridges provide the traditional route toward the summit. On the French side, the North Face plunges more than 1,000 meters toward the Leschaux Glacier in one of the greatest continuous walls of rock and ice in Europe.
That northern wall has shaped the history of technical alpinism. The Walker Spur, first climbed in 1938 by Riccardo Cassin, Luigi Esposito, and Ugo Tizzoni, became one of the most celebrated routes in the Alps and is traditionally grouped with the north faces of the Eiger and Matterhorn as one of the three great north faces of the Alps.
Yet the story of the Grandes Jorasses began much earlier. Edward Whymper reached the second-highest summit in 1865, while Horace Walker, Melchior Anderegg, Johann Jaun, and Julien Grange completed the first ascent of the highest point three years later.
⚡ Fast Facts
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Mountain | Grandes Jorasses |
| Countries | France and Italy |
| French Region | Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes |
| French Department | Haute-Savoie |
| Italian Region | Aosta Valley |
| Mountain Range | Mont Blanc massif, Graian Alps |
| Highest Summit | Pointe Walker |
| Elevation | Approximately 13,795 feet / 4,205 meters |
| Traditional Mapped Elevation | Approximately 4,208 meters |
| Prominence | Approximately 2,832 feet / 863 meters |
| Isolation | Approximately 4.88 miles / 7.85 kilometers |
| Nearest Higher Neighbor | Mont Blanc du Tacul |
| Key Saddle | Col du Géant |
| Number of Main Summits | Six |
| First Ascent of Pointe Whymper | June 24, 1865 |
| First Ascent of Pointe Walker | June 30, 1868 |
| Pointe Walker First Ascenders | Horace Walker, Melchior Anderegg, Johann Jaun, and Julien Grange |
| Normal Route | Southwest / Italian side |
| Traditional Normal Route Grade | Approximately AD- |
| Principal Italian Base | Rifugio Boccalatte |
| Famous Route | Walker Spur |
| Walker Spur First Ascent | August 4–6, 1938 |
| Major French Glacier | Glacier de Leschaux |
| Major Italian Valley | Val Ferret |
| Best Known For | North Face, Walker Spur, six-summit ridge, and mountaineering history |
Modern lidar measurements place Pointe Walker at approximately 4,204.7 meters, while the traditional mapped elevation of 4,208 meters remains widely used. The mountain has roughly 863 meters of prominence and almost eight kilometers of isolation, making it one of the more topographically substantial summits in the Mont Blanc massif.
🏔️ Where Are the Grandes Jorasses?
The Grandes Jorasses stand on the France–Italy frontier northeast of the main Mont Blanc summit complex.
On the French side, the enormous North Face rises above the Glacier de Leschaux, an upper tributary of the Mer de Glace system. The wall dominates the remote upper reaches of the glacier and presents one of the most formidable mountain landscapes around Chamonix.
Across the crest, the Italian slopes descend toward Val Ferret, north of Courmayeur. This side is less sheer than the northern wall, although it remains a serious environment of glaciers, broken rock, steep snow, and exposed ridges.
West of the Grandes Jorasses, the high frontier continues through Dôme de Rochefort, Aiguille de Rochefort, and Dent du Géant. Farther west lie the glaciers surrounding Aiguille du Midi, Mont Blanc du Tacul, and Mont Maudit.
To the northeast, the mountain chain descends toward the Swiss Val Ferret and the broader border region around Mont Dolent.
⛰️ Six Summits on One Ridge
The name Grandes Jorasses refers to the entire summit crest rather than one isolated point.
Six principal summits rise along the ridge:
| Summit | Approximate Elevation |
|---|---|
| Pointe Walker | 4,205–4,208 m |
| Pointe Whymper | 4,183–4,184 m |
| Pointe Croz | 4,110 m |
| Pointe Marguerite / Margherita | 4,065 m |
| Pointe Hélène / Elena | 4,045 m |
| Pointe Young | 3,996 m |
The order along the crest gives the mountain an unusually complicated silhouette.
Pointe Walker is the highest and most famous summit. Immediately nearby is Pointe Whymper, named for Edward Whymper, who reached it before the highest point had been climbed.
Pointe Croz honors Michel Croz, one of the greatest Chamonix guides of the Golden Age. Pointe Marguerite and Pointe Hélène commemorate members of European royal families, while Pointe Young is named for British mountaineer Geoffrey Winthrop Young.
The presence of so many distinct tops helps explain why early mountaineers could reach the mountain without immediately solving the problem of its true highest summit.
🪨 Geology of the Grandes Jorasses
The Grandes Jorasses belong to the crystalline core of the Mont Blanc massif and consist predominantly of granite.
This granite formed deep within Earth’s crust as molten material cooled and crystallized. Later tectonic uplift associated with the formation of the Alps raised the massif, while erosion stripped away overlying material.
The broader Mont Blanc massif contains two major geological components: plutonic rocks dominated by Mont Blanc granite and metamorphic rocks, especially gneiss.
Glaciers then profoundly reshaped the exposed landscape.
Ice flowing around the Grandes Jorasses excavated the deep valleys and glacier basins surrounding the mountain while leaving the resistant granite summit ridge standing high above them.
The enormous North Face owes much of its scale to this combination of resistant rock, glacial erosion, and continual freeze-thaw weathering.
📜 Edward Whymper Reaches Pointe Whymper
The first major summit of the Grandes Jorasses was reached on June 24, 1865, when Edward Whymper, Michel Croz, Christian Almer, and Franz Biner climbed from the Italian side.
Whymper had a particular purpose in mind.
He wanted to obtain a better view of Aiguille Verte, which remained unclimbed and had become another major objective.
The party reached what is now known as Pointe Whymper, approximately 4,183 meters high.
They did not continue to the slightly higher Pointe Walker.
Whymper subsequently climbed Aiguille Verte only five days later, on June 29, 1865, with Christian Almer and Franz Biner.
The Grandes Jorasses ascent therefore belongs to an extraordinary period in which Whymper and other leading climbers were rapidly solving some of the final major summit problems of the Western Alps.
🏔️ The First Ascent of Pointe Walker
The true highest point remained unclimbed until June 30, 1868.
British mountaineer Horace Walker reached the summit with legendary Swiss guide Melchior Anderegg, Johann Jaun, and Julien Grange.
Their route broadly followed the easier southern side of the mountain rather than attempting the forbidding northern wall.
The highest summit subsequently became known as Pointe Walker in honor of Horace Walker.
Modern lidar measurements place the summit at approximately 4,204.7 meters, while the traditional elevation remains 4,208 meters.
This ascent established the Grandes Jorasses as one of the major 4,000-meter mountains of the Alps, but the mountain’s greatest climbing challenges were still waiting on its northern face.
🧗 The Normal Route
The normal route to Pointe Walker approaches from the Italian side, using Rifugio Boccalatte as the traditional high base.
Unlike the nearly vertical North Face, the southern and southwestern terrain provides a comparatively moderate—but still highly serious—combination of glacier travel, rock, snow, and exposed ridges.
The normal route is commonly graded around AD-.
That grade can be misleading to anyone unfamiliar with the Alpine system. An AD route involves substantial mountaineering difficulty and may include steep snow and ice, exposed scrambling or climbing, glacier hazards, route-finding challenges, and lengthy movement in terrain where retreat can be complicated.
The ascent typically gains well over 1,000 vertical meters from Rifugio Boccalatte to Pointe Walker.
🛖 Rifugio Boccalatte
Rifugio Boccalatte, at approximately 2,804 meters, is one of the classic mountaineering huts of the Italian Mont Blanc massif.
The refuge occupies an extraordinary position on a rocky spur beside the Planpincieux Glacier high above Val Ferret.
It is the principal base for the normal ascent of the Grandes Jorasses.
Even reaching the hut is a serious mountain outing. The approach begins near Planpincieux in Val Ferret and gains more than 1,200 meters. The upper approach includes exposed terrain and sections protected by cables or via ferrata equipment.
The refuge’s dramatic location gives climbers excellent views over Val Ferret while placing them directly beneath the complex southern side of the Grandes Jorasses.
🇮🇹 The Italian Side
Viewed from Italy, the Grandes Jorasses look very different from their celebrated northern profile.
The mountain rises above Val Ferret, one of the most beautiful valleys in the Aosta Valley.
Instead of a single nearly vertical wall, the Italian side consists of glaciers, rock ribs, couloirs, and broad high-altitude slopes descending from the summit ridge.
This is the side used by the first successful summit parties and remains the basis for the normal route.
The apparent moderation of the southern slopes should not be underestimated. Much of the terrain lies above 3,000 meters, glacier conditions can change significantly, and the upper mountain combines exposure with difficult route-finding.
🧊 Glacier de Leschaux
On the French side lies the Glacier de Leschaux, the great frozen basin beneath the North Face.
The glacier joins the wider Mer de Glace system downstream and provides the traditional approach to many of the mountain’s legendary north-face routes.
From the glacier, the Grandes Jorasses appears overwhelming.
The wall rises more than a vertical kilometer above the ice, divided by enormous buttresses, gullies, icefields, and rocky spurs.
For climbers attempting routes such as the Walker Spur, crossing the Leschaux Glacier is merely the beginning of an expedition that may require days on the face.
🧱 The North Face
The North Face of the Grandes Jorasses is one of the most famous mountain walls in the world.
Approximately 1,200 meters high and nearly a kilometer wide, it rises almost directly from the Glacier de Leschaux.
Along with the north faces of the Eiger and Matterhorn, it is traditionally counted among the three great north faces of the Alps.
What makes the wall extraordinary is its scale and variety.
Instead of one continuous slab, it contains several massive rock spurs separated by snowfields, ice gullies, hanging glaciers, and couloirs.
Routes ascend toward different summit points, creating an entire world of high-difficulty alpinism within one face.
🧗 The Croz Spur
The first major breakthrough on the North Face came in 1935.
German climbers Martin Meier and Rudolf Peters climbed the Croz Spur, reaching the summit ridge near Pointe Croz.
Their route proved that the intimidating North Face could be climbed.
The achievement immediately increased pressure to solve the wall’s greatest remaining problem: the enormous spur dropping directly from Pointe Walker.
That line would become one of the defining climbing challenges of the decade.
🧗♂️ The Walker Spur
The Walker Spur, or Éperon Walker, is the route most closely associated with the Grandes Jorasses.
The spur forms an enormous granite buttress rising directly toward Pointe Walker.
By the late 1930s, it had become one of the last great unsolved climbing problems in the Alps.
Several exceptionally strong teams attempted the line, but weather, technical difficulty, and the sheer scale of the wall repeatedly forced retreats.
Then, in August 1938, three Italian climbers arrived beneath the face.
Their names would become permanently associated with Alpine climbing history.
🧗 Riccardo Cassin’s 1938 Ascent
From August 4 to 6, 1938, Riccardo Cassin, Luigi Esposito, and Ugo Tizzoni completed the first ascent of the Walker Spur.
Cassin was already one of Italy’s leading climbers, but he had remarkably little prior familiarity with the Chamonix side of the Mont Blanc massif.
The route required sustained difficult rock climbing mixed with ice and snow, all while the climbers carried equipment for multiple bivouacs on the wall.
Their ascent immediately became recognized as one of the greatest achievements of pre-war alpinism.
The Alpine Journal later described the Walker as continuing to rank among the greatest climbs in the Alps even after technical standards had advanced substantially.
⭐ One of the Six Great North Faces
The Walker Spur eventually became part of a famous mountaineering list known as the Six Great North Faces of the Alps.
These are generally considered:
- Eiger
- Matterhorn
- Grandes Jorasses
- Piz Badile
- Cima Grande di Lavaredo
- Petit Dru
Climbing all six became an important milestone for elite mid-20th-century alpinists.
The Grandes Jorasses occupies a particularly significant place within the group because its Walker Spur combines the scale of an enormous mountain face with sustained technical climbing at high altitude.
🧗 The Whymper Spur
Another imposing feature of the North Face rises toward Pointe Whymper.
For decades this section resisted attempts even after other major lines on the wall had been climbed.
In 1964, legendary Italian alpinist Walter Bonatti and Swiss climber Michel Vaucher completed the first ascent of the Whymper Spur.
By then, Bonatti had already established himself as one of the greatest climbers of his generation through extraordinary achievements elsewhere in the Mont Blanc massif, including his famous solo route on Aiguille du Dru.
The Whymper route added another major chapter to the history of the Grandes Jorasses.
❄️ The Shroud
One of the North Face’s most visually distinctive features became known as the Shroud, or Le Linceul.
This broad sheet of steep ice lies between major rock buttresses on the wall.
In 1968, French climbers René Desmaison and Robert Flematti completed one of its most famous early ascents.
The Shroud represented a different type of climbing challenge from the rock-dominated Walker Spur. Success depended heavily on ice conditions, temperatures, and the stability of the surrounding terrain.
As the climate of the Alps changes, routes such as the Shroud can alter dramatically because their very existence depends upon persistent ice.
🏔️ The Complete Grandes Jorasses Traverse
Another major objective is the complete traverse of the Grandes Jorasses ridge.
Rather than climbing directly to one summit, mountaineers follow the crest across multiple major points.
A long west-to-east or east-to-west traverse can involve Pointe Young, Pointe Marguerite, Pointe Hélène, Pointe Croz, Pointe Whymper, and Pointe Walker.
The route combines rock climbing, mixed terrain, narrow ridges, glacier travel, high altitude, and extremely long days.
One approach to the western end follows the great Rochefort Ridge, passing Dent du Géant, Aiguille de Rochefort, and Dôme de Rochefort before reaching the Col des Grandes Jorasses.
The full journey is one of the great ridge traverses of the Mont Blanc massif.
🛖 Bivouac Canzio
The Bivouac Canzio stands at the Col des Grandes Jorasses near the western end of the summit system.
Its high position allows experienced mountaineers attempting the Grandes Jorasses traverse to divide an exceptionally long expedition into stages.
One classic itinerary reaches the bivouac after traversing the Rochefort chain from the direction of Pointe Helbronner.
The following day continues across the summits of the Grandes Jorasses before descending toward Rifugio Boccalatte and Val Ferret.
The journey is highly committing and intended for experienced alpinists capable of moving efficiently across complex mixed terrain.
🏔️ Connection with the Rochefort Ridge
West of the Grandes Jorasses lies one of the most beautiful snow ridges in the Alps.
The Rochefort Ridge links the Grandes Jorasses sector with Dôme de Rochefort, Aiguille de Rochefort, and Dent du Géant.
Sections of the ridge can become extraordinarily narrow, with corniced snow dropping sharply toward glaciers on both sides.
The crest eventually reaches the Col des Grandes Jorasses before rising into the westernmost peaks of the Jorasses group.
This connection makes the mountain part of a much larger high-altitude ridge system rather than an isolated massif.
🌍 The France–Italy Frontier
The summit crest of the Grandes Jorasses forms part of the international border between France and Italy.
The French North Face descends toward the Leschaux Glacier and the Chamonix side of the massif.
The southern side falls toward Val Ferret and Courmayeur in Italy.
This creates one of the most dramatic national boundaries anywhere in Europe: a line drawn along a narrow 4,000-meter ridge above glaciers and kilometer-high walls.
The watershed is equally important. Snow and ice falling on opposite sides of the summit ridge eventually enter different river systems and ultimately different seas.
🧊 Glaciers Around the Grandes Jorasses
Glaciers surround almost every major side of the mountain.
The Glacier de Leschaux lies beneath the North Face, while the Glacier du Mont Mallet occupies terrain farther west.
On the Italian side, the Planpincieux Glacier and other smaller ice bodies descend beneath the summit complex toward Val Ferret.
These glaciers are not static features.
Crevasses open and close, bergschrunds widen, seracs collapse, and ice surfaces retreat over time. The practical routes used by climbers therefore change even when the mountain’s broad topography remains recognizable.
Historical photographs of the Grandes Jorasses reveal substantial differences in snow and ice coverage compared with many modern seasons.
🌡️ Climate Change and the North Face
The Grandes Jorasses provides a particularly striking example of how warming temperatures affect technical alpinism.
Routes historically described as ice or mixed climbs can become much more rock-dominated when persistent snow and ice disappear.
High-altitude permafrost is also important.
Ice within fractures can act like cement, helping stabilize large blocks. When that ice thaws during prolonged warm periods, rockfall can increase.
For this reason, the safest climbing period for certain Grandes Jorasses routes may shift away from traditional summer windows toward colder periods when snow, ice, and rock are more stable.
Current conditions matter far more than the dates printed in old guidebooks.
⚠️ Hazards and Safety
Every route on the Grandes Jorasses is a serious Alpine undertaking.
The normal route involves glacier travel, crevasses, bergschrunds, steep snow, rock climbing, exposed ridges, and potentially complex navigation.
The North Face introduces another level of commitment.
Rockfall, falling ice, avalanches, storms, lightning, hard ice, altitude, route-finding difficulties, and multi-day exposure can all become major factors.
Retreat from a large route may be extremely difficult once a team is high on the wall.
Changing conditions also mean that a historically famous line should never be assumed to be safe merely because it has been climbed thousands of times.
Extensive mountaineering experience and recent local information are essential.
🌿 Flora and Fauna
Little conventional life survives near the 4,200-meter summit crest.
The highest reaches of the Grandes Jorasses belong to the nival zone, where snow, glacier ice, exposed granite, high winds, intense solar radiation, and freezing temperatures create an extremely severe environment.
Lichens and microorganisms may colonize isolated rock surfaces, but vascular plants are essentially absent.
Conditions change dramatically thousands of meters lower in Val Ferret and the Chamonix region.
Alpine meadows support gentians, saxifrages, bellflowers, alpine clovers, grasses, and rhododendrons. Larch and spruce forests occupy lower elevations where soils are deeper and temperatures warmer.
Wildlife within the wider Mont Blanc region includes Alpine ibex, chamois, marmots, mountain hares, rock ptarmigan, Alpine choughs, golden eagles, and bearded vultures.
👀 Where to See the Grandes Jorasses
The mountain can be appreciated from both sides of the Mont Blanc massif without entering technical climbing terrain.
On the Italian side, Val Ferret near Courmayeur provides extraordinary views of the broad southern slopes and the summit chain.
Higher viewpoints around Courmayeur and the Skyway Monte Bianco reveal an even wider panorama.
On the French side, the mountain can be seen from high viewpoints around the Montenvers and Mer de Glace region. The Glacier de Leschaux leads directly toward the North Face, although reaching close views of the wall requires a more serious mountain approach.
The Aiguille du Midi also provides excellent distant perspectives toward the Jorasses and surrounding Rochefort chain.
🏔️ Nearby Mountains
The Grandes Jorasses occupy one of the most dramatic mountain neighborhoods in the Alps.
To the west are Dôme de Rochefort and Aiguille de Rochefort, followed by Dent du Géant.
Farther west, the great glacial basin surrounding Aiguille du Midi leads toward Mont Blanc du Tacul, Mont Maudit, and Mont Blanc.
Northwest across the glacial landscape are Aiguille Verte, Les Droites, Les Courtes, and Aiguille de Triolet.
Farther toward the international junction of France, Italy, and Switzerland lies Mont Dolent.
🌄 Why the Grandes Jorasses Are Special
Few mountains illustrate the evolution of Alpine climbing as completely as the Grandes Jorasses.
The story began with exploration from the less intimidating Italian side. Edward Whymper reached Pointe Whymper in 1865, and Horace Walker’s party finally stood on the highest summit in 1868.
Once the summit had been reached, attention shifted toward the mountain’s true challenge—the North Face.
Meier and Peters opened the Croz Spur in 1935. Three years later, Riccardo Cassin, Luigi Esposito, and Ugo Tizzoni climbed the Walker Spur in an ascent that became one of the defining achievements of 20th-century alpinism. Later generations opened the Whymper Spur, the Shroud, and an increasingly complex network of technical routes.
The result is a mountain with two identities.
From Italy, the Grandes Jorasses is a magnificent chain of snow, glaciers, and summit ridges overlooking Val Ferret. From France, it is an immense granite fortress rising above the Leschaux Glacier.
For mountaineers, historians, and anyone fascinated by the great peaks of the Alps, the Grandes Jorasses remains one of the defining mountains of the Mont Blanc massif.
🔗 Related Articles
- Dent du Géant
- Aiguille du Midi
- Mont Blanc du Tacul
- Mont Maudit
- Mont Blanc
- Aiguille Verte
- Les Droites
- Les Courtes
- Aiguille de Triolet
- Mont Dolent
📚 Sources
- Peakbagger — Grandes Jorasses
- Peakbagger — Grandes Jorasses, Pointe Whymper
- Alpine Journal — Grandes Jorasses
- Alpine Journal — Melchior Anderegg and the 1868 Ascent
- Alpine Journal — Crescendo: The Walker Spur and Development of Alpine Climbing
- Guide Alpine Courmayeur — Grandes Jorasses Normal Route
- Guide Alpine Courmayeur — Rifugio Boccalatte
- Guide Alpine Courmayeur — Grandes Jorasses West Ridge Traverse
- Geology of the Mont Blanc Region — Formation
- Larousse — Grandes Jorasses
