Anna and I wanted to make a trail running around Aiglun to take some photos of its great cliffs. To make it interesting, we started from Gréolieres, crossed Gréolieres les Neiges and the Esteron river and went up to the Barre de l’Entonnoir on the other side of the Gorges to have a nice view over the cliffs. The trail is pretty rough, with lots of rocks, gravels and it is quite steep but very nice and when it is hot, it is good to take a break and swim in the Esteron. This trail was perfect for trying the Limpet GTX, the new Berghaus trail running shoes.
Aiglun: Paroie Dérobée and Paroie du Giet (© P. Gatta)
Distance: 32 km, ascent: 2650 m / descent: 2650 m.
Philippe running, Aiglun behind (© A. Gatta)
Description: park at Gréolieres (839 m), run along the GR4 toward Gréolieres les Neiges (signposts 30, 193, 194, 196). Continue along the GR4 to Vegay spring (94, 84) and down to the Esteron river (83, 82). Climb on the other side (85, 96) up to a pass at 1154 m, just before the signpost 97. Come back to through the same trail. To take a photo of the cliff, take a tiny trail which follows the crest of Barre de l’Entonnoir for 500 m.
The village, canyon and cliff of Aiglun (© P. Gatta)
Aiglun is a small village of the Esteron valley which has probably the best multi-pitches cliffs and one of the nicest canyon (Clue d’Aiglun) of the French Riviera. In fact there are two cliffs:
– The cliff of Giet: 30 routes ranging from 200m to 300m high in various styles: free climbing, aid climbing, well bolted or adventures.
– The Paroi Dérobée: many aid climbing routes in 250 meters high / 80 meters overhang cliff. There are also 2 amazing free-climbing routes called Ali Baba (250m : 8a, 8a, 7b+, 8a, 8a, 8a+, 8a, 7b+) and Les 40 Voleurs (330m : 7c, 7b+, 7c, 7a, 8a+, 7c+, 7b+, 8a, 7c, 6b).
See the topo of Aiglun here.
Philippe in Masotherapie, 2 climbers behind (© A. Gatta)
Canyon of Aiglun (© P. Gatta)