Vieux Chaillol
3,163 m, the highest point of the Champsaur
Vieux Chaillol tops out at 3,163 m on the western edge of the Écrins massif, and it is the high point of the Champsaur, the valley that runs north out of Gap in the French Southern Alps. Seen from anywhere with a bit of distance in it, the mountain is the dark pyramid closing the skyline to the northeast, with nothing its size for several kilometers around. No glacier blocks the way. You walk to the top in a day, no rope and no crampons in summer.
At Altimood it is in front of us all year, and it is one of the first summits we put forward when someone wants a hard day with no exposure on it. It also settles the I have been above 3,000 m question without becoming an alpine route (the Pic Turbat, one valley over, is that category) or mountaineering.
The 2 ways up are below, each with its numbers and its trace.
The 2 routes up Vieux Chaillol
2 valleys reach the summit, and what you are picking between is the length of the day, not the technical difficulty. Neither side has an exposed section. Both want legs that have done some work first.
| Route | Trailhead | Distance | Elevation gain | Time | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chaillol 1600 | Saint-Michel-de-Chaillol, 1,600 m | 16 km round trip | +1,560 m | 8 hrs | 4/5 |
| Champoléon | Les Borels, 1,275 m | 23.5 km loop | +1,960 m | 11 hrs | 5/5 |
Those are walking times only, breaks excluded. They come from our own calculator, run on the distance and elevation gain of the 2 traces on this page: 4 methods (Naismith, the German Alpine Club formula, the Swiss Alpine Club formula and effort-kilometers), averaged and rounded up to the next half hour. On a day that climbs this much the 4 land a long way apart, 5 hrs 50 to 10 hrs 20 for the Chaillol side alone, so read 8 hrs as a midpoint and shift it for your own pace, your pack and how long you stop.
On our difficulty scale that is 4 out of 5 from Chaillol 1600 and 5 out of 5 for the Champoléon loop. If you are not sure where you sit on it, the 7-question level test gives you a marker in 2 minutes.
Measured against the Rockies, the Chaillol side lines up almost exactly with Mount Temple by the southwest ridge: 1,560 m of gain over 16 km, against roughly 1,600 m over 17 km. The difference is what happens at the end. Temple finishes with several hundred meters of loose scrambling above the big step, and nothing here asks for hands: the summit ridge stays walking to the cairn. The altitudes are familiar too, 3,163 m against Temple's 3,543 m, so nothing about the air will surprise you. The Champoléon loop is the bigger day of the 2, closer to a Skyline Trail crossing done in one push, and with 600 m more climbing than Temple.
Start early on either route. The upper third of both is bare rock with no shelter, and the July and August afternoon storms leave you nowhere quick to reach.
Vieux Chaillol from Chaillol 1600
The short way, and much the busier of the 2. Chaillol 1600 is a small ski village, and the road takes the trailhead up to 1,600 m, which cuts 300 m of climbing off the valley floor. The trail rises steadily to the col de la Pisse, traverses across to the cabane des Parisiens, then works up through scree and slabs to the top.
An out-and-back, down the way you went up. The logistics stay simple and you are never committed, so you can turn around at any point, which counts on a day this long. If you reach the cabane des Parisiens ahead of schedule, the canal de Mal-Cros and its stone tunnels are worth the detour.
If the day is short or the sky looks doubtful, the pic Queyrel (2,433 m) starts from the same parking lot and asks a good deal less: 11 km and 730 m of gain, with a natural rock arch on the ridge and a view that already takes in the whole Champsaur.
- Trailhead: Chaillol 1600 (Saint-Michel-de-Chaillol), 1,600 m
- Distance: 16 km round trip
- Elevation gain: +1,560 m
- Time: 8 hrs
- Grade: 4/5 (elevation gain, length, rocky ground high up)
- Season: July to October
- Distance : 16.1 km
- Dénivelé positif : 1563 m
- Dénivelé négatif : 1567 m
Vieux Chaillol as a loop from Champoléon
The Champoléon side starts 325 m lower, in the Drac Blanc valley, and the loop closes naturally over the refuge du Tourond.
23.5 km and 1,960 m puts this among the biggest hiking days in the Champsaur. Someone fit who leaves before first light will close it inside the day, though it works better broken in 2, with a night out on the ridge, bivouac style, and the summit taken in the morning.
- Trailhead: Les Borels (Champoléon), 1,275 m
- Distance: 23.5 km loop
- Elevation gain: +1,960 m
- Time: 11 hrs
- Grade: 5/5 (length, elevation gain, a full day above 2,000 m)
- Season: July to October
- Distance : 23.6 km
- Dénivelé positif : 1957 m
- Dénivelé négatif : 1956 m
The view from the top
At 3,163 m, Vieux Chaillol has no neighbor of its own height for several kilometers, and the view runs a full 360. North and east, the summits of the Écrins National Park line up, the Olan and the Sirac to the front. To the southwest the hedged farmland of the Champsaur falls away toward Gap, the cliffs of the Dévoluy standing behind it. On a clear day the Vercors shuts the horizon to the northwest and Mont Ventoux appears due south.
Ibex hold both sides of the mountain and will let themselves be watched, from where you are and no closer. Chamois keep to the grassy slopes lower down, and marmots take over anything that looks like an alpine pasture. Early morning and the last 2 hours of light are when all 3 are out and moving; through the heat of the middle of the day the ibex move onto shaded rock under the crest and take a lot more finding. Nothing on this mountain requires the food planning a Rockies day does: the largest animal here is the ibex, and the pack you carry is a day pack.
The canal de Mal-Cros, water taken through the mountain
A stone-lined trench leaves the col de Riou Beyrou (2,695 m), where the cabane des Parisiens stands, and runs due east toward the lac de Mal-Cros. That is the canal de Mal-Cros, and it repays the detour. An imperial decree of 1853 gave the Champsaur the right to take the meltwater of the upper Mal-Cros valley, over on the Champoléon side, and bring it through to the far side of the mountain for the meadows of Saint-Michel-de-Chaillol, Saint-Julien and Saint-Bonnet. The intake sits at 2,818 m, the distribution point down at Chaillol at 1,750 m, and in between the canal crosses the col de Riou Beyrou, then the col de la Pisse (2,354 m).
What is left on the ground can be walked: channels cut in dressed stone, traverses hacked out of the cliff face, and a vaulted tunnel 114 m long under a scree slope, crossed by headlamp. What is now the cabane des Parisiens housed the work crews. Water reached Chaillol in 1872 and the branches toward Saint-Bonnet were finished in 1878. The ones meant for Buissard and Bénévent were never built. Since 2004 an association has been restoring the upper sections, and that stretch is waymarked with interpretation panels along it.
Climbing Vieux Chaillol with a guide in 2026
The mountain guides at Altimood live in the Champsaur-Valgaudemar and run this ascent as a day trip, in a small group. Over 8 to 10 hours the work is mostly pacing the group and reading the weather. Where the pace leaves room for it, the stops are what give the wildlife, the plants and the geology of the mountain their share of the day.
Our other trips in the Champsaur-Valgaudemar
France | Southern AlpsÉcrins National Park Traverse
From 992 $ CA – 5 daysA 5-day guided trek through the wildest part of the French Alps.
Know more →
France | Southern AlpsÉcrins Tour in 9 Days - Comfort
From 3,316 $ CA – 9 daysThe GR54 stripped down to its highest passes, in 8 walking days, with a twin room and a daypack every evening.
Know more →
Vieux Chaillol is also the high point of the tour du Vieux Chaillol, the regional long-distance route that rings the massif in 4 to 6 days between the Champsaur and the Valgaudemar. Crossing the Atlantic for a single summit is a thin plan, and the time change is against you on the first morning anyway: the 9-day Écrins tour crosses this same country on its way around the massif, and a week built around your own dates and group can take Vieux Chaillol as its big day.
Practical information
Which map covers Vieux Chaillol?
Carry the TOP25 3437 OT (Champsaur, Vieux Chaillol): it has both routes on it end to end. The French 1:25,000 holds far more detail than a Canadian 1:50,000 topo, with contours every 10 m and every shepherd's hut, wall and water channel drawn in. Above the cabane des Parisiens the waymarking thins out and the ground stops handing you landmarks: from there you go on cairns, on the shape of the broad ridge and on the col below you. Take the bearing off the map before the cloud arrives rather than after.
When to climb Vieux Chaillol
July to October. Snow lies late on the summit section, and before the start of July the upper slopes call for an ice axe and crampons rather than a pair of poles. September is the pick of the 4 months: the days are still long enough for the Champoléon loop, and the air is clearer for the view.
Vieux Chaillol in winter
In winter the summit itself falls between committing snowshoe travel, ski touring and winter mountaineering. The valleys leading up to it are another matter: they make excellent snowshoeing country, with lower objectives and days cut to the daylight there actually is.
