Pic Crillon (Le Piéroux) – Les Gicons · Dévoluy · France
Read the cautionsBail with caveatsBolting confidence: medium
Also known as Gic'N'Roll. A long, varied line up the south-west face of Pic Crillon, with the whole Dévoluy as a backdrop: flint-studded walls, a chimney, a fine layback corner and an airy spur, linked by easier and sometimes grassy pitches. By the easier variants it is a steady 5c outing; the original lines on pitches 6 and 10 add two 6a+ sections. You can walk off after pitch 8.
Good bolts on the pitches, but two belays rely on a tree or a spike and the rest need your own cord, and the upper rock is loose in places.
The route
Pic Crillon, also called Le Piéroux, is the tower above the sport crag of Les Gicons, facing the Obiou, the Grand Ferrand and the Pic de Bure. Pas Gicon que ça starts right of a prow of yellow rock and works up the face in eleven pitches, of which seven give real climbing and four are links. Pitches 1, 5, 6 and 7 are the good ones: a wall on flints, a layback corner under a roof, a pillar and a wandering spur. The rock is good on the whole, with holds to test here and there and a looser top section. It is a mountain-flavoured outing more than a sport route, and a popular one.
The climbing
| Pitch | Grade | Length | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| P1 | 5c | 40 m | Grey slabs with short steps, odd at first, then easier, then a superb wall on flints, traversing up right to a tree in a very wide crack. Use long quickdraws: there is rope drag. The belay is one bolt and the tree. |
| P2 | 4c | 20 m | Climb the chimney above, then traverse left along a ramp and ledge to a belay on a ledge. |
| P3 | 5b | 35 m | A small slab, then turn a little overhang on the right on good holds (5b). Ramps and grassy ledges with a few steps of 4a lead to a small spur and a terrace below another spur. The most vegetated pitch. |
| P4 | 3c | 30 m | Up right of the spur, regain its crest and climb a slab on the left to a belay on the slab. |
| P5 | 5c | 25 m | Traverse left to a corner and climb it by a fine layback and bridging to a roof, then traverse left along a ledge to a comfortable belay. The best pitch. |
| P6 | 6a+ | 35 m | The original line climbs the crack straight above (6a+, or 5c and A0), steps 5 m left and continues straight up at 6a. The usual variant, which camptocamp recommends, is 5b+: traverse left for 5 m, climb straight up for 15 m and traverse right to the belay. Belay on a slab at 25 m, or better 10 m further at the foot of a spur beside a deep cleft. Parties in 2026 avoided the 6a+ because of poor rock. |
| P7 | 5c | 40 m | Climb the spur, weaving right then left, to its top. A 2025 party found the belay to be one bolt and a spike and carried on along the arête instead. |
| P8 | 4a | 25 m | Follow the arête for 10 m, climb down 2 m on the right and step across a deep cleft. Belay 10 m beyond. You can walk off here up the stony gully to the meadow. |
| P9 | 4b | 40 m | Cross the grassy gully leftwards and climb grassy steps on its true right to the crest of the summit spur. Handle the rock with care. |
| P10 | 5c+ | 40 m | The left-hand variant: start slightly left and climb a fairly sustained pitch to a belay shared with Gicon d'agneau. The original right-hand line follows a rising ramp right of the crest at 6a+ (30 m). |
| P11 | 3a | 40 m | Follow the arête as best you can to the summit grass. Belay on two bolts where the crest lies back, or 10 m further with a sling on a spike. |
Getting there
From Corps on the N85 (Grenoble to Gap) cross the Sautet dam and drive up the Souloise gorge, beneath the Gillardes walls, to Saint-Disdier. Continue on the D917 towards Saint-Étienne-en-Dévoluy and after about 1 km take a small road on the left, past the 11th-century chapel known as the Mère Église, to the upper hamlet of Les Hauts Gicons. Turn right in the hamlet and park about 200 to 300 m further on at the large car park by the telecom mast (1362 m). There is no public transport. In June 2026 a party found the mast car park closed for works and parked a little further on.
From the car park follow the path signed to the Gicons climbing site (wooden signs), straight up to the right-hand end of the cliff, then left along its foot, climbing gently. After about 60 m you pass below the corner where Le Rêve de Noémie starts. At a junction with a board naming the sectors, keep left on the level towards the long routes until you find two cairns, 15 m from a prow of yellow rock. 'PAS GICON QUE CA...' is written clearly at the foot. Gicon d'agneau starts 15 m to the left. Allow 30 to 45 minutes; do not take the turning to the Jardin Suspendu sector.
Loading map
The point marks the crag, not the exact start of the route.
Parking
Les Hauts Gicons, car park by the telecom mast (camptocamp waypoint 124724)
Point from camptocamp waypoint 41623 (Pic Crillon summit)
Contains the route point and parking. Opens in most mapping apps and GPS watches.
Points are compiled from published sources, with the precision stated above. They were not surveyed on the ground: check them against a current topo.
Coordinates: 44.74486, 5.91291 (crag) · Parking: 44.73579, 5.90940
Getting down
Walk about 50 m up towards the summit and find an abseil station on the right, marked by a cairn. Abseil 25 m down the east side of the Piéroux. Reach the meadow to the east and go down due south along the cliff. Then either follow the well-marked path and cairns down the gully back to the approach path and car park, or, to return to the foot of the routes, go down a grassy combe on the right and make a second 25 m abseil to the Jardin Suspendu sector. Allow 45 to 50 minutes.
Retreat
Bail with caveats
There is a stated walk-off after pitch 8, up a stony gully to the summit meadow, which misses out the last three pitches. Lower down, retreat means abseiling from two-bolt belays that are not linked or chained, leaving gear, and the first pitches traverse.
Partly inferred from the route facts
Safety
Sun and weather
South-west facing between about 1600 m and 1830 m. The face stays in the shade until about midday in summer; a party starting at 9:00 in July 2026 was in the shade as far as the seventh belay. It is hot in the afternoon. The cleft left of pitch 7 gives a cool draught in hot weather.
Sun on the wall · SW-facing
Working out the sunlit hours for this month.
Sun on the wallDaylight, wall in shade● Usual season
Estimated from the wall's aspect only. Ignores surrounding terrain, gullies and the wall's exact shape. Clock times are local to the wall (Central European time), for the 15th of each month.
Climate figures for Dévoluy are not available yet
What to carry
A 50 m single rope and about 13 quickdraws, several of them extendable to limit rope drag. Slings or cord to join the belay bolts and to back up the spike at the seventh belay. Helmet.
Derived from the route data; check it against a current topo
From climbers
Reader reports are not being collected yet. Until they are, check a current topo and the local club or guidebook publisher for recent changes to Pas Gicon que ça.
Worth knowing
Open questions
Provenance
Same area
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Read the cautions
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Six closely bolted pitches beside the great diagonal crack-chimney that splits the Gicons cliff, visible from the car park. Four pitches at about 5b on very grippy limestone lead to a crux where you either cross the chasm on two moves of 6b (or with the aiders in place) or climb the corner at 6a. Short, shaded until midday, and a good introduction to the Dévoluy.
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France · Dévoluy
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Spain · Aragonese Pyrenees (Tena & Canfranc valleys)
A 450 m granite spur above the lake at Baños de Panticosa, the opener's answer to anyone wanting a long, easy, bolted mountain route. Most of it is 4c to 5a on slabs, steps and short walls, with isolated moves of 5c to 6a+ that all have a cord on the bolt. Not steep or sustained, but a full day out that ends five minutes from the Ordicuso lakes.
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Italy · Aosta Valley
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Austria · Inntal (Haiming Geierwand)
The longest route on the Geierwand and its most popular easy outing: rough slabs low down, a walk across the big ledge, then steeper, pocketed and more exposed climbing above. The crux is a short traverse to the belay on pitch 10. The last two pitches are scrambling over loose ground.
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Spain · Vega Baja (Orihuela & Callosa)
The classic of Redován: ten pitches and 300 m of steady grade 5 with three steeper pitches on red rock. The eighth pitch, a traverse right into an overhanging corner above the orange cliffs, is the one people remember. Closed from January to June for nesting eagles.
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Compiled from published sources and last verified October 2026. Bolts, anchors and access change. Climbing is dangerous and you are responsible for your own decisions: check a current topo and read the disclaimer.