Mont Charvatton (Terrisse, Pontboset, Champorcher valley) · Aosta Valley · Italy
Easy to bailBolting confidence: high
A very long slab route on excellent rough gneiss at the mouth of the Champorcher valley: fifteen pitches, most of them 5c, several close to 50 m. The one steep passage is a roof on pitch 3 that almost everyone aids on the bolts (6b+ free). A band of trees splits the route in two, and the upper half is the more attractive.
The route
Tommy is the popular long route on the south-west flank of Mont Charvatton, above the hamlet of Terrisse near Pontboset. It gains about 450 m in fifteen pitches, nearly all on featured slabs with pockets and quartz veins. After a hard move on pitch 2 comes the only strenuous section, a short overhanging wall on pitch 3 that is climbed on aid. Nine pitches lead to a wooded terrace; six more, on a vague spur and then easy slabs, reach the end of a footpath. It was fully rebolted in 2019 and 2020, and you can either abseil the line or walk off to Courtil. It is the easiest of the three long routes here; Caterpillar and Quarant'anni di Emozioni start nearby.
The climbing
| Pitch | Grade | Bolts | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| P1 | 5c | 7 bolts | An easy slab with the bolts far apart at first (three in the first 30 m), then a wide crack slanting up left and a delicate traverse right, with four close bolts, to a belay on a pulpit. Gulliver gives 45 m. |
| P2 | 6a+ | 8 bolts | Diagonally right to a vertical step, climbed direct, then a slab that is not easy and a traverse right over a second step. For many the hardest free pitch. Gulliver gives 30 m. |
| P3 | 5c/A0 | 15 bolts | A first step, then an overhanging wall climbed leftwards on the bolts (strenuous; 6b+ if freed, two moves) and a traverse of 10 to 15 m back right at 5c with bolts very close together. The belay is on three bolts. Fifteen quickdraws are needed. About 20 m. |
| P4 | 5b/c | 11 bolts | Straight up, then gradually right, with a few delicate friction moves that are well protected. |
| P5 | 5c | 14 bolts | Slightly left, then a long way up a broad, vague pillar. |
| P6 | 5c | 13 bolts | Leftwards into a wide runnel with deeply fissured rock, easy but wet after rain. The exit to the belay is delicate but well bolted. Do not follow the obvious flake that leads up right near the top: the belay is on the left and is hard to reach from there. |
| P7 | 5c | 13 bolts | A sort of corner rising left, then slabs, a small overhang and more slabs. |
| P8 | 5a | 8 bolts | The wall lies back: easy-angled slabs diagonally left. A full 50 m. |
| P9 | 3b | 6 bolts | Very easy slabs to the wooded terrace. Walk right under the copse (fixed rope) to the foot of the next rocks; the first bolt is about 4 m up at the base of a spur. |
| P10 | 5c | 11 bolts | Splendid climbing on a vague spur, with a delicate traverse left to the belay. |
| P11 | 5c | 8 bolts | The first bolt is rather high. A steeper, well-featured wall on good holds, then left of the edge. |
| P12 | 5c | 18 bolts | A very fine pitch up a broad chute of perfect rock, like a toboggan run, with a move at the start and another at the end over two bulges. Leave the chute on the right by a delicate slab move. |
| P13 | 5a | – | A pleasant crack and easy slabs. |
| P14 | 3+ | – | Easier slabs to the belay with a cable. This is where the abseil descent starts. |
| P15 | 3 | 10 bolts | Just over 50 m of very easy slab to the fence at the end of the footpath from Courtil. Only needed if you walk off. |
Getting there
From the A5 motorway leave at Pont-Saint-Martin (or Verrès from the north), follow the main road to Bard and Hône and turn into the Champorcher valley. Stay on the valley road through Pontboset. Shortly after the village, just before a tunnel, a small road turns sharply right to Terrisse and ends after about 300 m. Parking is very limited: three or four cars at the road end, plus a few spaces beside the valley road just before the Terrisse turn-off. There is a gîte at Courtil, ten minutes up the valley, and the Auberge de la Gare at Hône is recommended by a 2022 party.
20 to 30 min. At the road end a sign painted in red on a retaining wall shows the way. Take the path that leaves immediately on the right just after the parking, in front of the houses, and do not go in among them. It climbs through the wood, marked with red dots and yellow arrows. The signpost reading 'Mont Chavorton' leads to the routes, not the summit. Three routes start about 100 m apart: Tommy is the last one, after a metal ladder, and has a plaque with its name at the base.
Loading map
The point is approximate: it marks the area, not the crag.
Coordinates · area: approximate
Parking
Terrisse road end (camptocamp access point 226767)
Point from camptocamp waypoint 43612 (summit of Mont Charvatton; the route is on the south-west flank below it)
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: 45.61877, 7.69004 (area) · Parking: 45.60923, 7.68544
Getting down
Two options. (1) Abseil the route with two ropes from the cable belay at the top of pitch 14: camptocamp counts 11 abseils, Scuola Guido della Torre 13. The line is not exactly the line of ascent. From the terrace, one short abseil reaches the foot of pitch 10, and below that you keep right of the tree to an abseil anchor under a small overhang that is not used on the way up. The belays of pitch 7 and pitch 3 are also skipped in favour of anchors about 20 m to the left (facing in). From the second belay a full 60 m abseil reaches the ground. Allow 1 h 30 min to 2 h 30 min, more if the route is busy. (2) Walk off: climb pitch 15 to the fence and follow the comfortable red-marked path to the hamlet of Courtil in about 45 min. From there it is 45 min to an hour on foot down the road to Terrisse, unless you have left a second car.
Retreat
Easy to bail
Abseiling the route is one of the two normal descents, so retreat is well provided for. Scuola Guido della Torre says you can stop the climb at any point because the abseils use almost all of the route's belays, and a 2022 party found the abseil line well equipped with chained belays. You need two ropes.
Safety
Sun and weather
South-west facing between about 1000 and 1450 m. The wall is in shade until about 10:30 and a 2023 party got the sun from 11:00. Spring and autumn are best; the Scuola says all year except winter. The central runnel (pitch 6) drains the wall and stays wet for days after rain, which also makes the lower slabs slippery. Go only after a few dry days. A wet pitch 6 can be avoided from the fifth belay by pitches 5 to 9 of Quarant'anni di Emozioni on the right, which rejoin at the foot of pitch 10. Climbing times range from 4 h to 7 h 30 min; with the abseils this is a full day.
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.
| Measure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr (usual season) | May (usual season) | Jun (usual season) | Jul | Aug | Sep (usual season) | Oct (usual season) | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean daily high °C | −2 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 11 | 17 | 20 | 20 | 16 | 10 | 3 | −1 |
| Mean daily low °C | −8 | −8 | −5 | −1 | 4 | 8 | 11 | 11 | 7 | 2 | −4 | −8 |
| Rain days 1 mm or more | 12 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 16 | 16 | 15 | 13 | 12 | 12 | 13 | 12 |
● marks the usual climbing season. Averages for 1991-2020 at about 1489 m. Area climate from Open-Meteo reanalysis. Temperatures are adjusted to the height of the crag; rain comes from a grid cell of about 10 to 25 km, and summer highs on sea cliffs can read a few degrees low. The wall and valley can differ. Data: Open-Meteo, CC BY 4.0.
What to carry
16 quickdraws (pitch 12 has 18 bolts and pitch 3 has 15, but you can back-clean on easy ground). Two ropes of 60 m if you abseil; camptocamp's English page says 2×50 m, but the Scuola measured pitch 8 at exactly 50 m and the last abseil is given as a full 60 m. A sling or short etrier helps on the aid moves of pitch 3. Cams and nuts are not needed. 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 Tommy.
Worth knowing
Open questions
Provenance
Same area
Italy · Aosta Valley
This is the most-climbed route on the Paretone. It gives sustained, varied slab and crack climbing on good gneiss, and the hardest moves are a fine crack on P2, a slanting corner and a punchy wall. Queues are common on good days. The Mani Nude guidebook grades it stiffly; camptocamp's Italian page calls it sustained at 5b–5c+ with a single 6a.
6a10 pitches290 m
Read the cautions
Italy · Aosta Valley
Along with Bucce d'Arancia this is the Paretone's other great classic (first ascent 1977, later retro-bolted). It climbs big, juggy, non-athletic slabs on beautiful rock up the centre of the wall to near the summit. Expect a few metres above the last bolt in places.
5c+9 pitches250 m
Read the cautions
Italy · Aosta Valley
A long, easy-angled outing up the full height of the Paretone. A steeper lower half with an exposed pillar on P5 leads to sculpted slabs and broken steps higher up. It's a good first big multipitch.
5c13 pitches400 m
Italy · Aosta Valley
Rated 'great' on camptocamp: a wild setting with a short, easy approach from Lavachey. It climbs edgy granite slabs and a pillar crest, with a three-star exposed slab on P9.
6a+11 pitches350 m
Around 6a+ · about 15 pitches
Spain · Aragonese Pyrenees (Tena & Canfranc valleys)
Fifteen pitches up a broken granite wall that nobody had climbed on before 2023, probably the longest bolted route at Panticosa. Corners, steps and slabs at around 5b, cut by ledges and terraces, with isolated moves of 6a and a 6a+ corner on the last pitch that are not obligatory. Sun from first thing. The length is the attraction; repeat parties find the climbing pleasant but discontinuous.
6a+15 pitches550 m
Germany · Ammergauer Alpen
The longest route on the Säuling: sixteen pitches up the west face to the summit cross, above Neuschwanstein and the lakes of the Allgäu. The lower part links pillars, traverses and some broken ground at UIAA 3 to 6+; the headwall is steep and compact, with a short aid passage and fine corners. Generously bolted, so a weaker second still has a good day.
6a+16 pitches360 m
Austria · Grazer Bergland
Possibly the longest route in the Grazer Bergland: sixteen pitches that start up the Ratengrat (Don Kamille) and continue up the Breite Wand (Pepperone). The lower half is among the best climbing on the Ratengrat; the upper half begins gently over slabby steps in the forest and then steepens. Two passages of UIAA 7- and several of 6+.
6b16 pitches440 m
France · La Bérarde (Écrins)
Fifteen pitches up the steeper centre of the face: steep cracks and walls in the first third, then a long sequence of sometimes very thin friction slabs. Mostly 5c to 6a+ with one short 6b+ that goes at A0. Rated among the best on the wall and much quieter than its famous neighbour.
6b+15 pitches400 m
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.