The route on this list that will feel most familiar after Scotland: a proper gully line rather than a hanging curtain, 200 m of it, with the difficulty spread across short ice steps linked by snow rather than concentrated in one pillar. In a lean year it turns mixed and the crux goes at about M4+, which puts it well inside drytooling range.

Valeille, Lillaz Gully

WI4 (M4+ when lean) / 6-7 pitches, ~200 m ↗

Logistics

Approach
  • Park at the Lillaz car park (45.5941, 7.3901), 8 min drive from Cogne.
  • The gully sits directly above the village. The approach is unsigned — follow the red-and-white paint marks on the trees straight up the scree below the gully.
Descent
  • Abseil the line. Pitch 5 finishes at a large pine with in-situ tat; there are bolted belays on at least some of the lower pitches, but take enough to back them up and to build your own.

Notes

  • Lengths differ by source: Mountain Project gives 212 m in 6 pitches, the UKC logbook 200 m in 6, the UKC destination guide 7. Plan for ~200 m and seven short pitches.
  • Second pitch is a narrow WI3 gully onto a snow ramp under the crux. Pitch 3 is reported as thin and insecure when dry — the pitch to be honest about on the day.
  • One of the many Cogne lines associated with Gian Carlo Grassi, who put up much of what is worth climbing in the Valeille and Valnontey before he died in 1991.
  • Gully line means spindrift and loading after snowfall. This is the route on the list most sensitive to the avalanche bulletin.