A long hike from the Gordolasque valley, accessible from Vésubie in the Alpes-Maritimes. Nearly 1400 meters of elevation will offer you an exceptional panorama from Mont Blanc, the Swiss Alps, to the north, to Mercantour and to the Mediterranean Sea to the south.
Le Clapier: a summit at 3045 meters altitude that deserves
From the Countet car park (1680m) follow the marked path to the wall of the Italians and continue towards the refuge of Nice (CAF), 500 meters above the departure. Possibility to sleep on site before attacking almost 900 meters of altitude difference. The walk is done, as always as well on foot or ski in winter or early spring.
The climb takes place in the middle of large blocks of stone, a real battlefield, exhausting for the legs on the ascent and descent. No major difficulty, except weather or avalanche conditions. Do not hesitate to call a professional mountain to accompany you. Rando Clapier
. We advise you to arrive very early at the summit because the sea breeze often carries the marine humidity up to the summit to the point of preventing any sight. On the day of our ascent, with more than 12 kg of photo material (telephoto, heavy tripod etc.), the clouds invaded the summit less than 45 minutes after our arrival. You will surely come across chamois and ibex during the hike, as seen in the photo gallery below.
An exceptional view from the top of the Clapier
Corsica can be seen as often at these altitudes since the Mercantour. A panoramic image depicts it in lower shadow on this page. We offer you a clearer view of Corsica from the mainland on this site. You will discover below a megapixel panoramic image fruit of the assembly of several HD photos, the final image weigh about 1 GB per 100,000 pixels wide. Although the light (whitish) left something to be desired that day, visibility can identify distant peaks more than 200 kilometers away like Mont Blanc.
Example of details by zooming
Zoom into the picture below to find 4 people
La Fullscreen photo here : https://www.ovalp.com/images/photos/hd/pano-clapier-legendes-o.html
The Swiss Alps (Monte Rosa, Eiger Jungfrau etc.), the Gran Paradisio, the Viso closer and overlooking the plain of the Po, the massif of the Ecrins (Pelvoux, Ailefroides etc.) and of course the Argentera and the Gélas all near are visible by zooming in the image.
