The Aiguilles Rouges ("Red Needles") are a crystalline mountainous
massif
In geology, a massif ( or ) is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole. The term also refers to a ...
of the
French Prealps
The French Prealps (french: Préalpes) are a group of subalpine mountain ranges of medium elevation located immediately west of the French Alps. They roughly stretch from Lake Geneva southwest to the rivers Isère and Drôme; east to a line runn ...
, opposite the
Mont Blanc Massif
The Mont Blanc massif (french: Massif du Mont-Blanc; it, Massiccio del Monte Bianco) is a mountain range in the Alps, located mostly in France and Italy, but also straddling Switzerland at its northeastern end. It contains eleven major indepen ...
. The colour of the iron rich
gneiss
Gneiss ( ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures a ...
(metamorphique) mountains gives the range its name. The highest summit is the
Aiguille du Belvédère at . At the southern end of the range,
Le Brévent at is accessible by a
cable car in the
Planpraz and the Brévent sections.
Morphology
Unlike the massif of the Mont Blanc, the Aiguilles Rouges have no significant glaciers. The
alpine stage begins around with rough boulders, above which a series of broken needles spring from the
Col des Montets to
Le Brévent. The northwestern side of the massif has less vegetation because of its lack of exposure to the sun. The southwest face abounds in vegetation which developed from a multitude of
biotopes. Amongst the typical flora hikers can discover include
sundew
''Drosera'', which is commonly known as the sundews, is one of the largest genera of carnivorous plants, with at least 194 species. 2 volumes. These members of the family Droseraceae lure, capture, and digest insects using stalked mucilaginou ...
s,
martagons and many varieties of
orchid
Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant.
Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowerin ...
s. In order to protect this biodiversity, the
Aiguilles Rouges National Nature Reserve (''Réserve naturelle des aiguilles rouges'') was created in 1974 covering 3,279 ha.
The Aiguilles Rouges offer a splendid view of all the peaks of
Chamonix
Chamonix-Mont-Blanc ( frp, Chamôni), more commonly known as Chamonix, is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of southeastern France. It was the site of the first Winter Olympics in 1924. In 2019, it had ...
, the glaciers of Mont Blanc, and the roof of Europe. The French artist
Samivel is known for his paintings of some of these splendid views. The highest point in this range is named Belvédère (literally "beautiful viewpoint" in French) because it offers a 360° panoramic view of all the mountains surrounding the Aiguilles Rouges. The mountain path running from Planpraz to the Col des Montets via La Flégère, just above the treeline of the Aiguilles Rouges, is called ''Le Grand Balcon Sud'' (Grand Southern Balcony).
The eastern part of the range has numerous mountain lakes, of which the most remarkable is
Lac Blanc at the foot of the Aiguille Belvédère.
The range is home to the principal climbing crags of Chamonix, which ascend the pinnacles of Planpraz made famous by the mountaineer
Gaston Rébuffat
Gaston Rébuffat (; 7 May 1921, Marseille – 31 May 1985, Paris) was a French alpinist, mountain guide, and author. He is well known as a member of the first expedition to summit Annapurna 1 in 1950 and the first man to climb all six of the ...
.
Main summits
* L'aiguille du Belvédère (2,965 meters), highest summit of the massif;
* L'aiguille de Tête Plate (2,944 meters);
* L'aiguille de la Floria (2,888 meters);
* L'aiguille du Pouce (2,873 meters);
* L'aiguille de la Glière (2,873 meters);
* L'aiguille Pourrie (2,562 meters);
* Le Brévent (2,525 meters): at the South of the massif and accessible by a two-section cablecar ("Planpraz" and "le Brévent");
* L'aiguillette des Houches (2,312 meters).
Lakes
*Lac Blanc (''White Lake'')
*
Lac du Brévent
* Lac Cornu (''Horned Lake'')
*Lac Noir d'en Bas (''Lower Black Lake'')
*Lac de l'Aiguillette
*Lacs des Chéserys
In fiction
Ian Fleming, when writing the fictional biography of
James Bond
The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...
, mentioned that Bond's parents were killed in a mountain climbing accident in the Aiguilles Rouges near Chamonix, when the future secret agent was eleven years old. He also mentions them in his novel ''
From Russia, with Love''.
External links
Aiguilles Rouges Nature Reserves
{{Coord, 45, 58, N, 6, 52, E, type:mountain_region:FR, display=title
Mountain ranges of the Alps
Mountain ranges of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes