Mont Aiguille () is a mountain in the

Vercors Massif The Vercors Massif is a range in France consisting of rugged plateaus and mountains straddling the ''départements'' of Isère and Drôme in the French Prealps. It lies west of the Dauphiné Alps, from which it is separated by the rivers Drac ...

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 ...

, located south of

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

, in the

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

Chichilianne Chichilianne () is a commune in the Isère department in southeastern France. Population See also *Communes of the Isère department The following is a list of the 512 communes in the French department of Isère. The communes cooperate ...

, and the

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level ("territorial collectivity, territorial collectivities"), between the regions of France, admin ...

Isère Isère ( , ; frp, Isera; oc, Isèra, ) is a landlocked department in the southeastern French region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Named after the river Isère, it had a population of 1,271,166 in 2019.Seven Wonders of Dauphiné The Seven Wonders of Dauphiné are seven natural and man-made sites and monuments located in the Dauphiné former province of south-eastern France, and especially within the Dauphiné Alps, each with some attached legendary or mythical significanc ...

, is a relatively flat limestone

mesa A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge or hill, which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by ...

surrounded by steep cliffs. The mountain lies within an area designated in 1970 as the

Vercors Regional Natural Park The Vercors Regional Natural Park (French: ''Parc naturel régional du Vercors'') is a protected area of forested mountains in the Rhône-Alpes region of southeastern France. Geography Set upon a limestone plateau south of Grenoble, the park ex ...

. Mont Aiguille's limestone cliffs, especially on the northwest side, are popular with climbers. Its first climb in 1492 was said to mark the birth of mountaineering.

Topography and geography

Mont Aiguille is a mesa eroded from the Vercors Plateau in the drainage basin of the

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...

. It is surrounded by steep cliffs and has a height of and a

clean prominence In topography, prominence (also referred to as autonomous height, relative height, and shoulder drop in US English, and drop or relative height in British English) measures the height of a mountain or hill's summit relative to the lowest contou ...

of . The surrounding terrain is difficult enough to warrant a technical climb as the easiest method of ascent. The mountain is capped with meadows botanically similar to those on the Vercors High Plateau, but beneath the cliffs there are extensive forests. The mountain lies within the

and is in the

Geomorphology and geology

Geomorphologically, the mountain is a

-like outlier, that is to say, the remains of a plateau that has been otherwise eroded to leave only a single pillar of rock - weaker or fractured rocks (the so-called ''Jasneuf fault'') between the current summit and the Vercors high plateau were eroded over time by over 400 metres, leaving the peak standing on its own. This has resulted in several unique features of Mont Aiguille, including the cliffs, which are almost identical to those on the eastern edge of the

Vercors Plateau The Vercors Massif is a range in France consisting of rugged plateaus and mountains straddling the '' départements'' of Isère and Drôme in the French Prealps. It lies west of the Dauphiné Alps, from which it is separated by the rivers Dr ...

such as those on the edge of the

Grand Veymont Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor * Grand Mixer DXT, American turntablist * Grand Puba (born 1966), American rapper Places * Grand, Oklahoma * Grand, Vosges, village and co ...

, which is the highest point of the range. Another feature resulting from this is the presence of meadows on the summit plateau, which are similar to those to the west on the rest of the Vercors plateau. Mont Aiguille is a limestone mesa, previously connected to the main body of the high

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ha ...

of the

. The summit is made up of lower

Barremian The Barremian is an age in the geologic timescale (or a chronostratigraphic stage) between 129.4 ± 1.5 Ma (million years ago) and 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma). It is a subdivision of the Early Cretaceous Epoch (or Lower Cretaceous Series). It is precede ...

strata, deposited during the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

period. This is the same as the plateau to the west, but not as the immediate environs: the lower slopes are composed of older

Hauterivian The Hauterivian is, in the geologic timescale, an age in the Early Cretaceous Epoch or a stage in the Lower Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 132.9 ± 2 Ma and 129.4 ± 1.5 Ma (million years ago). The Hauterivian is preceded by the ...

strata. As easily observed, the bedding planes are all roughly level, although there is some inclination down to the north-east.

History

According to Roman legend, the mountain was torn from the rest of the Vercors when a hunter named Ibicus saw naked goddesses on the mountain and was changed into an

ibex An ibex (plural ibex, ibexes or ibices) is any of several species of wild goat (genus ''Capra''), distinguished by the male's large recurved horns, which are transversely ridged in front. Ibex are found in Eurasia, North Africa and East Africa ...

as punishment. In the medieval period, Mont Aiguille was traditionally called "Mount Inaccessible", and typically depicted as an "inverted pyramid" or "mushroom". Since at least the thirteenth century, the mountain has been regarded as one of the

Seven Wonders of Dauphiné The Seven Wonders of Dauphiné are seven natural and man-made sites and monuments located in the Dauphiné former province of south-eastern France, and especially within the Dauphiné Alps, each with some attached legendary or mythical significanc ...

. The mountain is most noted for its first ascent in 1492. Charles VIII ordered that the peak be climbed, so one of his servants, Antoine de Ville, made the ascent using a combination of ladders, ropes and other artificial aids. He was visited in the following days by many local members of the nobility and aristocracy. The team bivouacked on the summit for eight days, erecting small crosses and a stone shelter. The ascent is described by

François Rabelais François Rabelais ( , , ; born between 1483 and 1494; died 1553) was a French Renaissance writer, physician, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar. He is primarily known as a writer of satire, of the grotesque, and of bawdy jokes and ...

in his ''

Quart Livre The quart (symbol: qt) is an English unit of volume equal to a quarter gallon. Three kinds of quarts are currently used: the liquid quart and dry quart of the US customary system and the of the British imperial system. All are roughly equa ...

''. This was the first recorded climb of any technical difficulty, and has been said to mark the beginning of

mountaineering Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, a ...

. The mountain was not climbed again until 1834, nearly 350 years later, when it was ascended barefoot by Jean Liotard, accompanied for one-quarter of the way by local explorers. Less than a month later, it was climbed by seven people at the same time, who reportedly danced and sang ''

La Marseillaise "La Marseillaise" is the national anthem of France. The song was written in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg after the declaration of war by France against Austria, and was originally titled "Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du R ...

'' on the summit. In 1940, the top of the mountain collapsed, reducing the height to . Seventeen years later, on 27 August 1957, the stunt pilot

Henri Giraud Henri Honoré Giraud (18 January 1879 – 11 March 1949) was a French general and a leader of the Free French Forces during the Second World War until he was forced to retire in 1944. Born to an Alsatian family in Paris, Giraud graduated from ...

landed a

Piper J-3 Cub The Piper J-3 Cub is an American light aircraft that was built between 1938 and 1947 by Piper Aircraft. The aircraft has a simple, lightweight design which gives it good low-speed handling properties and short-field performance. The Cub is Pi ...

on the summit, utilising an -long, -wide runway which had been built earlier that day using materials and men lifted to the summit by helicopters. In the following 18 years, he staged a further 51 landings on the summit before his final landing in 1975, many carrying paying passengers, and often made using skis. The mountain was in 1970 designated as part of the

Parc naturel régional du Vercors The Vercors Regional Natural Park (French: ''Parc naturel régional du Vercors'') is a protected area of forested mountains in the Rhône-Alpes region of southeastern France. Geography Set upon a limestone plateau south of Grenoble, the park ext ...

Gallery

Mont Aiguille avec arche vu du Pas de l'Aiguille.JPG, Mont Aiguille with the arch from Little Needle Mont-Aiguille.jpg, Mont Aiguille Clelles-Mens station 1.JPG, Clelles-Mens station Mont Aiguille vu de RN Clelles.JPG, Mont Aiguille viewed from RN Clelles Mont Aiuguille.jpg, Mont Aiguille

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aiguille Mountains of Isère Mountains of the Alps Two-thousanders of France Dauphiné Prealps Mesas