By Jerry Moffatt.

If you're into bouldering then England will drive you nuts in the summer. Greasy holds, rain and midges aren't my bag baby. Fontainebleau's the place to go bouldering in France right, it's not the only place and it sucks there in the summer anyway. The place where all the big gun Frenchies go (they've been keeping it quiet) is Ailefroide.

Situated 1515m high in the French Alps near Briancon, makes it an ideal climate for bouldering between mid April to mid October. Best time to visit would be July/August. It really is one of the most beautiful places to visit not crowded like Chamonix it's totally unspoilt. You could live of the land eating wild raspberries, blue berries. Get a gun and shoot some goats or marmots and eat them too - perhaps not!

Granite boulders litter the valley floor some in woods others higher up (just below a glacier) are out in the open. Some landings are OK but you'd better off with a matt, those things have turned us into wimps. If you want to do routes there are loads of them too from one pitch to 12 pitches long the hardest being around 8b+.

I had already bouldered here before with Didier Raboutou in '88 just for an afternoon. This time I stayed with Vincent Albrand who works for the French climbing mag 'Grimper' and has climbed in the valley since he was 4 years old. His mum has a house located smack bang in the middle of the boulders which was sound. There is a cheap campsite, which is massive and looked good. There's shops and stuff in the village as well as a climbing store where you can buy the climbing guide. A bouldering guide to the area should be out next summer.