UKH

A couple friends and I are going to Nendaz in August and I’m trying to find a couple PD (maybe AD-) routes in the nearby region. Ideally we would like to do routes needing a mix of skill sets (so we can put our recent courses and lessons into practice).

Struggling to find any decent guidebooks for the area, so any recommendations either for books or actual routes in or near the 4 valleés would be much appreciated!

have you got a car? if so you could drive around to saas grund, warm up/acclimatize in the south ridge of the jegihorn then do the weissmies traverse from the almageller hut.

or drive around to evolene/arolla, there's a load of PD's there (although they are high effort due to lack of chair lifts). Mont blanc de cheilon would be one to look at.

The Alpine Club "Valais Alps West" guidebook by Lindsay Griffin covers that area. It's hard to find now and can be extortionately priced but there's a copy on ebay at the moment with bids starting at £40 if you're interested. That's pricey for a guidebook but it's £286 on Amazon!

Failing that you could put a post in the wanted forum on here and see if anyone will part theirs.

This is a good idea for getting an indication of options, but bear in mind that conditions in the mountains could have changed a fair bit from the descriptions in that book due to its age - good to get ideas from there but then research further/potentially speak with the Guides Office in Saas Fee.

Thanks guys that’s very helpful.

We will have a car, ideally we’re looking to not have to drive outside of the area, but guess we might have to.

Will have a look for that guidebook. I’m wondering if there are any more recent guidebooks in French? But perhaps UKclimbing forum isn’t the place to be asking that ha!

https://www.summitpost.org/grande-casse/151539

Grande Casse

Thanks but think this is near the 3 vallees, in france, as opposed to 4 vallees in Switzerland

Does look like a great climb though!

Oh yeh, oops.

So I had another look at this and actually looked at where Nendaz is, hah. So you're really near Arolla, and also not far from Argentiere. Some books to look at might be:

1. Chamonix Rockfax - you're not far from the eastern end of the MB massif e.g. Tour, Chardonnet area - https://rockfax.com/climbing-guides/books/chamonix/
2. Schweiz Plaisir Alpin - has English descriptions covering a range of easy routes in various areas, https://www.needlesports.com/Catalogue/Books-Media/Guidebooks/Switzerland/S...
3. Alpine Mountaineering by Bruce Goodlad - good book/bible anyway but has some good intro route descriptions and options at the end https://www.braemarmountainsports.com/navigation-books/instructional-books/...
4. 4000m Peaks of the Alps by Martin Moran - not so many 4000m peaks exactly where you're staying but if you do aim further afield then it gives good options and route descriptions for normal/classic routes - https://www.needlesports.com/Catalogue/Books-Media/Guidebooks/France/The-40...

Bit of a left field option but the Swiss Alpine Club now has a digital portal with topos and route descriptions - they're often but not always in English (appears to depend on the region and maybe more being translated over time), which is a good source for info on lower routes - https://www.sac-cas.ch/en/huts-and-tours/sac-route-portal/

Also camptocamp, summitpost

in French, there's a SAC selected guide to the valais which is pretty recent (2017) as well as the SAC online portal which has already been mentioned. 

https://www.sac-cas.ch/fr/shop/livres/detail/alpes-valaisannes/7987/

From Nendaz you will need to drive a little bit but one hour will get you to a lot of places. Arolla, val d'Anniviers (Zinal/Moiry) and the Saastal all have lots of options as does the val de Bagnes.

For example La Ruinette (3875m) via the SW ridge from Chanrion is a nice PD which would be a good introduction and without too much objective danger. 

Another good introductory peak is the traverse of the Blanc du Moming from Mountet.

Neither are ultra classic routes but they involve alpine route finding and terrain and will be far less frequented than something like the Pigne d'Arolla or the Bishorn.

For one day rocky routes there are plenty in the region as well - the Couronne de Bréonna and the Aiguilles de la Lé being classics.  

Also don't neglect the idea of taking the bus/train and doing traverses from one valley to another which opens up a lot of nice options.