UKH

So from that photo and a description on the Nevache tourism website, looks like it's a multi-pitch bolted sport route with some fixed aid in the form of stemples or rungs in certain sections.

Thanks for making us aware that it exists.
Hope I get to check it out in the next couple of months.

Have you climbed it yourself yet?

. (Not clear to me why it should _belong_ in a phone app or database for Via Ferrata routes).

Ken

Sports climb with rungs or via ferrata with out cable is really the same thing = via corda, its more like bolted scrambling than sports climbing, and its not really designed to be pitched, but you could do if you wanted to.

yes did it last week, 

There are a few via corda popping up around Europe, in terms of promoting or guidebook's, there isn't enough to do a stand a lone book especially for one area, so the current thinking is to add them as a top end or bolt on to via ferrata, it could and may cross a few guidebooks (climbing etc), one of the thoughts for adding it to the via ferrata book/guides is that people looking to do via ferrata may hear about it or see signs for it and think it suitable for them, if its in the book they can get all the info and make a informed decision if it for them.  

I read article about them in a CAF publication not long ago, think that featured one in the Cirque d'Archiane (Vercors). A quick Google suggests there are quite a few in the Alps, Pyrenees & Massif Central

Wrecking of the mountains continues for commercial gain.

John

Hi John, I understand your sentiment and in some ways admire it, but I also think things like this need to be evaluated as to what they bring and take away. Lets be honest many of the activities talked about on this form damage or have an impact on the mountain we love.

Resort skiing and its infrastructure has a massive impact and creates quite an eye sore on the mountains, yet many of us do it (including you I think) that is defiantly 100% wrecking of the mountains for commercial gains.

Via ferrata, the bolts in sports climbs, pegs, maintained paths, fixed gear on walks and routes and even huts and refuges all have an impact. A lot of them are use to encourage others to come which is commercial is some ways, I am not saying that it should be a free for all and anything goes, but things should be looked at in context.

For this specific route, it is built following a very very old via ferrata that had fallen into a poor state it was dangerous to use and was closed, the local council wanted it re opening and there was talk of re-equiping it as a via ferrata but they decided to do a via cords instead. It uses a lot of the old staples to climb on, only the odd new staple and bolts/pigs-tails have been added, you can not see it unless you are on it, you cant even see it when you look down from the summit, and the terrain it covers is not somewhere you would look to go as a climber.

I think as more and more people head to the great outdoors and the mountains, to do wider and wider range of activities, there needs to be health discussion on what is positive and what isn't, and as for commercialisation in the mountains there has always been a bit of that.

Thanks for explaining the situation. Yes, I have used ski resorts, mountain huts, mountain railways, pulled on fixed ropes in the mountains, but only once used a VF and that was to move from hut to hut on a climbing trip in the Kaiser. 

All these were existing and had been for many years, but it's the apparent proliferation of new VF that annoy me.  There does seem to restrictions on the expansion of in-situ infrastructures but new VF appear to be springing up all over the place.

I'm all in favour of good paths down valleys and tracks that follow ancient trade routes through mountain passes, but leave the crags and high mountains as a more adventurous terrain. As much as possible we ought to be trying to reduce our impact on the mountains, Ok this might mean improving existing paths, but please no more new ones.

John

I think you have a healthy point of view, I don't agree with it 100% but its a valid argument.  

As I mentioned before I think the debate about land usage in the mountains is not new by a long way, but its getting bigger and bigger. Whether that is interms of what can be built where, clash of different user groups,  over crowding like that seen on Everest, TMB or even the situation surrounding mont Blanc and can include things like is the use of camping van's sustainable with the numbers doing it?

 Who gets to decide government, local councils, local people, tourist/end users, environmentalists? Each will have a different point of view.

You agree with some infrastructure because it been there a long time, but I can guarantee that there were people who complained about it being built in the first place, many ski resorts have been around a while but they are expanding or investing they want a few more KM of runs or newer and faster lifts try and tempt tourist to come, so its not always that simple.

Your are against via ferrata and thats fine, I do know people who would throw them up everywhere, I am somewhere in the middle, if they are thought about and put in the right venues that doesn't detract from whats already there, I think they can work especially when you consider how much rock there is in this part of the alps and the ethics here, if it was in the UK I would probably think different?