Nice loop around the north of the Vercors with many variations possible depending on ability

Details

Taken from the Guides Franck Vercors, No. 3.  The book sets out the loop of Pas de la Cle, Bec de l’Orient, Signal de Nave as around 500m climb over 12km taking 4h 30 mins. Access is straight forward on well surfaced roads as far as Gève, as this is a ski de fond / biathlon station in the winter.

The book suggests a number of detours and variations on the central loop. We opted to see both the glacier and the crash site of the lancaster bomber. The book suggests 25m A/R for the glacier but the sign is not where the glacier entrance is. There is a bit of scramlbing and maybe 100m decent to get to the entrance, where there was still snow. So maybe an hour addition to the base 4:30h. Pay attention the the route when scrambling back up as its easy to miss the path (like we did).

The signs are a little conservative, we reached Pas de la Cle at about 2-2:20h after detouring via the glacier. Signs to Bec de l’Orient from here were pretty reasonable, about 45min as the path follows the cliffs. The viewpoint is not actually sign posted, make sure to detour off the path to the viewpoint with the cross!

We then detoured to the bomber crash site, this is signed as 20min, but again there is a climb to come back again, so maybe 50min detour total.

From here the path continues to be well signed to the Signal de Nave, and back along the cliffs. To return to Gève we left the GR7 too early and took a none marked path, we should have continued a couple of hundred meters and then the return would have been well sign posted back to Gève via the route forestier des Eperrières.

Refreshments available at the Refuge de Géve, five minutes walk from the car park.