La Meije — The Last Great Alpine Peak to Be Climbed

La Meije — The Last Great Alpine Peak to Be Climbed

La Meije (3,983m) was the last major Alpine peak to be summited — Emmanuel Boileau de Castelnau and Pierre Gaspard finally conquered it in 1877, decades after Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn fell. The reason: La Meije has no easy route. Every approach is technical. From the Les 2 Alpes glacier at 3,200m, you see La Meije's terrifying south face — a wall of rock and ice that defeated climbers for generations. The village of La Grave on the other side has no groomed runs, just raw mountain — the antithesis of resort skiing.