The Mourre de Chanier (1,930 m) is the highest point of the whole Verdon massif — higher than the Mont Chiran, its immediate neighbour, and than all the summits overlooking the Grand Canyon. Unlike the sentier Notre-Dame du Roc or the Montagne de Robion, there is no single official route waymarked and documented by a tourism body: several variants coexist, from the hamlet of Les Chauvets, Rougon or Blieux, on their own or as a loop with the neighbouring Mont Chiran. This guide presents the best-documented variant and lists the others.
Verified on 20 August 2026. Summit altitude confirmed by the Parc naturel régional du Verdon and the Castellane-Verdon Tourist Office; route cross-checked on five specialist sources (see Sources).
The essentials
| Distance | 17.5 km (toporandosmontagne.com) — 17.2 km according to Komoot |
| Elevation gain | 1,050 m of elevation gain (toporandosmontagne.com) — 980 m according to Komoot |
| Duration | 5h (toporandosmontagne.com) to 6h20 (Komoot) |
| Difficulty | T2 (hiker), sustained |
| Type | Loop, with the ascent of the Mont Chiran (1,905 m) along the way |
| Start | Les Chauvets, Saint-Pierre chapel car park (~1,250 m), commune of La Palud-sur-Verdon |
| Summit | Mourre de Chanier (1,930 m) — highest point of the Verdon |
The truth about the numbers (there is no ONE Mourre de Chanier)
Unlike summits such as the Roc, no dedicated PNR or Tourist Office fact-sheet was found for the Mourre de Chanier: published figures vary by a factor of two depending on the route chosen — short loop, loop with the Mont Chiran, or long traverse. Here are the main documented variants, without blending them into an artificial average.
| Variant | Distance | Elevation gain | Duration | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Short loop (Chanier only, from Chauvets) | 11 to 11.9 km | 764 to 800 m elevation gain | 6h38 (a single precise source) | trails-viewer.com, fred-38.fr |
| Loop with the Mont Chiran (reference retained above) | 17.2 to 17.5 km | 980 to 1,050 m elevation gain | 5h to 6h20 | toporandosmontagne.com, Komoot |
| Long loop (+ Grand Mourre 1,898 m and the Traversières ridge) | ~16 km | ~1,050 m elevation gain | 1 day | altituderando.com |
| From Rougon (south-east ridge, largely off-trail) | not given | ~1,070 m elevation gain | 6h30 | altituderando.com |
| From Blieux (towards the Mont Chiran observatory) | 16.6 km | 1,410 m elevation gain | 8h45, very difficult | Visorando |
What we do not reconcile: the loop with the Mont Chiran is given as 5h by toporandosmontagne.com for 1,050 m of elevation gain — a surprisingly short time compared with the 6h20 given by Komoot for a very similar profile. We report both rather than choosing one.
The route
The best-documented start is from Les Chauvets (Saint-Pierre chapel car park, ~1,250 m, commune of La Palud-sur-Verdon). The trail waymarked in yellow climbs through forest then alpine pasture to the Portail de Blieux, a pass between the two slopes. Beyond that, the waymarking thins out: the final climb to the summits is largely off-trail, by cairn.
- Most complete variant: ascent of the Mont Chiran (1,905 m), where an astronomical observatory stands, then the link to the Mourre de Chanier (1,930 m) along the ridge.
- A chimney passage of about 20 m is reported on this variant (toporandosmontagne.com) — not technical and requiring no climbing gear according to the source.
- Short variant: head straight for the Mourre de Chanier without the detour via the Chiran, about 11 km.
- The summit plateau, called “la Grande Plaine”, links three high points: the Mourre de Chanier (1,930 m, to the east), the Grand Mourre (1,898 m, to the west) and the Petit Mourre (1,873 m, in the centre-north) — Wikipedia.
Panorama and geology
The summit offers a confirmed panorama over the Mercantour and the Écrins. The massif is a limestone plateau of the Upper Jurassic, shaped by Alpine uplift — Wikipedia FR. It lies at the heart of the Natura 2000 “Gorges de Trévans – Montdenier – Mourre de Chanier” zone (8,826 ha, created in 2002), which links the summit to a site that LiveVerdon also documents: the Gorges de Trévans, a few kilometres away, in the Asse valley.
Safety and access
- Waymarking: yellow up to the Portail de Blieux, then off-trail with cairns on most summit variants.
- Wind: the ridges are described as “frequently subject to strong winds” (skitour.fr) — no specific avalanche bulletin identified for this area.
- GPX: tracks available on Wikiloc, Visorando, visugpx.com and tracedetrail.fr.
- Parc naturel régional du Verdon: the summit is within the park’s perimeter. Decree no. 2025-390 of 28 April 2025 (renewal of the 2025-2040 charter) lists La Palud-sur-Verdon, Rougon and Blieux among the communes entirely included in the PNR.
What is still missing
We would rather say so: the origin of the name “Chanier” was not found in an authoritative source (only “Mourre”, which in Provençal designates a rounded summit, is sourced); the exact cadastral commune of the summit itself remains to be confirmed beyond deduction by cross-checking; and the presence of flocks and patous (guard dogs), documented on the neighbouring Mont Chiran, is not confirmed specifically on the Mourre de Chanier route. These fields will be completed as soon as a reliable source specifies them.
Sources
Data cross-checked and verified on 2026-08-20: Parc naturel régional du Verdon (parcduverdon.fr, decree no. 2025-390 of 28/04/2025), Castellane-Verdon Tourist Office, toporandosmontagne.com, altituderando.com (three distinct fact-sheets), carnetsderando.net, trails-viewer.com, fred-38.fr, Komoot, Visorando, Wikipedia FR (“Mourre de Chanier”), skitour.fr. Discrepancies retained and flagged above. No data invented: a missing field is flagged as such.