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Introduction
Since pack weight is all-important, you will want to carry only the books and maps you will actually use on the trail. Seriously consider cutting off unnecessary portions of maps, and removing unnecessary pages from books.
I have met young hikers who walked the entire Alpine Traverse without guides or maps, so it is possible! They said they had only made a few wrong turns. Was it a surprise that they had run out of water far from any water source? No matter, they would make it to the next source in a couple of hours. As for me, I enjoy reading maps and having a margin of safety.
Guide Books: The French Topo Guides and Paddy Dillon’s Guidebook.
It is worth noting that none of the guide books cover anything but the official routes, and none offer much commentary on the sights on or nearby the trail. This Internet Site tries to fill that void. But this Internet Site does not give details on timings, trail routings or lodging. For that you will need a guide book. All guide books give an itinerary of successive landmarks, with hiking times between them, calculated for an “average hiker”. They seem to be figured at 300 meters (1000 feet) per hour up, about 400 to 500 meters (1,400 to 1,650 feet) per hour going down, and about 4 km (2.4 miles) per hour on the mflat. However, is some instances, they use a faster rate of assent or descent . Therefore, review the elevation changes and double check the times. Remember also, that the times given in the guides do not allow for rest stops or meals.
The guide books also contain contact information for gîte d’etape and refuges along the GR5 and GR52; and comments on the history, geology, flora, and fauna of the region traversed.
I previously wrote that “The best book series for use on the trail are the four French Topo Guides that cover the Alpine Crossing of the GR5 – GR52.” For English speakers this is no longer the case. These cost about 18.80Euros (2025) and you can buy them from the FFRP Boutique or Amazon.fr (2025). It seems that these are no longer being created, and that also there is a gap in coverage before the Mercantour Park. have prepared a wordlist of the most common words used in navigating the GR5, which you will find here. Each Topo Guide weighs about 5 ounces. They are (as of 2025), from north to south:FFRP#504, “Du Léman à la Vanoise “FFRP#530, ” La Vanoise GR5 GR55″FFRP#531, La Traversée des Alpes (de la Maurienna à l’Ubaye – GR5)FFRP#507 Le Mercantour Vallée Des Merveilles, GR 5 GR52 GR52AThe FFRP Topo Guides contain excerpts from excellent IGN 1:50,000 maps that are quite sufficient to guide you (if you stick relatively close to the official GR5 – GR52 routing). (In this Site, if other maps are needed for one of my special routings, I will name them.).
The Topoguides are available in France directly from the Boutique on the FFRP web site; or from Amazon.fr; or for the local region in some towns along the trail.) From time to time the numbers and names of these volumes change; you can check on the FFRP’s web site:http://www.ffrandonnee.fr/topos/topoGuidesCatalResult.aspx?t=gr&v=5) Shipping Expenses from the FFRP boutique to the US or UK are reasonable.
If you are walking the entire GR5 starting on the North Sea, other Topo-Guides for northeastern France may be available: FFRP#514 “Les GR De Lorraine”, FFRP#502 “Crete Des Vosges”, FFRP#512 “La Grand Traversée du Jura”. See my page on the rest of the GR5 for information on guide books there.
“Trekking The GR5 Trail: Through the French Alps: From Lake Geneva to Nice, including GR52 to Menton” by Paddy Dillon (Cicerone Guides 2025) €24 on Amazon.fr, about £15 on Amazon.co.uk and direct from Cicerone. It seems to be the only Guidebook in English of the GR5. I recommend the new edition of this book and use of Geoportail and the app “Cartes IGN” to supplement it. Please be sure and get the 2025 edition, as earlier editions are less accurate and less complete. It weighs less than 13 ounces.
Like all guide books for the GR5, Paddy’s book sticks to the official trails (and the old route to the GR52), so I recommend a reading of my routes here fore some side three-star sights and alternate routes that may appeal, or save time. Also, as the maps in Paddy’s book are 1;100,000, he recommends that you buy maps on the way and send them home. A better choice is to use Geoportail for large views and the phone app “Cartes IGN” on the trail. Their use is described below
Maps
The best maps for the GR5 and GR52 are the IGN 1:25,000 maps. These maps weigh between 1.5 and 3.7 ounces. If you are going to use the FFRP Topo-Guides, you will only need maps if you are deviating from the main GR5 – GR52 trails. As I write in August, 2025, the IGN maps are incorrect for the trail from Les Houches to the Col de Volza and for the rerouted GR5 from Roubion to Briançon (old route shown, not updated since 2022.) Purchasing the IGN maps for the entire alpine GR5, at either 1:25,000 or 1:50,000 would set you back a pretty penny: about 13.90 Euros each (2024) in France or about $20 each if you buy in the USA on line; and you would need 17 or 20 of either type for an Alpine crossing. The Topo Guides, which contain the essential map information, cost only 18.40 Euros each (2024), and you will only need four. So you might only want to buy Topo Guides even if you are going to use the Dillon as your guidebook.
The following IGN maps are needed for the Alpine Crossing. The designations shown are for the 1:25,000 series; for the 1:50,000 series, drop the final two letters:
3428ET Thonon/Evian
3528ET Morzine/Massif-du-Chablai
3530ET Samoens/Haut-Griffe
3630ET Chamonix-Mont-Blanc (if visiting Chamonix)
3531ET St.-Gervais-Les-Bains
3532OT Massif du Beaufortin
3532ET Les Arcs/La Plagne
3633ET Tignes/Val-D’Isere
3534OT Les Trois Vallées
3535OT Nevache/Mont Thabor
3536OT Briançon
3537ET Guillestre
3637OT Mont Viso
3538ET Aiguille de Chambeyron
3639OT Haut Tinée 1
3640 OT Haut Cians (if taking GR5)
3640ET Haut Tinée 2 (if taking the Balcons de Mercantour route)
3641ET Moyen Tinée (if taking the GR5)
3741OT Valee de la Vesubie (GR5 or GR52)
3741ET Valee de la Bevera et des Paillons (GR5 or GR52)
3742OT Nice/Menton (GR5 or GR52)
You can order the maps listed iabove from the boutique at IGN, or from http://amazon.fr and they will ship them immediately for about $25 each.Maps are widely available in France, in stores along your hiking route. In Paris, a complete selection of the 1:25,000 and 1:50,000 maps are available at the map store of “Au Vieux Campeur”, located in the Fifth Arrondissement about 8 blocks from Notre Dame. Use this page to order these maps on line. (There is now a series of 1:60,000 maps that you might want to consider, . They are published by Libris (now Didier Richardbased upon IGN maps, and entitled “Carte randonnnée et patrimoine”. Numbers said to be available are: 01 – Léman; 02 – Mont Blanc; 04 – Vanoise; 06 – Queyras; 07 – Mercantour. Map 05 Ecrins fills in a tiny portion missing between 04 and 06. The Mercantour map stops north of the Mediterranean, so you would need to purchase the last two IGN maps as well.
Online Maps
It is possible to view all the features in the IGN maps online at http://www.geoportail.gov.fr. or in the app version described below. (As noted above, these maps in 2025 were out of date for the trail Les Houches to the Col de Volza and for the route from Roubion to Briançon.) Doing so will allow you to study possible route choices before your trip, and study where you have been afterwards. To do so, on the site, click on the box for show all maps in the upper lefthand corner and choose Ign topographic maps. If the maps are obscured by aerial views, adjust the slider for “Photographies ariennes ” to the left. Then type in the name of the town of your starting point into the box for “ville”. Move the slider on the screen up to get a closer view, or down, to zoom out. You can also read the latitude and longitude of different points with precision, if you want to set up your own list of waypoints. You can print out maps by clicking the print icon and then selecting “IGN Cartes”. Although printing will be cheaper than buying map, the weight of the individual sheets of printout, the lack of full clarity, and the inconvenience probably justify paying for a guidebook and/or the preexisting IGN maps.
Once on the trail the phone app “Cartes IGN” (available in Apple and Google stores) will be very helpful to visualize routes and terrain at 1:25,000 or smaller or greater scales. In the top search box enter a place name. Click the stack of pappers icon to see a selection of maps. Select “Carte TOPO 25”. You might also select “photographies aérien”. Then click on “ma selection”. You can adjust the visibility of the map choices with sliders. Once set you can outpointing arrows for full screen. The app may not work properly outside of France. To avoid draining your phone, it seems that app will be best to use on the trail if there are problems.
Other Information
Before you depart on your walk, you may wish read personal accounts of trips that you will find online.
Web travelogues, GPS waypoints. Other accounts may be found by searching the Web. Waypoints are completely unnecessary if you are using maps, or if you are carefult in following signs. However some individuals prefer to navigate by using a GPS
This site in Dutch has a list of GPS waypoints from Hoek van Holland to Nice, that is for the entire GR5: Have they covered every important junction and trail rerouting? That is for you to research if you wish to. The site warns you not to rely on the waypoints; it is only an extra tool.
You can create your own waypoints, as explained in “Online Maps” just above.