My local map shop that has a zillion maps of everything has jack squat for the alps so I want to order something online. I need a good topo (or topos) that will cover Mont Blanc to the Matterhorn including the Italian side. Can anyone recommend something? Thanks much!

The best maps that I know from the Alps are: "Landeskarte der Schweiz" for Switzerland. At 1:25.000 scale the sheet for the Matterhornnr. is the 1347 MATTERHORN (partially shows much of the Italian side). One of my favourites of this area is the "Zusammensetzung" (which means something like 'set of maps') 2515 ZERMATT GORNERGRAT, a combination of the best of the Zermatt zone (with the Matterhorn in it).

For Austria & part of German Alps: the "Alpenvereinskarte" (done in combination of the Austrian and German geographic institutes)

For France: 'Carte de Randonnée' 1:25.000 (www.ign.fr)

Good luck

thanks so much! That's exactly what I needed.

Part of the Italian alps (mostly Sudtirol) are covered by the Alpenvereinskarte as well. Their 1:25,000 maps are a wee bit chaotic in my opinion, and i much prefer the 1:50,000

The Swiss maps are the best. Unfortunately, they are also really expensive. (about 6 cents per sq. kilometre at 1:25,000 - Cheaper than the Dutch maps, but much more expensive than the OS maps, both of which are about the same quality.) http://www.swisstopo.com

Leviathan wrote:Part of the Italian alps (mostly Sudtirol) are covered by the Alpenvereinskarte as well. Their 1:25,000 maps are a wee bit chaotic in my opinion, and i much prefer the 1:50,000

The Swiss maps are the best. Unfortunately, they are also really expensive. (about 6 cents per sq. kilometre at 1:25,000 - Cheaper than the Dutch maps, but much more expensive than the OS maps, both of which are about the same quality.) http://www.swisstopo.com

I don´t think they are chaotic and if you need to navigate then 1:25,000 is what you need. Often with 1:50, 000 you may well get problems. An example is to try and navigate or check hill gradients on a 1:50,000 when you´re ski-touring.

I personally like swiss topo and if you can afford the digital one - great stuff! The Wallis map 25 does cover the italian site of the matterhorn as well.

sjarelkwint wrote:If you can't navigate a alpenverein carte of 1:25.000 i think you can better stay in the alps

i love the 1:25.000 and 1:50.000 cards of alpenverein

Not so fast, eh... I NEVER mentioned the AV maps as being unnavigable. I just stated my opinion that AV maps are a wee bit chaotic compared to the newer ones of Swisstopo.

Swisstopo is in my opinion by far superior when it comes up to topo maps of the Alps. Having said that, AV makes good, accurate maps, i am just spoiled when it comes up to topo maps of "civilised" countries. (Read OS, ST, TD, USGS)

Let me post two examples; one from AV 5/1; Karwendelgebirge West



and this one from ST 1198; Silvretta



Images are scanned at the same resolution; 600 DPI 24-bit colour, then converted to JPG.

sjarelkwint wrote:if you go to andes or less civilised countries you won't find better cards then those ...

Aye. In Morocco i would've loved having anything near the quality of AV. Those maps are so shite that i had to go in and make some edits...

http://www.summitpost.org/image/359667/359525/toubkal-map.html

Cheers,
Clint.

gert wrote:I personally like swiss topo and if you can afford the digital one - great stuff! The Wallis map 25 does cover the italian site of the matterhorn as well.

I was thinking of buying digital. So you recommend them?

charles wrote:

gert wrote:I personally like swiss topo and if you can afford the digital one - great stuff! The Wallis map 25 does cover the italian site of the matterhorn as well.

I was thinking of buying digital. So you recommend them?

I use swiss topo 25 for Wallis and Bernese Alps. Same quality like the printed one. Easy to measure distances, profiles, perfect up / download with my Garmin ec. For the trip I just print the part I need.

a good map for Mont Blanc area
and another good one for Mont Blanc area
and this is for Cervinia-Zermatt

If you can wait until you get to Chamonix you can buy a good French map anywhere. Interestingly, the Italian maps show the border running across MB, while the French push it down to the east.

I think that Swiss topo are the best. They also spread over italian range for a few km.

However, take care that the italian side is not an original production, but rather a redrawing from maps by italian Militar Geographic Institute (IGM), which for some zones are not up to date at all and quite misleading.

For the italian region, you can also look at www.atlanteitaliano.it where digitalized IGM topo, orthophoto and DEM (and other stuff) is available. Send me a PM just in case you need any help about it.

G.

gert wrote:

charles wrote:

gert wrote:I personally like swiss topo and if you can afford the digital one - great stuff! The Wallis map 25 does cover the italian site of the matterhorn as well.

I was thinking of buying digital. So you recommend them?

I use swiss topo 25 for Wallis and Bernese Alps. Same quality like the printed one. Easy to measure distances, profiles, perfect up / download with my Garmin ec. For the trip I just print the part I need.

I also use the digital Swiss Map 25. It also covers most parts of the MB-range. When going out, I just print the needed pages.
I also own a complete digital set of German Alpenverein Maps in 1:25.000 and have to state, that the Swiss Map 25 is layed out much better from my point of view.

MountaingirlBC wrote:My local map shop that has a zillion maps of everything has jack squat for the alps so I want to order something online. I need a good topo (or topos) that will cover Mont Blanc to the Matterhorn including the Italian side. Can anyone recommend something? Thanks much!

The best 1:25k map of the Italian side of MB is this one:

http://www.escursionista.it/cartabianco.html

The best map 1:25k of the Italian side of Matterhorn is this one

http://www.inalto.org/recensioni/cartin ... nche.shtml

Both are published by "L'Escursionista", can be found in a lot of Internet stores.

Believe me, its the best the market offers now - true state of art.

Leviathan wrote:

sjarelkwint wrote:If you can't navigate a alpenverein carte of 1:25.000 i think you can better stay in the alps

i love the 1:25.000 and 1:50.000 cards of alpenverein

Not so fast, eh... I NEVER mentioned the AV maps as being unnavigable. I just stated my opinion that AV maps are a wee bit chaotic compared to the newer ones of Swisstopo.

Swisstopo is in my opinion by far superior when it comes up to topo maps of the Alps. Having said that, AV makes good, accurate maps, i am just spoiled when it comes up to topo maps of "civilised" countries. (Read OS, ST, TD, USGS)

Let me post two examples; one from AV 5/1; Karwendelgebirge West



and this one from ST 1198; Silvretta



Images are scanned at the same resolution; 600 DPI 24-bit colour, then converted to JPG.

sjarelkwint wrote:if you go to andes or less civilised countries you won't find better cards then those ...

Aye. In Morocco i would've loved having anything near the quality of AV. Those maps are so shite that i had to go in and make some edits...

http://www.summitpost.org/image/359667/359525/toubkal-map.html

Cheers,
Clint.

Clint, there're Morrocan maps better than that, mine has contour lines