Céüse, Mountain climbing area in Hautes-Alpes, France

Céüse is a limestone mountain in the Hautes-Alpes, rising to 2,016 m at the Pic de Céüse. Its south face forms the Corniche de Céüse, a horseshoe-shaped cliff with blue and ochre rock and over 600 sport climbing routes, mostly single-pitch 25–40 m, plus 200 m multi-pitch sections. The summit is a perched syncline above forested slopes.

The name Céüse derives from the Latin silex, meaning flint or pebble, as recorded in Lou Tresor dóu Felibrige; a Celtic origin from Secussia (1288), later Séüse (1522), has also been proposed. A small ski resort, Céüze 2000, was built on the northern end after the Second World War, updated in the 1990s with 8 lifts and 35 km of runs, and closed in winter 2020. The southern cliffs became one of the world's best-known sport climbing crags, with Biographie/Realization (9a+) and Bibliographie, first climbed by Alexander Megos in August 2020 and later downgraded to 9b+.

The name Céüse comes from the Latin silex, flint, and means "flint, pebble" in Occitan; a Celtic reading links it to Secussia (1288), the "mountain of dogs". Route names such as Biographie, Bibliographie and Pornographie record the climbers who opened them, among them Alexander Megos, who established Pornographie in 2020.

The best climbing season runs from April through August when the weather is stable and conditions work for most routes. The cliff has several sectors at different positions, so you can follow the sun or seek shade depending on the time of day and season.

The Corniche de Céüse is a perched syncline: a south-facing horseshoe of limestone whose summit wall caps the forested slope. Its south face shows blue and ochre bands, and the holds are pocket-marks in the rock rather than cracks. The hardest line, Bibliographie, was first climbed by Alexander Megos in August 2020 and proposed at 9c before being downgraded to 9b+ after Stefano Ghisolfi repeated it.