Torrent du Manival is a shallow mountain stream down from the Chartreuse range that can be misleadingly dangerous when dry. During a thunderstorm the water level rises quickly and the stream tears and brings down everything on its way. Major protection works started in the end of 19th century, not […]
Something my friends may not know is that now that we live in the Gresivaudan valley we are quite near to the well known wine growing region of Savoie. Their wines may be a bit more expensive than the average Bordeaux and Côtes du Rhône wines (for instance), but they […]
This past Sunday (28.2.) we returned for another sunny hike (9.65K in 3h 40mins, D+/D- 840m) to the GR trail of Tour des Petites Roches on Chartreuse (GR stands for The Grande Randonnée, Groteroutepaden or Langeafstandwandelpaden, Grande Rota or Gran Recorrido, and make a network of long-distance hiking routes in […]
This winter has been quite grim in this valley, mostly cloudy and rainy, very unlike the previous ones. So, once the weather forecast promised some sun for this Monday we decided to take the day off and go hiking, which we have not done much because of the weather, but […]
When returning from our first winter vacation in Les Saisies the snow situation in the French Alps was not too good. We did not want to risk another week in a ski resort without anything to do — with too little snow for skiing, or too much ice, slush, or […]
The weather forecast promised clouds in the morning, but then clear skies in the afternoon, at least at the altitude, so we returned to the scenic and colorful Eastern slopes of the Vercors range. We chose a trail starting from Col de l’Arzelier (1154m) towards Pas de la Balme that […]
This past Sunday (11.10) we went for another scenic hike on Eastern balcony of the Vercors range (11km in 3h 45mins, D+/D- 720m). Once again we miscalculated the effect of strong wind on a higher and somewhat exposed altitude. When we started in Prélenfrey (Le Gua) at 11am. it was […]
Let us see if this past weekend was what is left of the Summer in the French Alps. This week is expected to bring a lot of rain and temperature drop of 15° Celsius, even snow below 1000m of altitude! What a Summer it has been! The whole corona virus […]
This was an easy and scenic hike in the valley of the river La Bonne this Saturday (12.9.). We had been in the area before but did not have much luck with the weather. This time we had more good weather than we wished. We started the hike (14.5km in […]