It has been a long time … and nothing really has happened. After a miserable Spring (weather-wise) the Summer has finally arrived; the daytime temperatures rise almost to +30°C, but mornings are still cool and comfortable. This is nice after so many cloudy weeks and a lot of rain; early […]
Three weeks into the third lockdown, and we have hiked probably in all river valleys on the Western slopes of the Belledonne range that are within about 10 kilometers from us. Yesterday’s hike (8.4km in 2h 43mins, D+/D- 450m) took us from the village of St-Mury-Monteymond to Le Croix De […]
We can’t believe it has been only one week since the third lockdown started. So, here we were again yesterday trying to figure out where to go hiking within the 10-kilometer radius from home. We picked Theys on the other side of the valley a bit further north from us […]
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 […]