Let’s see how many heat escapes we need to take this summer. We have orange warning (the second highest level) for heatwave on this weekend and the early days of the coming week. Daytime temperatures are expected to climb close to +40°C.  Yesterday we escaped the afternoon heat to the higher altitude to do a relatively easy hike to Lac de la Jasse (1800m) on Belledonne. Well, it wasn’t much cooler up there — except by the lake where we were  met by a chilly breeze — and the easiness of the hike was also relative (9.7K in 3h40mins, D+/D- 620m).

We did not see many hikers on the trail, but there were quite a few people by the lake, who apparently had taken the chairlift up . And there were mountain bikers everywhere: they too took the lift up with their bike, and then raced down the trails — their speed was just crazy. Fortunately, there were separate trails for bicyclists and hikers, and only few crossings.

A lot of water was coming down from the mountains, and it was cold!