We will do the Ut4M, a 40-kilometer mountain marathon again this August. Last year we did the last section of the 160-kilometer race on Chartreuse range (we did not quite finish, though), but this year we’ll do the first section on the Vercors range. Today we wanted to familiarize ourself with the last descent of that section — that’s called ‘reconnaissance’ (originally a military term), in English usually shortened to ‘recce’.

It was warm and sunny in Grenoble when we left, and cloudy but still warm in St-Paul-de-Varces when we started the hike/run.

We climbed from 428 meters to 978 meters. The forest was humid, but the trail was only moderately muddy. It was drizzling occasionally, though. After 2.5 kilometers of climbing we turned back where the trail turned into a river/waterfall. It was not impossible or even hard to cross, but we had already decided that we go up for an hour and down for another.

By the time we reached back to our car, it was pouring rain. Having such a warm and heavy rain reminded us of a certain small tropical island, where we are going to be in a week’s time. Stay tuned!