I’ve lost track how many times we have spent our winter vacation in the Serre Chevalier Valley in Hautes-Alpes department, but one thing is sure: the weather has been mostly good. And so it was this time, too. Actually it was extra good, since the sun shone from the clear blue sky every day, and even there was a significant northerly wind on some days, it was nothing near to brutal. There is always a downside to the favorable weather conditions, though: a lot of sunshine is detrimental to snow conditions and skiing!

The weeks preceding our vacation the weather in our Grésivaudan valley had been gloomy with clouds hanging very low (as it is again now when writing this) — I think we saw the sun only a couple of times in January. On our drive to Serre Chevalier it took a while to get out of clouds which happened at the elevation of about 1000 meters.

As usual, we started our vacation with an easy hike  on the nearby slope (8.50K in 2h 30mins, D+/D- 390m). The hike followed a tarmac road that was covered in soft snow, even if the slope otherwise was bare. The road actually goes up to Col du Granon (2413m) which until 2011 was the highest mountain-top stage finish in Tour de France — only once though, in 1986. After that the highest stage finish has been Col du Calibier (2645m), also in Hautes-Alpes.

This time we did not even buy ski passes, but instead what little we skied, we did on the short loop in Parc des Colombiers, where the access to the tracks was free of charge. Even it had been a few days since the tracks were last groomed, the snow was quite good, and it didn’t take too long to “learn” to ski again. The snow sculptures in the park were melting fast.

The next day we took a break from skiing — we actually skied only on two days — and did a longish hike following the river Guisane to the little village of Le Lauzet, crossing the 45th parallel north two times. Despite the length and significant climb of more than 300 meters, this was an easy hike (13.62K in 3h 25mins), and it offered spectacular views to the Serre Chevalier valley.

The next hike was not an easy one (14.40K in 5h 11mins, D+/D- 750m): it was long and consisted of some very steep snowy/icy and muddy climbs. We found an idyllic lunch spot at the small chapel of Sainte-Marie Madeleine.

We had one more day left and decided to take it easy; instead of skiing we opted for an urban hike in Briançon. We left the car at the railway station’s parking, and walked up to Cité Vauban, a fortified old town of Briançon. The climb from Parc de la Schappe on the trail (Sentier des Pommiers d’Antan) was steep and icy, so we had a chance to test the crampons we bought on our Finland vacation.

It seems that Briançon is one of the most fortified placed in France, thanks to Vauban (1633-1707), a French military engineer. He designed Fort du Randouillet to protect another fortress, Fort des Trois Têtes. These two establishments were designated UNESCO World Heritage site in 2008. There is also a third fortress Fort Dauphin that was built to protect Fort des Trois Têtes, but has been obsolete since 1870 because of other fortresses built on higher altitudes.