We have had (again) a long anticyclonic period that has caused inversion: a low hanging thick layer of clouds blocks cold and humid air near the ground, whereas the air above the clouds is warm and dry. This is very common in this valley at this time of the year. […]
We wanted to take advantage of the great year-end weather and reasonably good skiing conditions, and booked a weekend in Alpe du Grande Serre, a small ski resort at the altitude of 1368 meters in Isère department. The daily newspaper’s ski report promised that all of their 20/20km of cross […]
For several weeks now daytime temperatures in Grenoble and Gresivaudan valley have climbed between +30 and +40 degrees of Celsius. Fortunately the nights and mornings have still been cool, but it is all changing now; the nights are warmer and the days even hotter. This past weekend (July 27-29) we […]
This weekend was probably one of the last chances, if not the last, to go skiing around here. Even if there is still quite a bit of snow, like in Chamrousse today, the skiing stations will be closing in early April. We had to climb quite high to reach the […]
Saint-Hilaire-de-Touvet to Cascades des Dioux We had a friend visiting us from the US this weekend, and we entertained him with some easy hikes. First we took the funicular up to Saint-Hilaire-de Touvet on the Chartreuse range. It is claimed to be the steepest funicular in the Alps with the […]
We had friends visiting from the US this weekend. Today it was one of the first real Summer days here in Grenoble, and what did we do? We took these guys above 2000 meters to show them Winter (when it actually just unseasonally snowed in their home state). This is […]
After the first week of the heat wave we escaped the town for the weekend to the nearest ski resort on Belledonne range, Chamrousse at 1750 meters above the sea level. The difference in temperatures, especially at night, was significant. Even if daytime temperatures climbed quite high (up to +30C), […]