In November we have had two back-to-back long weekends, All Saints Day a week ago and the Armistice this past weekend. We spent the former in Lyon, and this time escaped to the Vercors mountains, maybe the first time since we moved to the opposite direction from Grenoble. The plan was to do our weekly long run on ViaVercors — a bicycling/running trail connecting several villages in Northern Vercors — and particularly the practically flat section between Villard-de-Lans and Lans-en-Vercors. We also planned some hiking on all three days, even after the long run, which we usually don’t do. We arrived in Villard-de-Lans on Saturday later than expected so instead of a hike we just strolled around the village for a while. We were really happy that we decided to go hiking after the morning run on Sunday, since the weather on Monday was not tempting to engage in any kind of outdoor activity, especially on mountains; it was warmer than on Saturday, but windy, and the clouds were hanging very low, so there was no scenery to be enjoyed. A couple of views from Villard-de-Lans that was surprisingly busy on this off-season weekend:
Saturday morning was chilly; our tiny travel thermometer showed something like +2°C, but it likely was a bit below zero degrees given that there was frost on cars and grass. This was the first time we’ve experienced sub-zero temperatures this Fall, but then again we were at 1000 meters. The altitude did not only affect the temperature but our running, too, since we have not done much altitude training recently. The valley was in beautiful fog when we started, but as soon as the Sun climbed over the mountain it completely dissipated. The Sun also had a huge warming effect, it almost felt hot for the last few kilometers. You can probably see the shift from cold to warm in the pictures below.
After a short brunch break at our apartment, we drove to the parking of ‘Pot du Loup’ in Haut-Vercors (~1300m), and started our 3h30 hike from there, first crossing the plain of Herbouilly and then climbing to the summit of Château Julien (1560m). There we found an orientation table and a couple of art works made of rocks and trees. This was a scenic hike with no difficulty. And the weather was just gorgeous.
Monday opened significantly warmer but grey, clouds so low that it was futile to plan any scenic hike. So we drove home to watch tennis. The next day (Tuesday) we learned that snow had fallen in Villard-de-Lans at 1000 meters.
