The map above shows my last hike, or the current one if I’m out on the mountains. It is powered by Viewranger, a SPOT Connect, and the fantastic socialhiking service. If I’ve got a data connection, you can interact with me while I’m on the trail via twitter @andybryant. Previous hikes are below.
A day snowshoeing with a local mountain leader (Luc Mortier - Nature photographer). We set off from a small parking area just above Villard de Lans, and trekked across the fields to reach the Fauge Valley, then took the path up the valley side across Pont d’Amour to a frozen waterfall.
Having lived in the alps for going on 6 years, I decided it was about time I gave at least one winter sport a try - so bought a pair of snowshoes a few weeks ago. In the area close to Grenoble there are a number of areas with marked snowshoe routes - noteably the areas around Chamrousse (1700m), Lans En Vercors (1200m) and Prapoutel (1300m).
At the moment, the snow isn’t up to much below 1500m - so I headed for Chamrousse (seemingly with most of the rest of Grenoble - parking was a bit of a pain).
There are 2 main routes at Chamrousse, the Circuit de Lac Achard (1700m - 1917m), the Circuit de Pre Gaudet (1430m - 1500m) and a nature path - Sentier Nature (1600m), however only the higher route was open this weekend. You can find the open/closed status on the Chamrousse website.
The hike up to Pas de la Cle is a good one covering 750m of gain over just 4km from Montaud. The pass itself is fairly exposed - which is likley the reason for the warning signs at the bottom - indicating that is is forbidden in high-winds, or during the winter.
The path up to the pass runs to the west of a hunting area, although doesn’t cross into it, however I wouldn’t hang around there too much during November - and don’t act like a wild boar!
Once you get to the path it is a little exposed, but not too bad, and the path is easily visible. There is a little loose rock, but nothing unusually so for the region. A good pair of hiking boots and a little alpine common sense, and you’ll be fine!
A nice easy hike to a good viewpoint on the north-eastern corner of the Vercors. There’s a good parking spot at the south-east corner, just above Engins at the Centre Aere in Galizere.
A short but satisfying walk up to Charande. Whilst you can drive to the top of this ridge and park at the top, I felt like I needed something a little more challenging. I found that you can drive up from Autrans, up past Le Truc, and to the end of a farmer’s trail, then park in a small logging area. This lets you start walking at around 1200m, and head up to the ridge at 1600-1700m. The path was well marked on the ground, but not so well marked on the maps. I’ve since added the missing trails to OpenStreetMap.
Pic St Michel is a popular day hike from just above Lans-en-Vercors.
From Grenoble get to the Vercors plateau via Seyssins using the D106. Just as you enter Lans-en-Vercors, turn left onto Route du stade du neiges towards Barnets. After around 4 km there’s a small car-park on the left hand side of the road.
After around 1km of walk, you’ll find the popular Auberge Allieres, from where you can start the climb up to the Col de l’Arc or to the Pic St Michel. I took the path to the Col (anticlockwise) then to the summit. There was some loose gravel on the way down, so next time I might choose to take the route clockwise, returning via the Col.
Ascent was around 700m, and total walking time around 3.5 hours, 9km.
The hike to the top of the Grand Veymont is a great one, perhaps because the Grand Veymont is the highest point in the Vercors. It is approached from the village of Gresse-en-Vercors at 1270m with a good 1,100m altitude hike covering around 10km distance.
This was a good 18km day walk I did in August 2010 with 1000m of up/down, from Prapoutel at 1340m to a group of lakes (Les Lacs du vénétier) at 2157m. The walk starts out from the upper-most road or Prapoutel, and snakes through forested areas climbing quickly initially, and avoiding most of the ski runs.
This route contains 2 hikes - which I did over 2 days in August 2010 from a base in Alpe D’Huez (Le Castillan). The first day included a fantastic Tour of the lakes on 2 levels - with a challenging climb/scramble just before lunch. The second day was more filling in time - as I took an excursion down to Oz station, then walked back.
Another planned circular trip - starting from the Valley floor at 450m, climbing up through the Gorge du Manival to the top at around 1550m, then round the back of the head of the gorge, and either back down to the car-park, or drop in on La Tour d'Arces with a little diversion. This hike should offer excellent views of the more famous Dent du Crolles.
This is a either a short walk from Grand Rats (green), or a longer 700m elevation gain hike from the valley floor below, just north of Voreppe (red).
I did it on the 5th April, once the worst of the snow had cleared to >1200m.
A fairly short and easy walk from Col de Palaquit at 1154m, past Col de Bens at 1110m and then up to Ecoutoux at 1406m with some undulation at the start; then a steep-ish climb at the end. Total distance there and back around 7km. There's no official parking at the start, but there are a couple of spots where you can leave a car.
This is a short hike from Le Gua, between Planfay and Proveysieux in the Chartreuse up to the ridge known as the Rocher d'Église. You start at Pont du Gua at 640m, where there is roadside parking for perhaps 3 cars, and climb unrelentingly up to the Petite Sappey Cabin at 1140m. I say unrelentingly because it is a punishing continuous uphill climb with no horizontal sections. This isn't undulating - it's just up! It isn't that long - being only around a 5km round trip.
This hike is either a very hard 1 day 8-10 hour trek covering 21km, or a more leisurly but still challenging 2-day hike. I did the latter with a couple of friends from work. You start at Venosc / Le-Bourg-d'Arud and do around 1200m of climb up to Lac Muzelle and the Refuge on the lake where you can stay for the night. The following day starts with another 550m climb up to Col du Vallon, followed by a punishing 1750km down back past Lac Lauvitel to the car-park at Venosc.
This hike starts at a car-park at 1300m, and first climbs steeply to Lac Crozet at around 2000m. At that point, you could spend the afternoon by the Lac, then hike back down; or continue up into the Belledonne on GR549 over the Col du Loup at 2400m, down to Lac de la Grande Sitre, then back round to the parking spot. By my estimation the full route is around 14km.
This is a trip I've done a couple of times, starting from close to my apartment in down-town Grenoble (220m). It is possible to walk up from the city to the Bastille (460m), then pass round the back of the complex and access the monument to the mountain troops on Mont Jalla (614m), and continue onwards back over the top of Mont Rachais (900m if you don't do the summit, or 1000m if you do). You end up at the Col de Venice car-park (780m), where optimally you have a car waiting to take you back down to the city. If not, then it is a long and fairly dull walk back down country lanes. I've shown this main route in pink on the map below.
This route marks a geocaching and photography trek I undertook a couple of months back. I was planning to take the full route to the top of the Grande Sure, however the trek to the Cul de Lampe and the meadow at the top took long enough, so we didn't take the extension. I've sketched the route taken in green, and the optional extension (not taken) in blue. The trek starts after a long, uneven track (somewhat rough, best suited to 4x4s) from a car park at around 790m. It climbs steeply up a forested hillside to the Cul de Lampe at around 1500m, and then onwards up to a very picturesque alpine meadow. We continued up to Col de la Charmille, and then returned after a short ridge walk, via the summit at 1627m. If you take the extension to le Grande Sure, the summit will take you up to 1920m making this a substantial 1200m climb.
The Moucherotte summit is a great place to take photos from, looking down into Grenoble, or across at the Chartreuse massif. The simplest walk is a direct up and back (yellow path) from the car park (at 1240m), however there are a couple of alternative paths down. The red path is a nice alternative zig-zag through the forest (with a few eroded sections - care needed) directly back to the car park, and the blue route takes you over the summit, down Vallon des Forges and along Sentier de la vite? below le Trois Pucelles. I've taken the yellow and red paths, but haven't attempted the blue one yet.
This route has two possible start car-parks - or you could do it with 2 cars, as I did with a couple of friends from work. Using 2 cars saves the walk back along the roads to the car (around 5km of road walking). The full circuit is around 19km. The two parking options are at either 1100m or 1150m, and the summit is around 1910m; making this a climb of around 800m (although you have to drop down quite a lot from Col du Granier to get to the start point)
This is a 16km walk, climbing around 1200m of altitude. It is a challenging walk as there's a full selection of rock scrambling, steep gravel paths, and lots of zig zags. The route starts starting at the southwestern corner (850m) in the carpark for the Musee de la Grand Chartreuse (La Correrie). I suggest doing the route anticlockwise, starting off with the big climb to the summit, and then taking the more gentle path down to visit the refuge at Col du Bouvinat. After that you turn towards Pas du Loup, then down to Col du Ruchere, before heading backwards towards the Grand Chartreuse Monastery at 950m.
22 Jan 2012