At first, me, Eugene, Fabio, Alessandro and Louise took the Transisère bus from Grenoble to Sappey en Chartreuse in the early morning. Thibaut has a car, so he and together with the other two left Grenoble slightly later, and we met up at Sappey. The actual hiking route starts at Col de Porte, 5km away from Sappey. Since it wasn't very interesting to walk there, so Thibaut fetched all of us by car in two trips to Col de Porte.
Yet again hiking on snow. The weather on that day was good, but tiring snow again. Now I really think that I have the aura, difficult snow hiking aura. Whenever I go for a hike, there surely be snow. So far, the record hasn't been broken yet.
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Everybody except Fabio, who took this picture, at the beginning of the hike
From left to right : Denis, me, Alessandro, Edna, Eugene, Louise, Thibaut |
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| The signboard at Col de Porte |
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| The red team, apparently red is the trendy colour for hiking |
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| The non-red team |
The starting part was rather easy, path with gradual gradient, through the forest. A pleasant surprise, an almost wolf like dog kept following us. Come to think about it, yet not so surprise since we had plenty of sausages in our bags. Rather saying that he followed us, he was always ahead of us, as if he was our guide. He was so fluffy, so white, and huge too. We all decided to called him Jon Snow.
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| Jon Snow, chiling while waiting for us |
Through the forest, at around midway point, the mountain became very exposed. And Jon Snow also decided to leave us at this point. Only then, we understood how clever Jon Snow was. The gradient of the rest of the path increased significantly. It was technically not a path neither, since the entire mountain was covered with a thick layer of snow. And there was nobody else hiking to Chamechaude that morning. Almost no indication to follow, we had to figure out our way to the top most of the time.
So we moved very slowly. Some of us didn't wear proper hiking shoes. Normal sneakers don't have much grip and normally not waterproof. Walking with them on snow can be very slippery, very uncomfortable and even dangerous. Edna with the least hiking experience was so scared throughout the trip. It was understandable too. Some parts were just so steep.
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| Walking on grass is so much easier |
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| Some parts were basically rock climbing, but without rope |
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| Thibaut standing on a giant rock, Chartreuse Massif as background |
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| my turn for photo |
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| And Alessandro's turn, picture taken at wrong moment |
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| and Louise's turn |
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| refueling for the final push |
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| The hill side is just so damn steep |
After searching and searching, and not sure where exactly the correct route was, we were at one point stucked in nowhere. With not much time left, we decided not to go all the way to the top. So, we crossed a huge, steep, snowy surface. Fabio and Alessandro led the way, using shoes to poke holes into the snow, to make steps so that the rest of us could walk on. People behind were doing the same, making the steps firmer. In this case, basically the leader had to do the most of the work, thus the most tired. And after 4 hours of hiking, we reached not the top, but still a place where we had a really good view. And there we had lunch.
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FInal push, crossing the steep snow,
photo credit to Alessandro and Fabio, who were at the front |
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| Where we had lunch |
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| Some ravens also joined us for lunch |
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| Brownie commercial |
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| Everybody doing smooth criminal, even the trees |
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| Awesome view on top |
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| Holding on the edge, Dent de Crolles in the middle of the picture |
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| Denis posing sexily |
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Fabio, I would say he was our leader of this hike.
He always led the way and searched the path to the top. |
The way down was yet again pure fun. Sliding most of the time. Even Edna who was so scared most of the time was having fun sliding downhill. And as expected, we merely used one and a half hour to go down, back to Col de Porte. After that, we separated in two groups. Eugene, Louise, Alessandro and me walked to Sarcenas to take the bus back to Grenoble, while the others in Thibaut's car.
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