Sources de la Romanche, 2143 m.

Hello again,

Last Monday, the next day after visiting le refuge de la Pilatte, we went to the sources of the river Romanche. We spent the night in a gîte d'Etape near Saint-Cristop-en-Oisans. The place was quite nice and cheap, with excellent fondue!

Back to the sources... river Romanche flows along the valley next to the north from La Berarde. We were forced to drive 1h from the gîte to Villard-d'Arenes (1667 m), the starting point of the walk. This village is couple of kilometers away from La Grave, already known by the readers of this blog.

This time we walked 7h, including the already traditional 1h lunch-break and siesta. The path goes along the river almost all the time. It starts quite steep, but soon becomes very flat for many kilometers. Almost at the end of the trip it climbs again slightly, to reach the sources, at 2143 m. The sources, are not very spectacular, but they are located in a narrow and deep valley. The summits around are all over 3000 m and the glaciers hung from the high cliffs everywhere.

As usual, you'll find more pictures here.

Cheers,
-Manu & Nina-

Refuge de la Pilatte, 2577 m.

Hello there,

Last weedend we were two days in a row in the mountains. Sunday we went to the refuge de la Pilatte, at the end of the long path from the village of La Berarde (1713 m), on the edges of the National Park of Les Ecrins.

We followed a longer variation of the typical path, which goes along the valley of river Veneon. This variation makes it one hour longer, but the path goes up on the slopes of the valley, and the view is better.

The walk is almost flat until the last part, were it climbs fast to reach the refuge at 2577 m.

The refuge faces directly the beautiful glacier de la Pilatte. In total, we walked 20 km during a 8h-long walk... but we did have a veru nice 1h lunch/siesta-break up on the refuge's terrace, enjoying the amazing landscape.

More pictures available here.

Cheers,
-Manu & Nina-

Chamechaude, 2082 m.

Hello again,

September 15th. This day we did the summit of Chartreuse: Le Chamechaude, 2082 m. This is a short but quite steep walk, starting from the Col de Porte, 1326 m. The walk is rather easy and the path is clearly marked. The last 20 m include a real 'climb' up a vertical stone wall of about 15 m. There is a cable installed in the wall for security. In the summit there is a wooden cross. This day we ate tartiflette, cooked (and carried all the way up) by one of our friends.

As usual, a selection of pictures can be found in our Picasa site.

Cheers,
-Manu & Nina-

L'Eimendras, Chartreuse

Hello there.

After a long break, here we are with a new post. We have not been
idle during these couple of weeks. Last September 9th we walked to the shepherd's cabin of L'Eimendras in the Chartreuse massif. It is a nice beautiful walk in mid-mountain, under the forest. The walk starts from the village of Le Sappey-en-Chartreuse, at just 12 km from downtown Grenoble. The day was warm and sunny most of the time, but the valley of Grenoble was covered by thick mist.

A selection of pictures can be found here.

Cheers,
-Manu y Nina-