Hauts Plateaux du Vercors and Grand Veymont, 2341 m.

Hello again,

This was indeed a nice hike. We walked over 26 Km on a long boucle in two days and we spent the night in the wild, in our new tent. Then we climbed the Grand Veymont, 2341 m, the highest summit in the massif du Vercors. We climb up, and walked down, a total of 2260 m of height difference.

We started from a spot near the nice village of Gresse-en-Vercors, 1245 m, located at about 45-min-drive south from Grenoble. It was already quite late: Saturday at 14h. We were not in a hurry, since we were planning to set-up our tent somewhere by the end of the day. We decided to climb first to the plateaux following a less common way. The path we chose climbed first to the forest-hut du Veymont, at about 1450 m, where we ate lunch. We had a nice desert of wild strawberries, picked-up from the sides of the path. And they were so sweet! :) Then the path continued to climb to about 1700 m, where it crossed over a narrow ridge... actually it went along the ridge for a while. We were in the cloud by then, and there was little to be seen. We followed the path down, back to 1300 m, into a very nice valley, covered by trees.

Then the path started to climb to the plateau to a height of over 1900 m in only 2 km: very steep. We climbed-up along a stony gully which led us straight on the plateaux by the Pas de Bachassons, where a small water source helped us to recover our water supplies. In Vercors, water is rare, and we had quite heavy backpacks: basically water, food and the tent.

We arrived on time to see the sunset over the plains of river Rhône, far on the west. By then we were already out of the mist and the sky was blue. We started descending again into the plateau in front of us, leaving the Grand Veymont behind us. We passed-by the arbre taille -carved tree- and we set-up our tent not far from the remains of a roman quarry: la carrière romaine.

The Natural Reserve of the Hauts Plateaux du Vercors covers an big area of the south of the Vercors mountain range. There are no villages there, only some small shepherd huts. The plateaux are at a height of about 1500 m. Camping is not allowed, but setting-up a tent between 19h and 8h it is tolerated if not far from the paths. Which is what we did, of course. We were rather isolated: only one tent was set near us, at about 1 km behind us, and in the morning we found some other people in a hut at 2 km ahead from us. Ah! and we found near our tent a spot where few edelweiss were growing!

The next day we walked south along the plateau, we passed-by the hut of Pré Peyret, and then the path started to turn slowly north. The plateau is covered by a very light pine and fir forest. We walked at fast pace here. By midday we were back to the area of the Pas de Bachassons, where the source was. We decided we had enough water and we started the climb of the Grand Veymont: about 900 m of height difference from the plateau. And *that* was steep! It was already afternoon and we were loaded with less water but we had the very same tent and we were already tired, so the climb was a bit hard. We stopped before the summit for lunch -surrounded by ibex, or mountain goats- , enjoying the view over the plateaux , then we walked to see the view to the other side. And that it is awesome! Especially impressive is the Mont Aiguille, a tall mountain with straight vertical rock walls and a flat green top. We could see also the Tête de l'Obiou, close-by, but also the already known Belledonne moutain range, la Meije, l'Etendard, le Taillefer... and the Mont Blanc.

We descended the Grand Veymont from the other side, the north face, and we reached the village of Gresse by the Pas de la Ville. A tough descent of over 1000 m in 2h. We reached the car 27h after we left it there the day before.

We enjoyed this hike very much, especially because we finally used our tent! but also for the great views and the amazing variety of landscapes. You will find a selection of pictures in our PICASA site. We hope you enjoy them!

Take care,
-Manu & Nina-