Mont Granier, Chartreuse

Here is a small photo-report about last-year hike (October) to the Mont Granier at the northern part of the Chartreuse Mountains, not far from Chambery city.

Top of the Mont Granier - 1933 m a.s.l.

At the back (in the middle) there is Chamechaude mountain (2082 m a.s.l.) which also can be seen from our kitchen!

The mountain is famous among BASE-jumpers - it has one of the highest cliffs in France (about 900 m).

 

 

 

Entrance to the cave la Balme à Collomb - the mountain has more than 55 km of cave-tunnels ... In one of the caves of this system a few decades ago speleologists found thousands of skeletons of cave bears ...

Opening hiking season around Grenoble

Summer time!

Meaning that most of France is on holidays and that it is the best time to go out for hiking!

 

Therefore, here is a few photos from our warm-up hike (at >30 deg C) from the city center of Grenoble to the top of the Mont Rachais (1046 m a.s.l, just above the La Bastille).

(Our house is somewhere in the left middle part of the photograph.)

And just a small note about hot temperatures for those who does not know: as soon as it gets hot, snow in mountains starts to melt very-very fast! (Quelle surprise!) Thus every day on the way to work I see that the water level in our local river Isère is getting higher, higher and higher day after day! 

It is very nice that there are high dikes along the river, which were reenforced last year - otherwise we all will be flooded here... A lot of debris and large tree trunks are flowing with melt-waters.