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12: Dent de Crolles and la Meije Glaciers

Yes, I'm still here in France and I've been trying to squeeze as much into this summer as possible so the updates have dropped in priority. I spend about 4 or 5 hours on each of these email and, frankly, having a beer at the Café Stendhal during the hot summer days has been more enjoyable. It appears I'll be wrapping up my year here shortly before Christmas.

The longer I'm here, the fewer the surprises. I've done the airport run in the dark, rainy, wee hours of the morning more than once, and almost a dozen times in total. So I really don't expect surprises anymore. Recently, I had another early trip and, yes, it was dark and raining. The Fall season, and shorter days are here again. I arrived at the airport to discover the car return had disappeared. Gee, I hadn't heard a thing about this from any of my co-workers. And I was not about to get lost in the bowels of the airport again. So I looked around and noticed a new sign, with a new label, but having to do with "voitures", the French word for "car". I followed it. Sure enough, there was the car return, a mile from its old location, or so I thought.

As I mentioned, it was dark and the only light was for a car rental building that looked more like a car wash or repair station than a car return. But it was the only place in view with any sign of life. I eased up to the gate and reconsidered. If I went in I was curious if I could get out again. Time was wasting so I went in. Lights were on, doors were open, it was the right rental agency...but no one could be seen anywhere. Hmmm... Now what. I yelled. No answer. I got in the car and headed for the gate. As I suspected, it wouldn't open. Finally, someone arrived. Another lost sole. And soon after someone from the rental agency finally arrived. The actual car return was another half mile down the road, with no lights shining. I pulled up and a man greeted me. In rough English he said "Congratulations. You are the first person to use the new car return!". It was true; signs in the Lyon airport advertised this as the first morning of the rental car return's new location. Figures.

This summer was quite warm. Actually, it was just plain hot--the hottest on record for this region. The obvious response to the heat was to seek cooler temps and usually that meant going to higher altitudes. One warm Sunday in August I awoke to an especially clear day and decided to take a drive to the mountains. No mountains in particular just a higher, cooler area. As I headed to the gas station to top the tank I noticed Dent de Crolles towering over the valley and decided on a spur-of-the-moment change in direction. Dent de Crolles is the second highest mountain in Chartreuse, a large tooth-like mountain (i.e. "dent" in French), and is one of the most notable natural landmarks in the Grenoble area. I began my hike on a beautiful yet steep uphill path. Soon I realized that a few guys a minute or two in front of me were probably headed to the same destination--the summit of Dent de Crolles. So I followed them.

A while later I began to question my decision. These guys appeared lost. After getting their attention I presented my rather large-scale Michelin road map for discussion. (Don't laugh. I was the only one of us with a map, even if it happened to be a road map!) There were no English speakers among them but they communicated to me that they were indeed headed to the summit, and confident they were going the right way. The French are not unlike Americans in this respect. Both Americans and French believe they are right. So I dumped them--never to be seen again--and backtracked, finally finding the inconspicuous turnoff I had missed earlier.

Given the length of the unexpected detour I considered aborting the hike but figured it was now or never; I would probably never get this close to summiting Dent de Crolles again. With the help of steel cables, which are affixed to the rock face, I climbed vertically for about 50 feet where I was able to resume a more safe gradient. An hour later I reached the summit and was photographed by another hiker as I stood a few feet from the 2000+ foot vertical face of Dent de Crolles. A 5-hour hike in total, it was my most difficult of the year and worth the effort. It was also considerably cooler than the temperatures I had left behind in the valley.

In September a friend and I ventured to the mountain town of La Grave. La Grave is in the high Alpes, not far from the Italian border, and is near the base of large glaciers. This view is descending le Col du Galibier with the glaciers in the distance.

We took the téléphériques (a combination of two cable cars) to a high point on the mountain, well up into the area of the glaciers and above the clouds. These téléphériques have been running for decades and they do not instill confidence.

As was mentioned in an earlier email, téléphériques to the high altitudes are found frequently in the Alpes and a restaurant, bar, and deck are usually located nearby.

Following our visit to the glaciers, on our return by auto to Grenoble, I detoured to one of my favorite areas near Alpe d'Huez.

As we wormed our way up the narrow road we rounded a hairpin turn only to encounter sheep for as far as we could see. Apparently, the head lamb, the one with the bell, had been distracted by some tasty clover and the herd had come to a halt with us in the middle. Eventually, the shepherd got Rudolph moving again and we were able to continue our journey.

The lambs with young stayed clear of this mass of sheep. One lamb had given birth just a few hours prior to when we saw her.

I'll quit for now before you get TOO bored. I hope to wrap this year, as your friendly tour guide, with travelogues to Paris, Zermatt Switzerland and the Matterhorn, and the Côte d'Azur (Monaco and Nice). We'll see if the weather cooperates (note: it didn't). Only two more travel weekends so it'll be tight. Stay tuned.