2 weeks ago, Bastien and me went to
the
Parc National
des Ecrins in the Southern French Alps to hike the GR 54 "Tour
de l'Oisans" with a tent. This path is told to be one of the
widldest and most beautiful GR (long distance hiking). It's around
200km-long for +11,000m ascent, highest point over 2750m. The
region is rather dry, so the glaciers are generally quite small and
hanged on the clives. This presents a great contrast between the
white snow and the black rocks.
We got different kinds of weather: very hot and heavy, warm, cold
but sunny... and rainy. We saw lots of marmots. In particular,
Bastien achieve to approach 2 very young marmots near their hole
(at around 2m) with his camera. It was great fun to watch them
playing, fighting together but also kissing, hugging. We also saw a
couple of chamois, king of the place. Scenery was great in many
places, just to mention the best: The
Meije glacier from the
Plateau d'Emparis: powerful, the
Sirac, the end of
the amazing valley of
Jaz-la-Croix and the lake of
Vallonpierre.
One morning, we saw a camp "devastated" by a group of cows... The
hikers there only achieved to save quickly bags and tent, leaving
the cooking gear in the middle of the cows, tasting some pasta !
They looked really pissed off, and didn't know what to do. Bastien
and me went in the middle of the cows to get back their stove, and
other gear from under their legs. Bastien even hit one in the nose
with his bag. Some crockery was "slightly" crushed, but the stove
was ok. For their first night out, they made a great start !
One camp at 2500m was rather cold, even though the weather was
nice: there was some ice in the tent ! The gas stove didn't burn
properly, so I had to help it by heating the bottle with the
lighter.
Unfortunately, after 6 great days, a heavy rain with low clouds
prevented us to pass the 2500m-high Col de la Vaurze (really
slippery slopes and clives). As the schedule was rather tight, we
had to cancel the last 3 days. This was quite a hard decision, I
can tell you. We were nearly locked in a small village (
Villard
Loubière) when a guy offered to give us a lift to the
nearest city (Gap): 35km and the way back alone just for us ! We
always meet great people in the mountains !
Bastien is supposed to create a complete web site, much more
detailed about this trip, with lots of pictures. He's going to tell
you objectively how he was about to die many times, how I was nasty
to him, etc
Don't hesitate to spam him to get this site quickly
online.
