Day 5 - final day

Got up a bit later today (6:30), so late start (7:40). The first climb of the day (Col de la Muzzelle, 2600m high, 1000m elevation gain)  was quite steep, but i made it relatively good time. I even saw some mountain goats!

 

The view on the other side was quite awesome.

 

Then descent to the lake de la Muzele and back up to the second pass of the day (500m)

Then long descent to the lake Lauvitel where i took a rest and swim.

 

After that sort fun descent to the bottom of the Veneon valley. I was flying down, just had pure running fun. People had hard times to get out of the way. Following was pretty boring last 8km on the flat by the river until Bourg d'Oisans. The victory beer was guaranteed!

 

That's it. I made it. It was hard but lots of fun. I'm really grateful for the experience!

Day 4

It was supposed to rain so I put on the tarp, but that was wasted time. No rain early in the morning. 

 

The first stretch was 9km downhill to la Chapelle de Valdagemar. Small village in the valley of Severaise. Once in the village, brutal storm started. So time for breakfast in the local hotel.

 

After about 2hr it was good to go again, so I continued another 5km to the first ascent of the day. 1600m. I'm the middle it started to rain again, but not as hardcore.

 

Then I got the  refuge de souffle where all the people stopped as the rain got hard again. I dressed up and continued up to col de la Vaurze.

 

I was smiling at the top. With rain and cold weather it was much easier. My body really liked it and I had no crisis the whole day. Awesome.

The descent to le Désert Valjouffrey was super steep, no running possible.

 

After refreshment and rest 45 min, I was ready for the second pass of the day: col de Côté Belle. 1000m.

In the middle it started to rain again. Great, no crisis!

 

Then descent to beautiful Valsenestre and camp there.  What a great day!

 

Statistics: soul running. I did not track the km's. About 2600m up.

Day 3

Waking up early again, 6am, on the trail at 7am. The first part is long, beautiful valley up to the first pass. It's nice and cold, feels good as usual. Climb about 1500m.

Col de l'Aup Martin is probably the highest on the trail (2757m). Then descend to refuge pre dela Chaumette. Steep so one cannot really run...

 

I actually had proper lunch and it felt great. Then the afternoon onslaught begun. First pass 1000m ascent, then a bit down, 300m to second pass, then down and another 200m to the last one. All high up in the alpine. Pretty challenging. Last pass was Col de Vallonpierre.

 

Then 400m down to the refuge and I really needed beer. And they had great one, Alphand. Not sure why but the beer taste so good on this trip.

I had to really force myself down from the refuge. I'm super tired. But I still made another 7k and camp beside the creek again. 

Starting to have blisters and that will hurt next days. Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be really bad so I'll see what to do, but I'm not super keen to go up the mountains in thunderstorms.

 

Statistics: 2500m elevation gain, 38km

Day 2

I'm up at 6am, leaving by 7am. First section was 500m climb to col d'Arsine. It's nice and cold, feeling really good.

Descent is also ok and I have time to enjoy some stunning views.

 

The last flat section to Monetiers les bains is actually also nice, really enjoying running. 

After resupply and breakfast I'm ready for the climb of the day. 1000m to col d'eychauda. First few km are ok, in the forest but hell steep. After the forest ends, the hell starts again. It must be even warmer then yesterday. Even at the alpine it's so hot again. This really eats my energy and at the top i hate the world. But i made it. 

Descents is quite boring but ok to run so it goes fast. I ended up really dehydrated so the beer comes to rescue. Actually 3 beers...

 

At this point I made 39km and now just looking for the campsite. I need to cool down in the river so looking for a good camp by the creek, which took me another 6km and 400m elevation. Uff.

Statistics: 45km, about 2000m elevation gain. Almost in half, but the easier half. Tomorrow is I think the hardest day.

 

Day 1

Woke up at 6am and I was running at 7am. And that was a good idea given the hell which was in the afternoon.

First was a pretty easy climb to col de serrene, about 2000m.

Then steep descent and a bit of accent to la Besse. Very nice small village in mountains.

Then up the plateaux d'emparis. It started to be really hot and at the top i was pretty much done. Horrible, first crisis. But still smiling, a bit of a fake.

I took a bit of the rest (1.5hr) going that i get better. I did not though and the first hill was a tough one. It was really hot by that time, but views of La Meige were awesome!

Then was steep descent to la Grave and I had to cool my head at pretty much every fountain i passed. Hell on the earth. In la Grave I made it straight to the grocery store to get coke, hoping it'll get better. I did not and I felt pretty bad. But then, following Marta's tip, i got couple of beers and that was like magic! I was back in game.

I could afterwards still run another 8km to the nice camping spot. And that's all for today. I could have gone further but i should take it easy at the beginning.

 

Statistics: 41km, about 2km up, 7hr25min moving time, 6000 burned calories. I could have more beers no problem...

Day 0

I took bus from Grenoble to Bourg d'Oisans, only 6 euros and I did not have to drive. How convenient!

Then came the dinner in the restaurant, quite heavy ravioli, and off we go! 

First climb of the trip to Auris, with pretty spectacular sunset.

Then I passed some interesting small village, until getting to la Sarenne, where I found ok camp, nothing spectacular, but it's getting dark and I need to still get Alice's stretching yoga sequence done. 

Today's cozy bedroom on the picnic table ☺️.

In total 10k, 2hr of waking/running, 800m elevation gain. So 190km and 11km elevation to go!