Trail running near Grenoble

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 JuneBob 05 Sep 2018

Hi,

I'm heading towards Grenoble in a couple weeks, staying in Saint-Mury-Monteymond, but I'll have a car. Any recommendations for nice trail runs, or ridge runs? A bit of scrambling is ok, but preferably runable terrain.

Up to 30km-ish, and 2000m-ish elevation is fine.

Thanks,

Robert

 Doug 05 Sep 2018
 Dark-Cloud 05 Sep 2018
In reply to JuneBob:

Vercors ! Not run round there, only mountain biked but its an amazing area with what looks like a lot of really nice running.

https://stationdetrail.com/en/stations/vercors-villard-de-lans

OP JuneBob 05 Sep 2018
In reply to JuneBob:

Great, thanks - that's a useful website.

 yorkshireman 05 Sep 2018
In reply to Dark-Cloud:

> Vercors ! Not run round there, only mountain biked but its an amazing area with what looks like a lot of really nice running.

> https://stationdetrail.com/en/stations/vercors-villard-de-lans

Thanks for the link. We've just put an offer in on a house (we currently live further south near Lus-la-Croix-Haute) in Lans-en-Vercors so that's handy if it all works out.

Looks like you'll be in the Belledonne. Maybe try some of the route of the recent Echapée Belle - meant to be amazing.

https://www.lechappeebelledonne.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/RoadBook2018...

 Dark-Cloud 06 Sep 2018
In reply to yorkshireman:

That Echapee Belle route looks great, not sure i want to get involved in anything that has 11 100 meters of ascent though, even the shorter ones look pretty fearsome.....

I especially like this little nugget from the road book:

The highlands of Belledonne are used as grazing land for sheep, which are guarded by dogs known as ‘patous’. Be warned, these are not like British sheep-dogs, they may be unsupervised, and they take their duty of guarding their sheep very seriously! The shepherds have been advised that the race is going through and asked to move their flocks away from the course if possible. Nonetheless, if you encounter a herd, and in particular a patou dog, these recommendations should be observed:

• Do not run

• Stay standing, give them the time to identify you

• Do not attempt to scare them off with your batons

• Keep walking calmly along the path

• Call the course PC or inform the first volunteer of their presence

Post edited at 12:43
 yorkshireman 06 Sep 2018
In reply to Dark-Cloud:

Haha - I only meant a small part of the course. A friend of mine in our village finished the race in 37 hours last week so it is pretty involved.

Patou are a danger, but I've found that generally if you behave right they're OK.

Here's some of the dogs up on the mountain behind my house from this summer.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmNvsLsAy-k/?taken-by=chamoisbotherer

Ferocious (and huuuge) but they were great once they knew we weren't a threat. The shepherd was a great guy though and they're not all so enlightened.

However most of the sheep are coming down now - your biggest problem will be being shot by a hunter so make sure you pack plenty of day-glo kit.

 OliverR17 06 Sep 2018
In reply to JuneBob:

Last week I ran up to Col Vert and then along the ridge path to Col d'Arc then back down. It's a lovely route along a generally well defined path with nice views, albeit with the occasional bit of scree. Tried to summit Roc Cornufion (2049m) (halfway inbetween the two) but cloud came in and I lost the path - shame because the views would be stunning (there's a 360 view on google if you're interested).

Not sure how long this route would be from the Grenoble side (I started from Villard-de-Lans), but can easily be extended by going further along this ridge at either end.


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