Snow shoeing and skiing in one day - near Grenoble.

It would be easy do yet another facebook post but I'm not a huge fan of that.  It takes less effort and is not as personal, but I do it when I don't have time (seems to be more often lately).  I feel like when I write a blog post, it is looked at by people who are really interested.

Lately I've been consumed by the whirlwind of work and other miscellaneous tasks related to day to day routines such as homework with kids, cleaning the house, doing chores, etc. etc.  On top of that as some of you may know I have an ongoing shoulder injury (and so does Jakub), so the past climbing season was non-existant and I had to switch to "leg activities" such as hiking in the summer.  So when we finally had some snow in the mountains, Jakub and I got quite excited, because skiing is also a "leg sport" and as long as you don't fall badly (on your injured shoulder), should be OK, right?

So under this category we can list snow shoeing, cross country skiing, downhill skiing, ski touring...and that's plenty to keep us busy this winter I hope.

Yesterday I have had enough of everything - work, the smog, the city, the traffic (jams), stress, routine, pre-Christmas crazy hoards of people in the stores, and on and on we can go....  I don't work on Wednesday mornings and usually I spend that time grocery shopping, and lately it was more like wandering around stores semi Christmas shopping (wasting time!!! YES!!!).  And so I had an idea.  I thought it would be really cool to just get away from all this, get out in the mountains by myself.  I thought why not, why not be just a little selfish?!  And so I made my little plan and then stuck to it.  And it was really great.

6:30 AM - wake up, get myself ready and get the kids ready for school

7:50 AM - drop off kids at school

8:30 AM - arrive at Lans en Vercors mountain base (La Sierre)

8:45 AM - hike up to one of the summits (roughly 320m elev.)

9:45 AM - hike down, and then slide down the rest on a garbage bag (fun part!)

10:15 AM - drive back to Grenoble and buy baguettes (note - this is a very important part of the day here in France :)

11:30 AM - pick up kids from school

Well hello there sunshine!  Nice to meet up with you at the top.

Looking down onto Grenoble, Belledonne mountains, and Mont Blanc.  Yes, that is smog down below.

I loved my little snow shoe hike.  It was so quiet up there, just the mountain and I, the crunching of the snow under my feet and a cool breeze in the air.  Really simple, yet so satisfying and peaceful.  I did not meet a sole until I got to the top.  This is where some ski touring people started getting there as well.

The day did not finish here though.  We had lunch, picked up Jakub and then drove to the Belledone mountains (opposite side of Grenoble) to the Les Sept Laux and did downhill skiing for the rest of the day!

There is a decent amount of snow up there but yes, we do need more.

The ski team at Les Sept Laux

On the chair lift.

Ski season is starting.

Vercors in the distance.

In motion.

Sun set over the Vercors range....this is where I was snow shoeing this morning!!

I had a great time today and really look forward to using my time more efficiently like this in the near future.  I hope this is an inspiration to some moms out there :)

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