My First Week in Grenoble

By: Luca Thorson

GRIP: Engineering Research in Grenoble

My first weekend in Grenoble, I decided to do a hike, since that is one of the city’s biggest draws. I’m not the most avid hiker but I enjoy it and figured I could handle most anything fairly easily, so I found a hike in a nearby ski village called Chamrousse and hopped on a bus. As I hopped off a bus wearing only shorts, a tee shirt, and a backpack filled with a little food, I knew I’d already made a mistake. It wasn’t a particularly cold day but we had climbed about 5000 feet on the bus ride so I was already a little chilly. I honestly hadn’t looked into the hike enough to know how much higher I was going to climb, but looking at the mountains around me, I could tell it was going to be a substantial amount. I set off anyway figuring, if necessary, I could jog to warm myself up.
Soon after starting I could tell it was going to be the most beautiful hike I’d ever done. The sky was clear and the sun was out illuminating a landscape that was vaguely familiar to the forests of the northeast United States. Every once in a while I’d see backdrops of mountain peaks or little patches of snow, reminding me of how high up I was. It stayed pleasant like this for about two hours at which point I descended into a valley covered in a thick fog. It was also at this point that the directions told me to veer off the marked trail, and so I did, somewhat mindlessly. I was almost immediately climbing up rocks on all fours and getting into knee deep snow. I figured with this sudden increase in difficulty, I had to be getting near the apex of the hike, and reassured by a previous hiker’s footprints in the snow, I decided to venture on. In reality, I was 2 and half more hours from the apex, the thick fog blanketing the challenges ahead. As I kept going, I was faced with increasingly steeper inclines made much more difficult by the slippery snow. After each one I expected to emerge out of the fog to a peak with a beautiful view of Grenoble and beyond. Instead I would just find another snowy incline, feeling increasingly claustrophobic and alone from the constant gray fog and white snow.
Along with increased difficulty, each incline also brought an increasing reluctance to turn back and abandon the hike. If I were with anyone else, this may not have been the case, but because I was alone, I had the freedom to take it further than I normally would. And I did eventually reach the top and it was beautiful. And then I got to make another potentially bad, impulsive decision and sled down the mountain, soaking myself in the process, but it was a lot of fun.
This hike illustrates the independence I’ve found while abroad. Without anyone to check me, I find myself not thinking things through completely and making stupid mistakes. At the same time, taking my impulses further has provided me with adventures that have been well worth the mistakes. It’s a freedom that can only be experienced while you’re alone.