Snowshoeing is something I had never done before. The appeal is huge though : in winter, the Alps are covered in snow, about 1 m of snow from 1200 m elevation usually. This makes for striking mountains, and the boring green or grey hills you see in summer are suddenly not so boring anymore. Which is a good thing, as you certainly can't climb as high as in summer, the avalanche risk being too great. Avalanche bulletin will dictate the life of a snowshoe enthusiast. Dozens of skiers, snowshoers or snowboarders died this year in the French Alps, mostly off-track in 3 to 5 avalanche risk (on a 5 mark scale). The problem is most of the slopes in most of winter are rated 3 : people then get frustrated and assume that 3 is fine, while it's mostly a gamble. I only went when the risk was 2 or less, which meant only 2 hikes this winter.
The first one was in Vercors, south-east of Grenoble. Vercors only tops at around 2200 m, and yet it's one of my favorite places in the Alps, an opinion shared by many locals. Yes it lacks glaciers and huge peaks, but it also lacks big ugly ski resorts, it's accessible but still wild, the villages are full of charm and history, and the plateau feels liberating. The walk I did was up a rounded mountain called Charande, 1709 m. Driving to the start of the walk, on January 1st with fresh snow on the way to the village, no snow tires and no chains, was a bit tricky already. For the whole walk I used ViewRanger fitted with IGN maps. Very handy as getting oriented in snow can be difficult, with foot prints everywhere leading to God knows where. I was lucky, it was cold (-4°) so the snow was hard, and in the end, I never even put on my snowshoes, boots were enough. It was only 500 m elevation gain, but it's much harder in snow than on firm ground. Luckily, the frosted pine trees and plants were magnificent in the morning light. Slowly the views opened, towards Belledonne and Grenoble on the left, and the rest of Vercors on the right. I wasn't surprised at all to see some blokes having a new year lunch at the top (with wine, yes).