UGA hikes

We went to meet Jean Grenet, head of the hiking activity at Grenoble University's sports service (SUAPS), to ask him a few questions about his activity and his organisation. Let's take a look...

1. What is your job and which sport(s) are you in charge of at SUAPS?

At SUAPS, in fact, there are all the sports activities offered by the university and I'm part of a group. I'm not on my own, I'm part of a group called the 'plein air' group. The 'plein air' group includes orienteering, hiking, climbing, windsurfing, diving and canoeing down the Isère.

2. In the mountain activities, you look after at least three people, but what do you do for the students in the hiking activity?

I'm mainly in charge of weekend hikes, because there are 2 types of hiking. There's the half-day tour, which is normally on Friday afternoons, and the weekend tour. We've introduced a new 3-day module in Italy. For the latter, you have to plan the refuges, prepare all the equipment and organise everything properly. They're doing a tour of the Alps, on the Italian side, and it's my colleague Thomas Prieur who's doing it. They left for 3 days, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

And I'm doing the weekend, which means we're doing it all day Saturday, leaving at 8am in the morning and staying until 6pm. In principle, we do an average of 15-16 km with between 1000 and 1200 metres of ascent.

3. During the weekend hikes do you only do the Saturdays? And do you a single weekend or several?

As there are 3 massifs around Grenoble, I'm doing the 3 massifs of Chartreuse, Belledonne and Vercors and these are events that the students are going to organise, as part of a course, a university discipline. You have to sign up in advance because it's an ETC, and normally there aren't many places available. Every Saturday, the students prepare all the material before they leave, making sure they have everything they need, under my supervision. Then I ask them in advance to prepare a presentation on a hiking theme for each day we're away, which they present to the others at lunchtime. That's how I do the assessments.

4. Apart from the course, do you do any other hiking activities with the students?

Yes, what I do is that once I've finished the three weekends, I offer other walks to students who want to continue. And I work for another organisation. I've brought you a map, it's free. So I'm working with the metropolitan area, and they've come up with something great, this map with all the hikes, and they have their own application: Isère Outdoor. The advantage of this application is that it contains all the activities that have been checked by professionals, unlike other applications. This one has been made by professionals, so all the GPS points have been checked and are accurate; and it also includes bike rides, paragliding, climbing, winter walks and so on. It also shows you where you can start your walk and the means of transport you can use to get to the starting point. So students and anyone else who wants to go walking can go on their own. And then, as I said, there's the map where you can find the different walks around Grenoble, with the different points of interest, the transport to get there from different parts of the city, the difficulty, whether you can do it on foot, by bike or on horseback, and so on. It's also great for people coming to Grenoble for a short stay, or who just want to visit the area around Grenoble. Otherwise, there's the app, and both are free.

5. How does the registration process work for the course?

The ETC course is free, so most sports courses are free except for specific courses such as windsurfing, diving or skiing, where there is a small charge. However, it is possible to access sports courses without being graded by paying a small fee per semester of between €22 and €30, but only if there are places available, as priority is given to students who apply for a graded activity, i.e. ETC.