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What is this route?

The Tour of the Oisans, also known as GR54.

Making a 10–13 day circuit of the Massif des Écrins (another name for the Oisans region) in the French Alps southeast of Grenoble, the Tour of the Oisans is similar in distance, and in the amount of time required to walk it, as the classic Tour of Mont Blanc. But there the similarity ends.

Vauban once described the region as having ‘mountains reaching for the sky, and valleys sinking to incredible depths’. This is precisely the country over which the Tour of the Oisans covers a distance of about 176km (109 miles), crosses 14 passes, and ascends a total of some 12,830m (42,063ft) in a little under a fortnight's holiday. These are bald statistics, of course, and mean little until they are translated into the physical reality of walking the route. This reality may come as a surprise to those who have not previously experienced other Alpine routes. Even among mountains as high and rugged as those of the Massif des Écrins, tackling a long walk – or trek – would not normally imply that the act of scrambling was involved, yet several stages of the Oisans trek cross unprotected rocky sections, or follow narrow, exposed trails (some little more than ledges or grooves in the rock) safeguarded by fixed cable. Others slant across steep slopes of shale and grit where a slip could have serious consequences. And some of the cols are so narrow that one could virtually sit astride the ridge with legs dangling on either side!