Hike to Croix du Nivolet

The Croix du Nivolet is a monumental cross on top of one of the mountains overlooking Chambery. We can see it from our apartment window on a clear day. So on the first nice morning of our long weekend, we went on a hike to see what the view was like from up there. Here is Max, taking a view of the valley at the beginning of our hike.

We went with Justin, the other American that works at the same site as Max. Here he and Max are leading the way up the mountain. It took up about an hour and a half to hike to the top, stopping along the way for pictures and water. It was amazing to see families with little kids (5-6 years old) on the trail too. We couldn't let them make us look bad.

Here is Max standing next to the Croix du Nivolet, putting some perspective to its actual size. The view from the top was beautiful. Not only could we see Chambery, but we could see the neighboring towns and nearby lake. The Alps seemed even bigger. We were also above the gliders that we see floating around the sky on the weekends.

And this is Chambery, from 1547 meters (or about 5,000 feet)! We couldn't make out our apartment building, but we could see the train station. By the time we were done looking around and taking pictures, we were so cold! We hiked back down the mountain at a much quicker pace. That evening we were pretty wiped out but looking forward to doing it again sometime.