GR 5 Alpine Traverse

Making friends at the Combe de Crousette

There’s lots of user information about the Alps already, yet traversing a significant section of the range while camping out most nights, packing several days worth of food at a time or not climbing any peaks is probably not the most typical activity people do in these mountains.

During the GR 5 traverse, I was never more than a couple hours hike from some kind of civilization and if I count on the stuffed huts that couple of hours happened very few times, if any. The Alps are no wilderness and the GR 5 is certainly not the most remote you can get in these mountains. It’s dead easy and requires no big planning effort to hike the GR 5 and get lodging every night.

In my very limited experience, lots of people use the GR 5 trail system but it seems not many try to hike it all and even less attempt any kind of extended self sufficiency. It will be odd to leave the last village only to climb up to some alpine meadow for camping but once there you’ll quickly forget the taverns you missed. It’s beautiful up in the alpine and these mountains are famous for a reason or two.