The Grande Sure (; ) is a mountain in the French department of Isère, rising to an altitude of 1,920 meters in the Chartreuse mountain chain, in the Alps, overlooking the . Located on the western border of the mountain chain, it is composed of Fontanil limestone. It can be climbed from the eastern side via the mountain pass via the mountain pass, or from the mountain pass via the western side, which is more strenuous and has a higher difficulty. This mountain is part of the Chartreuse Regional Nature Park as well as a natural zone of ecological, faunistic and floristic interest. The species of the chamois () is particularly present in steep parts of the alpine tundra.
Toponymy Sure, like Suretta, means "mountain, heap, pile". This word roots from the umbrian surum. The origin would be common with thur and thura, in which the th, far from being an occlusive consonant, is a fricative one, along with turraz, tuglia and tauern.Le Globe: bulletin de la Société de géographie de Genève, Vol. 66–68, 1927, pages 139–140. In the case of the latter, as in High Tauern or Lower Tauern, taur would mean "mountain", but also "mountain pass" and would have originated from Slavic languages, where tur signifies a height, a hill.(de) Heinz-Dieter Pohl, Kärnten – deutsche und slowenische Namen [archive], May 16th 2010.(de) Heinz-Dieter Pohl, Die Bergnamen der Hohen Tauern, OeAV-Dokumente, Band 6. Österreichischer Alpenverein, Fachabteilung Raumplanung-Naturschutz, Innsbrück, 2009. If the Grande and Petite Vache's mountain passes or even if the Valley des Veaux, could indicate a long-established presence of mountain livestock breeding,Reinhard Scholl, Préalpes Isère et Savoies: Bauges, Aravis, Giffre, Chartreuse, Belledonne. Les 52 plus belles randonnées, Bergverlag Rother GmbH, 2007 (), pages 146–147. the explanation according to which Sure derives from the chtiure or stiure, regionalism for "goat"[PDF] Roland Gaude, Essai sur la toponymie de la commune de Saint Pierre de Chartreuse archive, association « À la découverte du patrimoine de Chartreuse », no 7, June 1995, page 4. would appear very unlikely.
The Grande Vache pastures and the valley are shown on the Cassini map, but it wasn't until the 18th-century maps that the were mentioned, with an altitude of 1,924 meters. The Brittany-born Antonin Macé, who had become a professor of history at Grenoble University, published a series of articles, particularly in the , mentioning in 1860.Antonin Macé, Les chemins de fer du Dauphiné, Maisonville et Jourdan, 1860, page 340.
Geography
Location is located in south-eastern France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region and the Isère department, within the commune of Saint-Julien-de-Ratz. The northern end of the mountain belongs to the commune of Saint-Joseph-de-Rivière, while the southern end is part of the territory of Pommiers-la-Placette. It is situated around ten kilometers east-southeast of Voiron, around 17 kilometers north of Grenoble and over 80 kilometers southeast of Lyon. It is part of the French Prealps Chartreuse mountain chain.
It extends to the south, through the western crest of the mountain chain,La Grande Sure archive, geol-alp.com. passing by the (1,838 mts) and the (1,845 mts); beyond the , to the east, rises the (1,867 mts). To the west, dominates Jura's plateauLa montagne de Ratz archive, geol-alp.com. du (942 mts at its highest point).
Topography The mountain rises to an altitude of 1,920 meters. At its base, to the north, lies the (approx. 400 mts), to the west, the mountain pass (587 mts) which it towers over with a fall of almost 1,500 meters; and to the southeast, the mountain pass (1,261 mts). To the east are the Sure (1,675 mts) and (1,712 mts) mountain passes, and to the northeast, the (1,643 mts) and (1,605 mts) mountain passes.
In the region, from where it is particularly visible, is shaped like a molar, leaning slightly to the east due to the inflection at the ends of its summit crest. Looking eastwards, its appearance is sharper. Its walls dominate high meadows covered by scree situated above the timberline between 1,500 and 1,600 meters of altitude. Several torrents flow down the mountain's western hillside: the stream of to the north, the stream of from which the waterfall springs, the also known as the stream of , and, to the south, the stream of also known as the stream of .
Geology is composed of Fontanil limestone corresponding to the Valanginian stage, formed by marine sedimentation in the Alpine Tethys during the Early Cretaceous. The upper Hauterivian stage forms the western talus of the crest, to the east. The Urgonian Limestone, characteristic of the other main summits of the Chartreuse, is present here only on the eastern side of the Hurtières crest.Les traces d'un ancien aplanissement archive, geol-alp.com. In the opposite direction from the summit, the western side of is composed of Berriasian limestone and limestone-marl alternations. To the west, it is dominated by Late Jurassic Tithonian limestone and Miocene molasse sandstone.
is formed by the western side of the vast Proveysieux syncline, centered on the mountain pass. The rocky promontories to the west of the summit, at the level of and , form an anticline that straddles the Voreppe syncline. The discovery of rocks lower than the Urgonian period in 's region can be explained by one or two phases of peneplanation, with the most recent dating back to the Villafranchian period (late Pliocene-early Pleistocene), while Alpine orogeny was still in progress. Traces of this flattening are clearly visible at the summit of and along the eastern side of the crest. Late tectonic folding of the Voreppe overlap, followed by differential erosion in the Quaternary period, completed the exposure of the older rocks. The valleys to the north and south of the Sure mountain pass reveal the presence of ancient glaciers on the eastern side of the mountain.[PDF] A. Tanitte, Réflexions sur le glaciaire cartusien autochtone archive, Revue de géographie alpine, vol. 57, no 3, 1969, pages 515–528.
Weather The Chartreuse mountain chain is characterized by an oceanic-alpine climate. It acts as a barrier to the strong westerly winds from the Atlantic Ocean, and thus receives a large amount of precipitation, with a peak in early spring and another in early autumn. A third of this precipitation comes in the form of snow. As a result, the snowpack depth at the mountain pass (1,326 m) is around one meter at the end of February but has reached record levels of 200 to 230 centimeters during the same period in 1979, 1982, and 1985. However, average snow cover, which has decreased by half over the last fifty years, has reached an average of fifty centimeters over the last ten years.L'eau entre mémoire et devenir – Hydrographie et pluviométrie en Chartreuse – Un massif arrosé toute l’année archive, Amis des parcs naturels régionaux du Sud-Est. As a result, since the 2000s, there has been an average of 150 days of snow per year on the mountain pass, that is, thirty days less than in the 1960s; the presence of a snowpack depth above one meter has decreased to an average of fifteen days every ten years over the same period. This finding corresponds to a temperature rise of 1.4 °C (34.52 °F) over the past half-century, from December 1 to April 30.Hivers au Col de Porte archive, Ministère de l'Écologie, du Développement durable et de l'Énergie.
Flora and Fauna is a sanctuary for chamois.[PDF] Montagne de la Grande Sure ZNIEFF de type I n° régional: 38150006 archive, Inventairedes zones naturelles d'intérêt écologique, faunistique et floristique, 2° edition, 2007.[PDF] Montagne de la Grande Sure (Identifiant national : 820032131) archive, Inventaire des zones naturelles d'intérêt écologique, faunistique et floristique, 2014. The Corsican Mouflon was introduced in 1970 and has a population of around 100 individuals, moving from in summer to the outskirts of in winter.[PDF] Nicolas Paour, La réintroduction du bouquetin en Chartreuse archive, 2014. Among the identified bird species are the Golden eagle and the Black grouse, protected under the Birds Directive, as well as the Alpine chough and the Eurasian woodcock.
The Lady's Slipper Orchid is protected under the Habitats Directive. Like this species, the Bear's Ear Primrose and the Variable Saxifrage are protected throughout the French metropolitan area. Other species include Fringed Pink, the St John's Wort (also called ), the Pink Cinquefoil, the Daphne alpina, the Epipactis leptochila Orchid, the Perennial Honesty, the broomrape () and a species of fern called the Hard Shield-fern.
History
In the mid-19th century, there were reports of chalets, which have since been removed, at the Grande and the Petite Vache. 's pastures were also used for other purposes.Richard, Guide du voyageur en France, coll. des Guides Joanne, L. Hachette et Cie., 25° edition, 1861, page 255. In 1882, Émile Viallet wrote an article about this mountain in Le Dauphiné, which was subsequently published in a sixteen-page work entitled .Émile Viallet, Ascension de la Grande Sure (massif de la Chartreuse) par Voreppe, Pommiers et le Pas de la Miséricorde, avec indications de divers itinéraires, coll. Bibliothèque du Touriste en Dauphiné, Xavier Drevet, 1882.
In April 2000, the summit cross of was the first of many to be vandalized in the Chartreuse mountain chain.Jean-Louis Ruchon, Qui en veut aux croix de la Chartreuse? archive, website Parisien, July 29th 2000. The following year, two new crosses were prepared for its summit. On June 10, 2001, a larger cross, made out of glued laminated timber, was installed to be visible from the area. It was knocked down again ten days later when a cloud covered the summit. On July 21, it was uprighted but had lost 1.3 meters in height. The second, more elaborate cross was eventually placed on Chamechaude, which had lost its own several years earlier.Nicolas GAMBY, photos de montagne, d'ici et d'ailleurs – La Chartreuse y croix archive.
Activities
Hiking
The classic hiking route starts at the Charmette mountain pass, accessible via from Saint-Égrève and passing through Proveysieux. After the Chalet de la Charmette, 200 mts north of the pass, the forest road gradually turns into a simple pathway heading northwest. This lead, after about an hour and a half's walk, to the Grande Vache mountain pass. Following a short descent to the Sure mountain pass, the pathway climbs up along the eastern side of until it reaches the summit, to the southwest, after an additional thirty minutes’ walk. This 660-meter-high hike is easy and suitable for everyone. You can return via the Hurtières Gut, south of the Grande Vache mountain pass.Grande Sure : Par le Col de la Grande Vache archive, camptocamp.org.