7.5km (est.) Rhône cut short, easy

With the ice wind blowing hard off the Alps, I decided to go inland today and try and re-trace Tenke's Rhône route.

Got off to a bad start in the lift. I took the "third" lift which looked suspiciously like a service lift and had a serious lack of 0 button. Now was R or RE the one I needed to get out. Before I knew it I was on the floor -2 with a surprised looking lady and a chef. All in French, I admitted I was lost and asked how one got to ground level to leave the building. The chef was most helpful and stopped the lift in what appeared to be a shoe workshop and explained how to get out of the building through the workshop on to the Rue de Rhône. Nice one mate!

Followed this route (click here) as far as the ponte Butin, including the Tenke switchback by the river, as having done it once already that counts as a tradition. I made the mistake of exploring slightly beyond ponte Butin where the mountain goat trail became even more dangerous and the graphic sign of the guy falling in the river and being washed away needed no translation. The elf n safety brigade would be having fits by now, so I turned for home.

Unfortunately, just after mile two the Garmin ran out of juice so no data from then other than the hrt was through the roof on the first mile, recovered in the second and basically it is impossible to go much faster than 9min miles on most of the trail without risking a dip in the Rhône or worse.

On the way back I tested a theory that worked. I figured running up the middle islands on the river (they all looked connected) might get back to the office avoiding the tram works that have messed up all the road crossings. That worked pretty well - including the Quai des Moulins where I thought I was going to have to run through a restaurant, but fortunately there is an alleyway through the building that I use to get by without interrupting the lunching businessmen!

Time on feet was 42mins and distance covered probably about 2km less than the River route last time.