Mountain Hiking with Quechua by Decathlon

Stunning view! Looking at the French Alps just makes me want to go back Mountain hiking! This trip was amazing!

I was taking a few days off work to join a trip to France with Decathlon exploring their brand Quechua. I got to know all about outdoors, camping, hiking and outdoor clothing. Before I went on the plane I had to practice how to pronounce that brand otherwise it would end up very embarrassing for me. I can’t speak French. I told my french colleagues about the trip and learnt how to pronounce it. The best way to remember was associating something with it. So the foodie in me straightaway thought of “cashew nuts”! That’s it! Pronounce cashew and add an “ua” at the end = cashewua! That’s how you pronounce it! YOU lough but that’s how I remembered it.

Day 1: Exploring the mountains and testing the gear.

“Give a girl the right shoes and she can conquer the world.” Marilyn Monroe

We stayed in a small place called Sallanches, not far from Chamonix. First thing in the morning we were given a pair of Quechua mountain hiking boots. Perfect, as I was planning to take my trail running shoes.  Great I could test them. It made such a difference. The shoes supported my ankle as you can see in the pictures. The sole had a profile for better grip and the best was that they are waterproof.

Filing our bottles with fresh, cold mountain water. It was hot! Hiking up a mountain was my first time! We had a guide working for Quechua that was an expert on the trail and had lots of interesting local stories to tell. We were hiking a few hours and were about 1,690 meter high. You know me, my heart was so happy in the nature. Why did I not do this before? Surrounded by shades of green, the different highs to look at and contrast of mountain, river and blue sky was stunning. How lucky were we with the weather? Researching beforehand the forecast said rain. Luckily we stopped at the Decathlon Mountain store to get our gear, so we were able to choose a mountain hiking shorts. I choose purple as they were matching with the rest of my outfit. Just a small tip if you ordering the shorts online, I was able to try them and they were very small. The fabric has no stretch so I had to choose 2 size up.

Most of us were caring a Quechua backpack . Mine was filled with baguettes, cheese and ham for our lunch. We had a lovely pick-nick at the top of the mountain. Climbing back down you would think it’s easy, but it’s actually as difficult as climbing up. Why? At times it was steep and the ground we walked on was with loose stones that potentially could make you slip. Yes, there could be a risk of twisting an ankle, but with the right shoes covering my ankle, I felt secure. Most of us are runners and we also felt the impact of going downhill in our knees. We took our time and had the best day trip we could imagine. Finishing our day with a swim in the local lake. Amazing refreshing!

 

Day 2:  Exploring the brand Quechua by Decathlon at the “Mountain Store” 

The Mountain store is an amazing huge store but it’s also their innovation centre. Different teams are working closely together with brand ambassadors and customer reviews constantly improving the products and especially developing new features due to our needs. We had a tour around the store and saw Marketing brainstorming, machines testing products and discovering secret products I’m not able to talk about. The product development team explained how they developed  an idea and showed us the different dummies until they had the final product. That was very interesting. What I’ve also learnt was that Decathlon are manufacturing their own products since 1986 and about 10 years later, in 1996, Quechua was established as their own brand.

 

From my customer point of view I would say this is a one stop shopping paradise. You can get everything you need for your outdoor activities and they also have a few small companies/ agencies offering services like to book your ski pass. On top of that you can also hire equipment. This just shows how Decathlon makes sport accessible for all. I can’t think of a reason not to go for a hiking camping trip anymore. You just need free time obviously.

I had the best time with like minded fitness bloggers and I’m very grateful to be part of #DecathlonBloggersCommunity. Big thank you to Decathlon UK for inviting me and the opportunity to explore one of their brands in the outdoors.

The summer just started and I like to be more mountain hiking.

Any good places I have to visit?

Please share in a comment below.

 

Thanks,

Sabine

 

 

Thanks to blogger Natasha for the outdoor pictures.