Written by Rob Pashley
The plan was to start walking at 10am from the Col, and ten adventure-minded members turned up on time for a quick coffee at the restaurant before moving off. Our favourite parrot was unfortunately missed as it was having a rest at the home of one of the restaurant servers.
Peter D, Mervyn P, Andrew N, David C, Mike M, Mark Warren, Richard S, Richard W and Robert P. Richard W, Ralph W and myself set off on the dot in true Swiss style. As is usually the case with hikes or indeed snow-shoe outings led by our Scottish leader, as soon as we started the clouds disappeared and the sun shone for the rest of the day. It wasn’t long before most were disrobing to cope better with the rising temperature.
We managed to stay together for about a third of the way to the Buvette two of the group decided to take the official route at the Cabane du Cunay while the rest of us tried a much longer shortcut.
Consequently, those who knew better had to climb over a numbers of walls and cover some rough terrain and we ended up with three separate groups, with the leader leading diligently from the rear. It was a bit of a climb reaching the top of Mont Tendre at 1679 m and the three groups came together again for fabulous views into forested France and the Alps. Two of the team were sent on to the Buvette so ensure a suitable table was found and the beers were already in the fridge waiting while the rest of us admired some high-tech Swiss German mountain bikes resting at the summit.
The Buvette was very welcoming and all heartily tucked in to mainly Rosti based meal with added cheese extra eggs and sausage, however the waitress was having quite a difficult time keeping up with the beer order. But we all managed.
After some traditional toasting with some Scottish liquid and some Danish stuff (that some suggested had some strange sexual connotations) and dire coffee, we paid the young lady of the Buvette and started off on the 8k or so hike back to the cars. The temperature had risen and it turned out to be a slightly more difficult and longer return route, although we all kept to the official paths. The quality of the chat, though, diminished as tiredness fell upon us, or maybe it was just the beer as the few that weren’t drinking beer seemed to talk more sense.
A couple of the team held us back at the re-visit to the summit of Mont Tendre having some polite conversation with two young ladies. They eventually caught up with the rest of us.
One of the advantages of starting a hike at Marchairuz is that you can relax at the restaurant at the end of a hard day’s hike. We took some well-earned refreshment there while congratulating ourselves on our hiking prowess, amongst other things. After all, it was a 16.8 km, 734 m déniv hike.
Great job Rob et Al. I like your longer shortcut approach. And that you kept the waitress busy replenishing beer glasses. A big hike too! Well done all.