Snowshoe outing at Marchairuz, January 19
Despite some concerns over a possible lack of snow the previous week it became clear that not only would there be an abundance of the white stuff, but that the gods would be in our favour with the forecast of blue sky for this outing. As it turned out the ten of us spent a special day of good exercise, beautiful snow conditions and good company.
Dawn was forecast to come in at -12 degrees Celsius, although it rose to – 8 degrees when we met up at the Col, so without too much persuasion we met up in the restaurant for coffee and hot chocolate. Noticeably absent were two dogs, Kobie and Nessie, but given the very cold conditions it was certainly for the best. It was good to see Coco the lunatic parrot again on his perch in the bar.
Ten of us with appropriate thermals enjoyed the trek. Peter T, Richard S, Mervyn P, Stephen L, David C, Mark2T, Nathan F, Mark2R, Mike M and myself (Rob (Ed. PT)).
The original plan was to trek as far along the route to Mont Tendre as the conditions would allow and return by the same trail eating our picnic lunch along the way. But mutiny was in the cold air. The prospect of a nice lunch in the warm restaurant at the Col was too much to miss, so with a lot of persuasion (truth be told, very little!), I was forced by a majority decision to change the itinerary to take the outward trip for an hour and a half to return in time for a lunch. A table for ten was booked.
The snowshoeing was excellent, the piste was well marked in deep and crisp snow and the trees stood out wonderfully.
We reached the Cabane du Grand Cunay after a few “pechs”*, a few more for some of us, where unexpectedly there appeared cups and a fine Chasselas followed by some excellent homemade gluhwein. A nice break with fine views after 3.3k and 200m of ascent.
Downhill all the way, despite the few uphill bits, back to the warm welcoming restaurant where it was fondu all round, with some dipping genepi for the bread that went down well, and our usual coffee and Celtic water.
One good thing happened (at least). A friendly looking fellow from the table behind us came over and introduced himself. Larry French, lives part-time in Canada, part-time in Morges (December to mid-March and mid-April to July). He had been cross country skiing up to Marchairuz. Larry has now joined GINs and will be on the next snow shoe outing. Larry is currently the editor of the newsletter “the Grand Parents for the Climate Europe”. Welcome Larry!
Glowing and drowsy from the fondu, 9 of us set off for the second half of the day for an equally nice round trip short trek of 2.5 km with 70 m of ascent on the southwestern side of the col. Quite a few more peching* was heard, but it was well worth it. Only one of us manged to fall and loose his left snowshoe, but with the heroic aid of Mervyn all was recovered without loss.
A great day with great company.
*Peching – “At last wi’ great peching an’ granin we gat with a pingle” 1754 Robert Forbes (Scots). Loosely translated as at last with lots of heavy breathing and grinding we made it with our sticks.
Rob
(NB I recorded a total of 8.7km and 346m deniv – ie. there was indeed some uphill on the way back in the morning (Pétros (Ed.)))
