Peter Taylor – GIN Club

GIN LUNCH – 3 April 25

Jeff Crudgington writes

We were 26 “Gintlemen” for our lunch at the Auberge des Trois Tilleuls in Genolier village on Thursday 3rd April:

Norman Eatough

Peter Taylor

Chris Morris

Gary Van Natter

Mark Watts

Kent Forrester

Robert O’Riordan

Rudolph Staehelin (new member)

Trevor Davies

Stephen Long

John Burley

Peter Drew

Joe Kutzin

Drew Meek

Terry Gale

David Colledge

Mark Warren

Philip Jenkins

Mike Clayton

Richard Saynor

Reinier Tervooren

Mervyn Powell

Mike Price

Brian Allardyce

Jeff Shane

Jeffrey Crudgington

🍽🍷

Jeff

It was a fine lunch with excellent food, wine and service all at a good value price, in wonderful spring sunshine. Many thanks to new member Rudolf for sponsoring extra wine. We had the whole of the back room to ourselves. Jeff introduced the staff to us at the beginnng and again thanked them on our behalf at the end. This is a restaurant well worth revisiting.

Photos below taken at/after coffee. All self-explanatory.

Limited group visit to CERN 22.2.25

This is a short record of a necessarily limited group visit to CERN on 22.2.2025.

On 4 Jan 2025 a few selected folk received this email from Mervyn.

“Firstly, Happy New Year to one and all.

Secondly, here is your exclusive invitation to join a private group visit to CERN.

We will have the services of a qualified guide, an ex-CERN employee, friend and neighbour, Dr. Gunnar Fernqvist on

Date: Saturday 22 February 2025

Draft Programme:

09:00 Rendezvous at CERN Gateway (Parking available)

Introductory film

Selfguided tour of the exhibition area

10:15 Depart (by car) for underground visit of the LHC

11:00 Visit the CMS

12:00 Return by car to CERN

12:30 Lunch at CERN

14:00 Walking tour of other CERN exhibitions and sites

16:00 End of visit

IMPORTANT

Please confirm your interest to participate by return email as capacity is limited to 12 (adult, able-bodied, non-pregnant!). Please state your name, nationality and date of birth.

Joining instructions will follow once group participation is established.

Brush up on your physics!

Mervyn”

The day 22 Feb 2025 finally came around, grey and a bit cold. Rob picked me up and then Ross before we drove to the CERN parking near the Gateway. The Science Gateway is a much improved visitor centre (from the original that I had experienced 25 years or so earlier).

To plan a visit – see

https://visit.cern

CERN Science Gateway

CERN Science Gateway is a place to explore CERN and science through authentic, innovative and inspirational experiences. It is CERN’s new education and outreach center, where we take visitors on a unique journey building on the physical proximity to CERN, its accelerators, detectors, facilities and people.

Through immersive multimedia exhibits, hands-on lab workshops, science shows, events that blend science and culture, innovation-prototyping workshops and tours of authentic CERN places – all guided by CERN people – visitors of all ages and backgrounds can engage in the discoveries, the science and the technologies of CERN.

Our vision is for a world where science and learning are part and parcel of everyone’s life. Our younger visitors may leave inspired to explore a career in science and technology. We hope that all visitors will feel empowered to make sense of the science that shapes their lives.

This vision is housed in an iconic building designed by the world-renowned Renzo Piano Building Workshop, with support from Brodbeck-Roulet architectes associés.

An iconic building

Inspired by the diversity and curiosity that are intrinsic to CERN, the building encompasses multiple elements, embedded in a green forest.

Five different spaces host three exhibitions, two hands-on labs, an auditorium, a shop and a restaurant, all connected by a 6-metre-high bridge that spans the main road in front of CERN. Two suspended tubes mirror the cutting-edge technology of the CERN accelerator complex. Raw shapes and forms, and exposed concrete celebrate CERN’s industrial character.

The building symbolises the inseparable link between science and society, with sustainability at its core. Almost 4000 square metres of solar panels provide energy to the Science Gateway and other CERN buildings. A forest of over 400 trees and 13 000 shrubs provides a habitat for animals and plants. When in operation, the building is carbon-neutral.

We reinforced ourselves on quantum coffee as 12 of us assembled, a leader and 11 bosons, not all GIN members but all with an inquisitive bent.

Gunnar Fernqvist (Leader)

Mark Watts

Lynda Watts

Henry Watts

Richard Saynor

Paul Sochaczweski

Mervyn Powell (Organiser)

Peter Taylor

Robert Pashley

Ivan Rykov

Ross Linsley

Philip Jenkins

We had a strict timetable to adhere to as CERN receives thousands of visitors per week and parties are guided on timed visits. During our visit we noted parties bumping up behind us when we asked too many questions or lingered a little too long, but this was not a serious hindrance and we did not collide.

We started up in the Gateway to watch the introductory film, but a large group of Italians visitors (in 3 coaches) were in the mix so the whole film was to be in Italian. We decamped instead to the Gateway exhibitions where Gunnar explained the basic working of the LHC and its related experiments (ATLAS and CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid which we were to visit) being the hi power ones).

Gunnar gives us an outline of CERN in the visitor Centre.

Here is the basic outline of what CERN seems to be all about :-

The European Organization for Nuclear Research – known by its French acronym, CERN – is the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Located just outside of Geneva, Switzerland, it was established in 1954, as one of post-war Europe’s first joint ventures, with the express aim of halting the ‘brain drain’ of talented scientists leaving the continent for America.

Today, more than 10,000 scientists hailing from more than 100 countries find themselves at CERN each year to use its facilities, which include some of the biggest and most complex scientific instruments ever created. Their goal: figure out what the Universe is made of and the laws of physics that dictate its behaviour.

What does CERN do exactly?

At CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, physicists and engineers are probing the fundamental structure of the universe. They use the world’s largest and most complex scientific instruments to study the basic constituents of matter – the fundamental particles.

Why was CERN built in Switzerland?

Switzerland was chosen to host CERN to a large extent because of its neutrality and its safeguards against the misappropriation of scientific research results for military purposes. This was especially important when the organisation was established in 1954 because the world was just entering the Cold War.

What has CERN done for humanity?

Crystals developed for CERN experiments in the 1980s are now ubiquitous in PET scanners. Today, CERN’s unique expertise and technologies are being used in areas related to medical diagnostics and imaging, therapy as well as computing and simulations for health applications.

CERN’s work, including attempts to create tiny black holes for studying antimatter, is conducted under strict safety protocols, with the organization and the scientific community affirming the research poses no threat to the planet.

Who funds CERN?

CERN is publicly funded by its 23 Member States and Associate Member States. Find out below about how this investment creates a positive impact on society.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator. It consists of a 27-kilometre ring (100 metres underground) of superconducting magnets (cooled by liquid helium) with a number of accelerating structures to boost the energy of the particles along the way.

The CERN accelerator complex accelerates protons, but also nuclei of ionized atoms (ions), such as the nuclei of lead, argon or xenon atoms. Some LHC runs are thus dedicated to lead-ion collisions. The ISOLDE facility accelerates beams of exotic nuclei for nuclear physics studies.

The particle collisions recreate, for a fraction of a second, the conditions that existed moments after the Big Bang, when the Universe was born. By studying the debris of these collisions, physicists try to settle mysteries such as what matter is made of and how particles get their mass.

The LHC, which was completed in 2008, was built primarily to put the Standard Model of particle physics to the test. This wildly successful theory from the 1970s describes the interactions between the 17 elementary particles and three of the four fundamental forces of the Universe: electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force (gravity is the fourth).

What happened at CERN in the fall of 2008?

On 19 September 2008, a magnet quench occurred in about 100 bending magnets in sectors 3 and 4, where an electrical fault vented about six tonnes of liquid helium (the magnets’ cryogenic coolant) into the tunnel.

What discoveries have been made at CERN?

Highlights include the 1983 discovery of a pair of elementary particles called the W and Z bosons, which was later awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee helped invent the World Wide Web at CERN in 1989 by developing a way for computers to talk to each other, called hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP).

In 1995, CERN scientists were the first to create atoms of hydrogen’s antimatter counterpart, antihydrogen. In 2000, they discovered a new state of matter: a hot, dense, particle soup called quark-gluon plasma. And the Higgs boson, predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics, was observed for the first time in 2012 at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), scooping its discoverers a Nobel Prize. This discovery confirmed a crucial part of our understanding of how particles acquire mass.

One CMS photo showed (apparently) that the Higgs boson is produced in the collision of two protons at 14 TeV and quickly decays into four muons, a type of heavy electron which is not absorbed by the central part of the detector – but in the outer muon detectors.

The discovery was a big win for fans of the Standard Model, but the theory is incomplete. It leaves many questions open, such as: what is dark matter? Why does the Universe contain more matter than antimatter? The LHC may help answer these questions.

Things could really start to get exciting after the next long shutdown, currently slated for 2026-2028. During that time, the LHC will be upgraded so heavily that it warrants a new name: the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC). Over 20-plus years of operating, the machine will work up to generating luminosities nearly 30 times greater than those produced to date, allowing physicists push the Standard Model to its limits.

And the search for new physics doesn’t end there. A proposed new collider – theFuture Circular Collider (FCC) – would dwarf the LHC. “It’s really just a concept right now, but ultimately this would be an even more powerful collider that would be 100 kilometres around. The LHC ring would basically just be the booster ring for the FCC!”.

Gunnar, being an electrical expert, sparkled with energy, especially when describing magnets and the power supply aspects of the LHC. In particular in his time, his team were challenged to get a firm control on the current such that it provided for a finely controlled and powerfull magnetic field to bend the accelerated particales around the ring, focussing them in the centre of the vacuum tube such that they never touched the sides (which would have given rise to the magnets becoming non-superconducting and exploding as in 2008). The power in the circulating paricles is so high (of the order of a jumbo jet) that in order to quench it (every few hours or so), the particles are brought offline and sprayed into a 300 m long carbon dump – which becomes radioactive for a while.

Gunnar was keen to show us that while we did not have personal radiation detctor devices for our safety, he did, and he demonstrated that his read zero radiation before and after (hence during) our visit. Safety is a big part of the CERN operation.

We did get back to see the initial part of the introductory film before time beat us and we were required to whisk ourselves away in a quantum leap across the ring (in our cars) to the CMS Experiment at Cessy across the border in France.

We descended 100m underground in a large lift, after a safety lecture, down to the airlocks and tunnels into the vast CMS chamber. The huge cylindrical detector lies on its side surrounding the thin beam pipe (somehow the two pipes form one in the detectors).

It was partially disassembled in that the final disc detector had ben slid forward, and workers were paying it some attention. When the beam is running this chamber is filled with radiation and personnel are kept well away.

All too soon we were required to return to the surface as another party was coming in. The drive back to CERN centre for lunch led us to the chosen restaurant in a far corner of the CERN site, but sadly being Saturday it was closed. No worries we decamped to the main restaurant. This science stuff can bring on a good appetite.

After Lunch

The afternoon was spent at the Anti-Matter Factory, the old original Proton Synchrotron, and the Atlas Control room. Each were fascinating and we plied Gunnar with plenty of questions which he ably asnwered.

The AntiMatter Factory

See the following for a virtual tour :-

https://indico.cern.ch/event/1056325/attachments/2278321/3870704/IntroductionAntimatterFactoryVirtualTour.pdf

A very odd state of matter – apparently it is quite normal in nature :-

Natural antiparticles

• A person weighting 80 kg produces 180 anti-electrons (positrons e+) per hour from the desintegration of Potassium-40, anatural isotope

• A banana produces 10 e+ per second

A key experiment going on seemed to be seeing if anti-particles are affected by gravitiy in the same way as particles, and it seems they are: attracted by the earth and not repelled.

Inside the Anti-Matter factory. Does it do anti-aging too?

The Proton Synchrotron history is explained in this film.

https://home.cern/news/news/accelerators/celebrating-60-years-proton-synchrotron

The Atlas Control Room

Our visit to the control room at Atlas was our last stop of the day before afinal coffee at the visitor centre.

https://www.home.cern/science/experiments/atlas

As the beam was down, no actual personnel were present and nothing was happening but again Gunnar brought it back to life for us.

All in all an amazing day – a visit to CERN, even without the special visit that we were given, would be a wonderful day out for anyone with a fascination of life, the universe and everything.

Many thanks to Mervyn for organising and to Gunnar for being our guide into this mind bending place. I’m off to eat a banana…

Gin SS Hike to Restaurant Couvaloup de Crans via Col de Porte

At least one intending snow shoer inquired as to whether this hike could be moved from Thursday to Wednesday in view of the poor weather forecast for Thursday, but following the addage that there is no such thing as wrong weather, only wrong gear, we ploughed ahead.

11 and a dog showed up at Le Coutzet parking at 1160m, at 10am, just as a very large truck was loading up very large logs in the car park.

Happily the log loader had done this many times before and we were not threatened by falling wood.

Attending : Mark2ts, MichaelM, Stephen, Rob, Nathan, Andrew, Ross, Drew, Mervyn, Ralph and me and Kobie. Apologies were received from many, some of them with reasonable sounding excuses. Sad that Larry had had to return to Canada to lower his blood pressure.

I was quite surprised that all 10 others who said they would come, actually turned up on the day. The forecast was indeed not great. My hope was that the precipation would turn to snow as we gained height – and indeed this turned out to be the case. Despite this being a snow-shoe hike, and with it being mild and slushy at the car park we unanimously took the decision to leave our raquettes behind in the cars, and “wing it” on boots. I must admit to being a little apprehensive about this, especially as the snow arrived in spades not long after we had left the car park, both underfoot and falling on us !

Anyway without the snow shoes we were lighter and more nimble as we slid our way up the initial slopes.

Stephen led upward and he seemed to be in fine form after his hiking holiday in La Gomera, despite his somewhat niggling replacement knee, possibly to be re-replaced soon. He sported an orange plastic bag which reminded us of another member who also has this in his lexicon of kit (and who also hikes La Gomera).

The team in a “Before” shot, looking positively charged

We had been in reasonably dry weather to begin with. The precipitation soon came. Rain, then sleet then snow. Stopping for a breather at the Bent Tree (now more bent as you may discern) brought back memories of winter hikes past.

Kobie at the Bent Tree – before the thick snow arrived

Morale seemed good so we ploughed on up towards the Chalet des apprentis

Thicker snow falling – the Chalet des apprentis on the right

Looking back at the Chalet des apprentis, Nathan in his Norwegian white jacket

Kobie led the way up, sensing or smelling the chamois whom we spotted hunkered down on the steep cliffs left of the Col de Porte which was reached in good time for some aperos.

Sheltering under the lee of the hut at the Col de Porte (1557m) we were looking out at falling snow, reminiscent of April 2023 when Nathan had led us up here. These are the winter walks at their best !

Thus far we had seen precisely nobody else about, and the trails were virgin snow, surprisingly easy to walk on without raquettes. The descent began at 12.10 pm and indeed it took us only half an hour descending in pleasant powder snow, passed lower down on the piste by the odd skier enjoying very pleasant snow conditions.

The trees beginnig to take on a Schilligers look

We arrived at the Restaurant Couvaloup de Crans (1280m) only a little behind schedule. There were a number of skiers taking refreshment, but a big table had been set for us. Dr Gabs beer was soon delivered and a relaxed feeling that “the worst is over” seemed to be coming through. Of course this was a false sense of reality – but more of that later.

Various dishes were ordered duly deliverd and consumed, including much rösti and croute fromage and mushroom. One member misrembered his order and started eating the plate of another, but a diplomatic incident was averted as a new dish was required to be cooked and came in good time.

Stephen related an Irish joke from La Gomera. It was funny but I cannot relate it here as the Censor would make noises. We drank the health of absent friends, sorry to miss them and sorry they were missing another classic.

At this juncture I can tell you that I’m typing this on 13 February – ie the same day as this outing. We(I) did inquire of Rob as to when his blog of the SS outing 4 weeks ago was going to be seen, but he seemed to fall back on the “no rules” “rule” of GinClub, some would say a line of argument on thin ice. Given that he is the SS Organiser (and is having an abstemious quarter), he does have rank over me here, so I’m resting my case.

It was snowing outside and the fire inside was keeping us nice and warm. More beer then dessert and coffees arrived and Drew shared some Scotch.

Andrew and Ralph pondering the likelihood of escaping alive

Genral view with our efficient and friendly hostess

It was time to pay up and go, the bill being divided unfairly or fairly as to ones choices, but in fact I think we tried to be fairer than a straight split by 11.

Off out into the precipitation now being more sleety rain than rainy sleet.

Wending our way up the trail to Fin Château

We opted for the shorter higher trail home. Indeed I did not recall this from earlier (April 23 visit) in particular that the trail rises up well over 110m on the way back. Clearly nobody had been this way for some time, trees had fallen across the trail which at times seemed to disappear.

This route followed a trail on the map just south of Le Kikajon to the Fin Château, the latter being not obvious as, if there ever had been such an establishment, it’s Fin was some time ago. We descended steeply to a clearing and a trail more indicative of use and stopped for a breather and a photo.

The “After” photo – many still smiling. Kobie seemed a bit resigned though.

It was indeed not too far now to the cars. The rain/sleet had subsided. If there was any grumbling, I did not hear it. Even Kobie had enjoyed himself (when does he not?).

A hike of nearly 11km and 550m denivellation. Some gear was tested. Some found good, some not so. Lessons for the future. And I believe we all agreed that given the soft conditions and low depth of snow that wearing snow shoes would have been worse. Thanks for all the fun folks. Until the next time.

Snow Shoe Hike Marchairuz 16 Jan 2025

This is a belated summary of the SS hike from Marchairuz organised by our SS Leader Rob.

10 turned out for the hike and 10 lunch but two left and two arrived in between.

Attending (No dogs):-

Hike : Rob, Ralph, MikeH, PeterS, Mark2ts, Paul, Nathan, Mervyn, PeterT, Mark2rs

Lunch : Add David and Larry and subtract PeterS and Mark2rs.

This hike was in good cold sunshine out in a NW direction to the Cabane du Grand Cunay and back. We took apèros at the CduGC and returned for a fine lunch. Great to see both Larry and David joining us for the lunch. 6.5Km and 300m deniv. I recall Rob did not use his raquettes at all, but see there is a photo of him wearing them so that must have been another outing.

A fun outing with crunching then munching.

The outward trail – MikeH sorting out his kit

Great conditions at the well named Monts de Bière Derrière hut

Happy to be at the Hotel Restaurant du Marchairuz.

SnowShoe Hike to Mamac : Weds 18 Dec 24

Thanks be to modern weather forecasts ! The Thursday SS hike was brought forward to Wednesday, after the awful forecast for Thursday 19th.

Nine hopefuls turned out at La Givrine (1211m) at 10.15am, plus 2 dogs.

RichardS, Philip, Mark2rs, Mark2ts, Mervyn, Nathan and Onyx, Rob (by train), and me and Kobie.

Being a SnowShoe hike we carried snowshoes (Philip wore his SSs as his sack was very small) just in case. And as it turned out they were not needed – no worries, we burnt off a few more calories.

The aim was to set out via the 20 March 2020 SS hike in which we had magnificent powder. This of course was much earlier in the season, and while we had snow there was not a lot of powder.

Making progress on the SS trail with Moos and snowmobile below us.

As we progressed up the a snowmobile came roaring up the track below us with Moos the dog (Kobie’s friend) charging out in front. It was Mariane and her partner who were travelling up to La Genolière for the day.

We progressed along the trail NE then NW into the forest emerging into a snowy pasture.

We got a bit of sun then spots of rain ! Our trail reached the track leading up to Pré du Four Chalet (1395m) where we stopped for apèros.

We had stopped here at least twice before in the past. Gone were the sofas, but there were two benches and a table. And the sun came out !

Red, White and coffee at apèro time Pré du Four

Mark2rs finds a log to sit on, and at least one of us is on snowshoes.

A quick call was made to Mamac to announced a delay in our arrival, now past 1pm. There was some discussion of whether we men were appreciated enough by our partners.

Time to go and we wended our way down past chalet Les Coppettes leading after 2 km to Restaurant chez Mamac (1196m).

The wild boars had been very active hereabouts

It was so warm that we all decided to sit outside for an al fresco fondu. This was helpful as the dogs could roam about, but it was amazing just how warm it was for 18 Dec.

Two triphons and three croutes were washed down with excellent chasselas and a drop or two of Richard’s Bohemian (Rhapsody) kirsch – it being necessary to dunk bread in it before scooping into liquid cheese.

Philip trying to pack his snowshoes in his rucksack.

It was all too soon over. Much banter, fine cheese good beer, wine and coffee. We had hardly noticed that the temperature had been dropping, until we went inside for the loos.

We all agreed that as it was getting late-ish and darkness was coming that we would stroll down and pick up the 3.50pm train back up to La Givrine.

A nice stroll in the snow with good company to end out the year. 7km (about) and 212m (about). Happy Christmas everyone and here’s to safe and fun hiking in 2025.

Summary of hikes and SS 2024 to date

A Final Hike (lunch) on the Wild Side 21 Nov 2024

End of Season hike to La Genolière for a fondu etc in a snow storm.

The weather forecast was dreadful. But was it going to be dreadful enough to hike in ? In other words, cold enough to be a blizzard. It looked to be promising, at least before 3pm when a warming trend was expected to be coming in, so I planned a short hike in a snow storm.

And 11 signed up to join me and Kobie. Mervyn and his mate Steven (soon to join GinClub ?), Nathan, Rob, RichardS, PeterD, PeterS, Drew, Ralph, Philip, Paul.

In order to avoid worrying about sliding down the hill on thick snow in cars after the hike, a train ride up and down from Sus Châtel to La Givrine was proposed, with a hike to La Genolière Buvette avoiding the main trail. Mervyn decided to test his car.

Just before the train arrived (PD out of sight) – note : no blizzard here but Kobie is ready in his winter kit

Rob was to join at the Joy Clinic, thus the remaining 9 and a dog boarded the 10.37 train at Sus C welcoming Rob aboard at the next stop. The blizzard was scheduled to arrive at 11.07 just as we de-trained at La Givrine. It did.

Ralph (Paul is behind), PeterD, Mervyn, Drew, RichardS, Rob, Steven, Nathan, PeterS, Philip

As we rose up, tracking the edge of the forest, the intensity of the snowfall and wind increased, at least behind us..

Not the usual trail to the Buvette at all, light snow getting thicker, wind strengthening

We passed through a gap in the wall and traversed a field up to the ski trail ascending the forest.

As time was passing I avoided a slightly longer planned “holiday” route alternative in order to reach the Buvette by noon or shortly after.

Kobie and Mervyn lead us to La Genolière Buvette almost on time.

We were soon welcomed inside, the log fire warming the dining room, Moos the hut dog, an old friend, welcoming Kobie. There were no other diners, unsurprisingly. Once inside I sensed that the spirit of the party had suddenly risen somewhat, and we were soon ensconced on two candle-lit tables.

Fine beers were swiftly deployed as was warm bread with mountain cured meat. It was not long before the hot cheese arrived and our table opted for pinot noir as accompaniment. Moos and Kobie feasted on an extensive chew selection.

En croute with egg and pinot noir. Heaven ?

Kobie looking hopeful. The other couple behind had arrived with their small hound. No other diners.

A happy bunch, fondued-out (or rather in)

The food was good as was the craic, and the beers and wines. Discussions covered many subjects (including recent lynx sitings) and genres, including a toast (on Table B) to absent friends. They were missing a treat.

Bohemian Rhapsody, easy come, easy go…. any way the wind blows it doesn’t really matter much to me…

In due course the dessert course arrived, succulent apple tart, not dry like the usual mountain fayre! The Bohemian Kirsch in Richard’s epic bottle, at 90° proof, went down well and was to inure us to the tribulations ahead.

With an eye to the time, we needed to leave in order to catch the 14.48 train at La Givrine. Any later and the warming weather would be drenching us. We settled the two bills in cash and made our way out into the swirling snow, now noticeably sleety. Unhappily the way down would be straight into the wind and flying ice.

Starting down, into the teeth of the sleet.

We chose to descend the road. It was an easy cop out that I usually avoid. But in this case more than justified.

The hot food and libations meant that the sleet was hardly an issue and we made it down in good time for a farewell to Steven and Mervyn at the station, the train arriving on time, as we knew it would.

Getting tickets and saying goodbye to the car team -I hope they made it home OK

All went well and on the way down I made a speech bowing out of the hiking lead for 2024 and handing over the reins to our new Snow-Shoe Leader Rob, who had been handed the gavel (or ice pick in his back) by Mark2rs (who is taking on the Walking Lead).

The winter season starts in 2 weeks.

It was a good end – except that we forgot to press the Stop request button before Sus Châtel and had to travel on to the next stop – Genolier. Given that I had just resigned I did not feel responsible. Oh well – more denivellation to record.

In the end I made it 253m and 6.7km. This was perhaps a lunch with a walk, but under the conditions just what was needed to round off the Hiking Year. Oh, and I left my scarf there so Kobie and I will be back for more pie this weekend.

I shall post my record of hikes soon. And organise a lunch with spouses in January. Thanks to all for the fun, and especially to those who led hikes. And thanks for befriending my hound (those of you who did -like all of you).

Hike above Bassins 24 Oct 24

Twelve signed up for this hike, with 4 apologists. Attending in no specific order:-

Mark2rs, Mark2ts, PeterS, RichardS, Nathan, Rudi, Stephen, Ralph, Philip, MikeH, Nicholas, me (PeterT), with dogs, Onyx, Rocco and Kobie. A fine turn out for what I had promised as a moderate hike (not much over 400m ascent) in the hills above Bassins.

In the event it was 12.25km and 444m denivellation (my watch said 416m).

We met at what3words ///revolting.though.aquatics at 971m and I wondered if this would put a curse upon us; would it rain (again) on our parade?

We all met up on time at the revolting car park above Bassins. It was good to see Stephen back with us, as well as Rudi and RichardS (albeit he had just led the Lac de Joux hike).

We headed off on time and set course across an open and level field, the wire fencing having been removed after cows had been descended. Clearly Onyx was going to run and run, while the other two hounds were slightly more sedate.

We ascended the grassy track and then the leaf strewn trail up to La Dunanche overlook, by the Toblerone line. The view from here is normally magical. Today we were in the cloud.

The bottle of many exotic fluids returns

We continued on up and towards the outlook at Le Planet. Amazingly the skies cleared and we came out above the cloud, albeit not exactly into the sun. The wooded path takes a steady rise at the edge of the scarp up to the outlook.

A better view here. But this is not the lunch stop

Several questions were raised about whether this was the lunch stop. But it was still before noon so we had to continue onwards and upwards.

Up into the open and some sunshine, and cows

We soon reached the open fields above Le Planet and passed some cows and a stile following which we headed towards a forest road.

Kobie waiting for us – before the cloud came back

Mike was supportive – “yes it’s a good idea to keep going a little so that we can lunch when the sun comes out fully”.

It was not long before we were enveloped in cloud again and after a short section on a road we headed gayly off left into the forest. This was an error of map reading by the leader (who actually had a paper map – but it was fairly large scale). This trail gradually petered out as PeterS and I went ahead into the uncertain undergrowth. Happily PeterS had a phone map with satellite GPS locationing and we managed to navigate out of the thick forest onto a logging trail. Unhappily this trail was covered in a thick layer of broken and unrolled rock. A kilometre of this awful surface followed.

On the rough trail – like the Road of Bones (good track by rock band I.Q.)

Happily we exited onto a smooth straight trail heading towards where I knew there would be a bench/table/bench by a hut for us to have lunch. It was at this point that it began to spot with rain. It was 1.15pm or so.

We were at the Cabane de Peney at 1275m. 6 aside on the big table. Some Valpolicella and Swiss wines were offered. Two of our team were on the wagon! Others were abstaining as per their religion (etc). But it became clear that this was to be no dry lunch, as the rain became steadier.

Some excellent stiff upper lip exhibited

We were so enjoying the lunch and associated banter that we forgot to cover the subject of Scottish independence, but we did have a poll on who was going to win the US election: Harris came out on top beating Trump 6 to 4 with 2 abstensions.

The rain begins to descend – Mark offers coffee

Gradually the rain grew heavier and our drinks were becoming diluted. Certainly I can recall no previous lunch where we had sat out in such conditions. Happily it was not so cold. But not too warm either.

Ths was the rain that hit us, heading in a NE direction. Unlucky lunch timing…

It was time to move on and escape back down to the cars.

The escape route was easy enough – via the campsite (Mervyn knows), and down the road back to the cars. Fortunately the rain begain to ease and the journey back down was not unpleasant.

A memorable hike, perhaps for a wrong reason, but good fun despite revolting aquatics – it’s just so good to be out in the fresh air enjoying nature with chums and hounds.

Our trail, anti-clockwise lunch just above the left elbow

Gin Tonic Hike 3 Oct 24 Gilly/Bursins Forest

The previous Thursday had been a washout. So I suggested a Tonic (interim) hike to fill in before the next full hike.

As such this was to be a moderate (Tonic) hike, in part requested as such, and also because I had a bad back (after a Kobie-related incident) I wanted one too.

So a short hike in the forest above Gilly was planned, taking in the Combe de Bursins and the Sentier de Chatagnerie.

Ten turned out: Mike H, Mervyn, David, Ross, Richard W, Philip, Ralph, Mark2rs, PeterS and me, with two dogs Kobie and Rocco. The Bise was starting so we had bright clear weather and were generally sheltered by the forest.

From the initial parking, at 10 am, a 100m ascent led to the Molard Motorway, a forest track recently brought into top condition by some organisation with too much money. After about 30 minutes we reached a road coming down, and it was then I realised that very likely we were going to reach the lunch spot too early. Nothing for it but to make the hike a bit less moderate than planned, and up the road we went. It was not long before we reached the top where a fine view gave excuse for a photo opportunity.

Nine and two dogs taken by Richard, Ralph and Ross highlighted

From this vantage point there is a great view up to the Jura, with Arzier in full view. Leading back along a forest track we passed the erratic boulders deposited by the Rhône Glacier 10,000 years ago. In particular the Pierre à mille trous.

Philip and Kobie inspect the holey boulder

The track by the erratic, with some erratic hikers

The wind was blowing a bit as we descended a ridge on the track, and soon we had a fine view over the Lake, with some believing the the Jet d’Eau was running, but I could not make it out.

A lady walking a horse overtook us (sic) before we descended a short way down to a forest track that took us to the Chataignerie Trail. It was a short pair of up and downs to the lunch area reached at an acceptable 12.15 or so.

Ten of us fitted around a picnic table with built in benches. Any more of us and we would have had to spread to another table. The sun shone, we were out of the wind, the craic was good, and my sandwich was too. Reds from Sicily and France helped conversation flow (too many subjects to relate). We drank to absent friends, I listed out all the apologies I had received, mostly substantive, especially as this was only a Tonic. Dogs were reasonably behaved, well, just.

Using my selfie stick – clearly the wine was helping my back

Note – no dogs appear in the lunch photos !

Mervyn brought out his flask of Scottish fluid, but sadly M2ts was away in Blighty and there was no coffee. However people seemed happy and after it was all over we headed off down, then back up, to the cars, only about 20 minutes or so from the lunch stop. David suffered a slight knee problem on a descent – let’s hope he gets fully fit again soon. Otherwise we came through unscathed.

8km and 370m accomplished (as opposed to the 5.65km and 250m originally planned). Next hike next week, less moderate, perhaps.

Via Ferrata Gorge Farinet du Saillon

24 Sept 24

Ross and I ascended this VF today. I had done it 3 times before, the last over 7 years ago. I felt it had got harder. Conditions good, and in reasonable time with no (serious) wobbles. We ommitted the hard and overhanging Section 3.

“Caractéristiques

La via monte dans les Gorges de la Salentze avec un joli passage proche d’une cascade (et dans la cascade durant l’été ou après les orages). Cette via ferrata n’est pas faite pour les débutants et la 3ème partie est uniquement réservée aux gros bras à cause de dévers très costauds. Je répète, la 3ème partie n’est pas faite pour ceux qui surestiment leurs forces! Donc si tu n’as pas d’entraînement et tu n’as pas/plus trop de force dans les bras, tu n’y vas pas car c’est hyper difficile.

Les sauvetages sont payants et l’hélico coûte plus de Frs 3’500 (Euro 3’000) et les assurances ne couvrent pas les problèmes d’égo.

Ambiance gaz et physique.”

Other VF members being sought. Just let me know.