Blog

When all at once I saw a crowd
A host of golden dandelions and buttercups

William 2Ws ish

Last year we hiked via La Dôle to Sonnailley to find the daffodils mostly spent. This year we were one day earlier and they were worse (spenter?). However our leader, me, had already lowered expectations and told the participants they would need to bring their imagination so all was not lost.

Seven of us plus a furry hound gathered at 10:00 at the parking at la Givrine on what promised to be a cold and wet day and Météo Suisse did not disappoint: we had some rain, sleet, hail and mist over the course of the hike. Fortunately not too much of any of these and it was even dry at our lunch stop. There may have been a little sunshine but not enough to be noticeable.

We arrived in 3 cars and spent the first couple of hours trying to master the intricacies of the newly installed parking meters.

That accomplished we set off up to the Couvaloup de Crans and onward to La Dôle going through a field of daffodils on the way up. At least the leader had the sense to avoid saying that an even better display awaited them at Sonnailley.

Once at the Dôle we had done most of the climbing and it was clearly time for an aperitif. So we stood in the lee of one of the buildings with a bottle of white and a variety of nibbles, finally washed down with a glass of Welsh whisk(e?)y. We raised a toast to absent friends, especially Stephen.

We met a Scottish beggar at the top, we had no cash so we gave him a bit of food

Then it was time to start the descent, along the ridge to the South West and down what is marked as a footpath but in reality is an invitation to fall and crack your head on the rocky path. Fortunately we all got down intact and to the road which leads past the Grand Sonnailley to our designated picnic spot. This road passes within about 10 metres of the French border and there was much discussion of (illegal) entente cordiale meetings there during the pandemic.

The picnic spot was a slight rise, mostly out of the wind, and with no rain. Unfortunately there were no daffodils either, but plenty of buttercups. Fortunately we have photographs from 2 weeks earlier when they were at their best.

Lunch was washed down with an excellent red, some Scotch, more Welsh and coffee. Then we we returned via the Sonnailley au Prince hut to the Couvaloup and thereafter down the road to la Trélasse (both closed so no opportunity for a beer) and back to our cars.

Present Peter T, Mervyn, Nathan, Rob, Richard W, 2 Marks, Kobie. 14 km, 690m denivelation.

Excuses ranged from ‘only got one working leg’ to ‘going to concerts in Prague’ to ‘wife reset my priorities’.

Despite a gloomy weather forecast, 17 hardy hikers signed up for a double hike around the top of the Salève.  In the event, Drew had an unavoidable commitment at the last moment, so 16 of us made our way somewhat erratically to the rendezvous point by the Observatoire restaurant.  I failed miserably to communicate to the Divonne team that Drew would not be there, so precious time was lost in their departure.  Anyway, they set off in an assortment of vehicles trying to avoid the autoroute which was apparently blocked.  One of the said vehicles, or rather its driver, got somewhat confused by the ever-changing 5 year-old roadworks by the Ferney tunnel and had a pleasant magical, mystery tour of Grand Saconnex before proceeding to Bardonnex.  

The weather forecasters had, luckily, misread their instruments and we set off half an hour late in warm sunshine and blue skies with scattered clouds.  Two of us were so encouraged that we opted to bare our lower limbs for the first time in 6 months, leading certain comments about the whiteness of our skin!

The views of the Jura, Lac Léman and the Alps were clear and quite spectacular leading to much snapping of cameras (and smartphones).

We followed an anti-clockwise route around the famous Genevois landmark and soon made a short detour to a viewpoint above the Grande Gorge to marvel at how much concrete there was in the Pays de Gex and Southern Geneva.  The beauty of our beloved Jura mountains with a few vestiges of snow on the peaks compensated somewhat for the destruction of the countryside below, though.  

Happy guys
Our path took us through pleasant woodland until we reached the open alpages where numerous skylarks were singing.

  Heading towards La Croisette, we reached a stony outcrop which was the highest point of our hike.  In true GIN fashion, bottles were produced whilst we recovered from our exertions and even champagne glasses to celebrate Mark 2tts’ birthday from two weeks ago.  “Happy birthday” was duly sung and a crowd-funding campaign was suggested to enable a parapente ride for him, but he graciously declined!

Glasses clinked and stowed away, we continued on our route and we were now having great views of Mont Blanc and the rest of the Alps.  Old stamping grounds were identified and plans discussed for future sorties in that direction.  We reached the restaurant at the Observatoire right on time for our updated reservation and found an excellent long table for all 16 of us ready and waiting.  

Excellent local beers were consumed by most of us, whilst at the Northern end of the table, some red wine was espied.  The menu choices of burgers, roast lamb and diots were reviewed and subsequently consumed, followed by coffees.  

She says she’s more interested with what’s on the plate

As the circular trail we had taken before lunch was only about 6 kms, 12 of us set off this time in a clockwise direction on the same route, whilst 4 of our number decided to return home for various reasons.  The weather was still warm and Mark 2tts and I felt somewhat vindicated by our earlier decisions whilst others stripped off to single-layer tops.  Reaching the site of our earlier refreshment stop, we marvelled at the number of parapenters enjoying themselves nearby.  17 were counted in the air at one time, miraculously avoiding each other, but Mark was still not accepting our generous offer!

Peter was suggesting taking a precipitous path lower down on the way back, but as we had spent a considerable time in the restaurant, we decided to forego this pleasure until another occasion as time was moving on.

It wasn’t the toughest hike for the group, at about 12 kms and less than 300 metres dénivellation, but the company was, as usual, great and the views were superlative.  And by the way, we had two Marks, two Mikes, two Steves and two Richards – must be a record!

Present:  David C, Larry F, Marks 2rrs, Mark 2tts, Mervyn P, Mike H, Mike M, Peter T, Rob P, Ralph W, Richard S, Richard W, Rudi P, Stephen L, Stephen W (Ralph’s brother) and Thatcher S.

Nathan writes :-

The itinerary I suggested for this outing began at the Archette car park, up to the Col de Porte and then down to the Couvaloup-de-Crans restaurant for lunch. The return leg was around the mountain rather than climbing back up and over it. There was an optional quick climb to the Dôle after “encouraging” liquid refreshments at the CAS Hut.

The outing was tarnished by the fact that our restaurant decided to close for 10 days. Unfortunately I was not able to persuade them to exceptionally open just on Thursday for our illustrious group. We each had to carry our lunch up in our back-pack, at least most of us did.

MétéoSuisse led us to believe that there would only be very light snow and only in the morning with very little wind.

Seven of us met at the Divonne car park for our contribution to the saving the earth effort by travelling in only 3 vehicles. Two more met us directly at the Archette. The nine of us (eleven if Kobie and Nessie are included) set off a bit after 10:00 under a cloudy sky, with almost no snow either on the ground or falling through the air.

Soon after though, the ground was covered with a white layer and indeed a light snow began falling. As we progressed toward our objective, gaining altitude, the white layer got deeper and the snow began falling more intensely. Snow-shoes were not required but some of the steeper places were somewhat uncomfortable.

When we arrived at the CAS Hut there was considerable snow falling. With the low cloud cover we were not motivated, even after appropriate refreshments, to climb to admire the non-view from the Dôle.

The wind was no longer a gentle breeze when we crossed over the pass on to the western downward slope. The gusts were over 50km/h! Fortunately they subsided as we descended. 

We all made it to the restaurant with no casualty. As expected, it was closed but they did leave the tables and benches on the terrace for us.  Some of our more dedicated members cleared off the snow so that lunch would be comfortable albeit cold except for the few moments when the sun took pity on us with a bit of warmth.

After a lovely lunch, in spite of some complaints about the slow/snow service, we began our return through the forest. Being at a lower altitude the walk was more relaxed with neither wind nor significant snow falling.

It was occasionally a little slippery where the snow did not cover the wet leaves but we managed to make it back to the car park safe and sound.

Kudos to the group for their intrepidness to have undertaken the hike and finished it with “nary” a complaint in spite of the poor weather, lack of a restaurant and a couple of treacherous passages.

Participants: Mervyn Powell, Philip Jenkins, Nicolas Ulmer, Peter Taylor, Mike Muller, Mark Warren, Rob Pashley, Richard Saynor, myself, Kobie and Nessie.

Walking distance: 10.5km

Climbing distance: 580m

Nathan Finkelstein

Posted by Peter T

The Vuache is a long lean mountain. Not at all a Fujiyama. Not even a Môle. But I see it every morning from my kitchen balcony. And it tells me what the day’s weather will bring. Geologically it’s part of the Jura range. Good Jurassic limestone, no doubt riddled, like the Salève, with water-filled cavities. And maybe bottomless potholes that nobody has explored. But physically it’s an isolated mountain, cut off eons ago by the melt waters from the immense Rhone Glacier that filled the whole Lemanic basin. And it holds secrets known only to those who explore it in early Springtime.

Eleven of us – the two Marks, Peter, Nathan, Rudi, Richard, Mike M, Ralph, Drew, Mervyn and me, Philip, plus our two canine friends Nessie and Kobie, but minus the otherwise-occupied Stephen, Thatcher and Rob – met at Chaumont, an old twisted village at the southern end of the spine of the Vuache. The promised rain seemed to be all around us but failed to reach the ground.

We found the sign to the Vuache summit tucked away in a small alley behind the church and set off up a steepish rocky gully. Initially the promised Spring flowers were scarce, with only a scattering of the Violets (both blue and white, plus the occasional yellow and white bicolour), blue Spring Squills and Corydalis (both white and red versions) brightening the path.

A Spring Squill

Nessie out in front, while we pause for breath

However, just past a little gate at around 900 m altitude we suddenly found hundreds of Dog’s Tooth Violets, which are unknown at lower altitudes. As though a notice had told them “yes, you can here”.

Dog’s Tooth Violet

Not long after, we started to see the wild Daffodils for which the Vuache is famous – millions of them forming a yellow carpet up to the cairn marking the summit (1105 m). However we were probably too late to spot the Snowdrop-like Snowflakes that grow near the summit.

A carpet of wild Daffodils

Team at the Vuache summit cairn (1105 m)

There was no handy auberge nearby, so we ate our picnics (in a particularly windy spot) with extensive views over the Rhone Valley and in the distance the Plateau de Retord.

Nessie was as quiet as a mouse, while Kobie was on general food lookout and realised that barking was a good way of attracting attention and the odd titbit.

The only points of deep discussion at picnic time seemed to be (though I could have missed a few others) the merits of Richard’s latest potent potion, namely Prime Uve Nere, and those of the new First Minister of Scotland. Unfortunately Rob was not with us to give his expert well-informed opinion of the latter.

On the return, we initially retraced our steps but then deviated down the steep western slope of the Vuache, fortunately relatively dry and unslippery. This took us through the hamlet of Chaumontet and back to the village of Chaumont.

The centre of attraction in the car park turned out to be Mike’s Renault Alpine, the type of sports car that used to do well in the Monte Carlo Rally. It’s sleekness attracted a lot of envy. Less so the luggage compartment under the bonnet, just big enough for half an average suitcase. Undeterred, Mike pointed out a second, but even smaller, luggage space in the “boot”. So where was the engine? Ah, to expose that would require unscrewing the back window. Clearly a car that requires careful attention to engine checks and suitcase size before setting off for Monte Carlo.

Mike’s sleek Renault Alpine half-hidden behind sleek Mervyn (notice dog seat)

Vuach vital statistics: height rise 525 m; distance 7.4 km

A search of the dusty GIN blog archives revealed that the same hike was organised in June 2018 by David Colledge. There were three participants then, an indication of the significant increase over the last 5 years in GIN hiking interest.

Posted by – Philip Jenkins