{"id":3214,"date":"2022-07-10T20:58:37","date_gmt":"2022-07-10T19:58:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ginclub.website\/home2\/gentsinnyon\/?p=3214"},"modified":"2022-08-30T18:49:31","modified_gmt":"2022-08-30T17:49:31","slug":"gin-hikers-july-7th-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ginclub.website\/home2\/gentsinnyon\/2022\/07\/10\/gin-hikers-july-7th-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"GIN Hikers – July 7th 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A morning stroll in the Portes du Soleil<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For our first Alpine outing this year a seasoned band of 4 congregated on a fine sunny day at the car park, near to the church, in Morgins (1303m) at 09.30. It also happened to be the day that Boris finally threw in the towel. There had been some predictions during an earlier walk and I think that David College might have correctly forecasted a July departure for Boris. (Whether this is valid if he stays on longer as PM\u2026\u2026).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several excuses had been received from absentees from visiting relatives to summer travels leaving Richard, Mervyn and Rob to take the challenge set by Stephen. This commenced by zig-zagging up towards the source of La Vieze, across the 28 rustic bridges through the woods. Along the way we passed the Cantine de They (1483m), site of annual Heren cow fights, where Stephen had helped sponsor the local, Caprice, to third position in the National \u201cReine des Alpes\u201d competition in 2014. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Caprice put out to grass.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interesting as it might have been to linger and admire the scene, our leader suggested getting some altitude behind us before stopping for refreshments. So it was at Torvoissi\u00e8re (1689m) that a short first stop was permitted, a couple of the hikers opting for their first beer of the day, whilst the other two settled for luke warm tea\u2026..all kindly sponsored by Richard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When is Peter going to give the selfie-taking class?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From here the route continued steeply uphill, made more hazardous by groups of fast descending mountain bikers, illustrating that the marketing of the Portes du Soleil as a biking haven has indeed taken root. A number of these bikers were clearly of anglo-saxon origin due to the understandable expletives issued on hitting large lumps of earth in the terrain at speed. It was decided that this would not be a suitable outing for the GIN Bikers. By the time we neared the spot marked by a cross called \u201cPortes du Soleil* (1950m) in the Portes du Soleil, there was drifting cloud, wind and threatening rain. This encouraged Mervyn to think ahead to the next ski season and take his place on the strategically positioned t\u00e9l\u00e9siege seat (we didn\u2019 like to tell him that it was unattached to the t\u00e9l\u00e9siege). Happily, the rain didn\u2019t materialise and Mervyn left the seat before the next ski season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Where’s the snow….I’m ready!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Old friends with an old friend (Haute Cime)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From here an undulating path gave us a great view of the emerging Dents du Midi and a panorama down to Les Crosets and across to the Dents Blanches. As we neared the outskirts of Champoussin, it became evident that timings for lunch were optimistic and the selected alpage restaurant was informed that we would be behind the planned schedule and that the punters would be hungry. Indeed, there were signs of sugar lows and unuttered \u201chow much further?\u201d. The former was aided by some dextrose tablets from a well-prepared participant (Rob) and the latter deflected by the leader who encouraged that a little more effort now would pay dividends in a shorter route after lunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Am I too late to get the team outfit?”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So it was that we arrived at the Alpage La Chaux at about 13.30 having completed 15km and ca. 770m uphill. (There were notable differences in distance and elevation from the various electronic devices present. However, since this blogger had the most recently purchased device and this also showed the highest figures, we\u2019ll go with that). The sun came out and the wind died down allowing us to enjoy an open air lunch with a view. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At last, Alpage La Chaux…..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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…….and a lunch well worth waiting for<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Beers were rapidly consumed and the food ordered. Unusual to find truite meuniere at altitude, so this was ordered by the fish lovers whilst the true mountain men stuck to the more heaty offerings of spare ribs and r\u00f6sti La Chaux. There was some debate as to whether the ribs were spare at all. All meals were well appreciated and the restaurant noted for future outings. To help the digestion Richard had found some professionally labelled grappa in his back pack and was keen to share this around and lighten his load for the return. We duly obliged but questioned the authenticity of the labelling. As usual, we had a lively banter on a range of subjects which surprisingly did, fleetingly, touch upon Scottish independence and the impact of the departure of Boris. As usual, I can\u2019t remember any outcomes to the discussions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A dubious looking labelled liquid not to mention the person behind<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

True to the leader\u2019s word, the after lunch walk to the chair lift down was less than it could have been at a different restaurant but still necessitated a steep uphill stretch to bring our total climb for the day to ca. 870m. Everyone was happy not to have to walk down the 600m. It was a short walk from the chair lift station to the parked car. Richard, Mervyn and driver Rob headed home after a tiring but enjoyable day and Stephen returned to his chalet for R&R.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A morning stroll in the Portes du Soleil For our first Alpine outing this year a seasoned band of 4 congregated on a fine sunny day at the car park, near to the church, in Morgins (1303m) at 09.30. It also happened to be the day that Boris finally threw in the towel. There had … Continue reading “GIN Hikers – July 7th 2022”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hikes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ginclub.website\/home2\/gentsinnyon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ginclub.website\/home2\/gentsinnyon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ginclub.website\/home2\/gentsinnyon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginclub.website\/home2\/gentsinnyon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginclub.website\/home2\/gentsinnyon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3214"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ginclub.website\/home2\/gentsinnyon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3228,"href":"https:\/\/ginclub.website\/home2\/gentsinnyon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3214\/revisions\/3228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ginclub.website\/home2\/gentsinnyon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginclub.website\/home2\/gentsinnyon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginclub.website\/home2\/gentsinnyon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}