{"id":6755,"date":"2026-01-23T22:40:37","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T21:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ginclub.website\/home2\/gentsinnyon\/?p=6755"},"modified":"2026-01-24T21:55:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T20:55:27","slug":"blog-snowshoe-22nd-january-2026-francks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ginclub.website\/home2\/gentsinnyon\/2026\/01\/23\/blog-snowshoe-22nd-january-2026-francks\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog, Snowshoe 22nd\u00a0January 2026 – Franck’s"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

La Loge via various routes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

B Team – 6 km 300m or so<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The snowshoe section broke ground in 2 innovations for this event. First, by appointing a leader who had never been to the area before and had no idea where he was supposed to go. Dear reader, I blush to admit it was I, your current blogger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second innovation was a two pronged assault on the objective, La Loge, the mountain redoubt of Franck, Kathy and the Genepi source, of which more later. A section, consisting Paul S, Richard Saynor, David Colledge and Mark Warren took the longer drive and shorter walk option by going to Lelex. B section and the K9 section consisting of Mark Watts, Nathan F, Mervyn, Steve Long, Peter Strebel, Peter Taylor and your blogger took the shorter drive to Crozet with a slightly longer, stiffer walk. K9 section consisted of the Gin K9 regulars, Kobie and Rocco. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gathering with Blue Leader at Divonne in the mud. The two teams take shape<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A very prompt meet up at Divonne parking took place under frankly unpromising skies, with the sky unable to make up its mind whether to snow or rain. Weather improved on the way to our respective jumping off points, although we still had 10\/10ths cloud. Eschewing the preferred Taylor option of walking up from the very bottom, we took the bubbles up the mountain. Snow shoes on, we set off for Franck\u2019s under gradually clearing weather with Peter Strebel predicting 11 out of the 2 periods of clear patches. Not a particulary long or difficult route but with very variable snow conditions underfoot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Blue Leader making progress – with yellow hat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Approaching the Ap\u00e8ro ring at the Col<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Ap\u00e8ros enjoyed despite the cold and not pleasant conditions<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Laos protecting La Loge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

B Section arrived at Franck\u2019s to find A section happily ensconced, getting themselves out side of plates of charcuterie and refreshing themselves after their long trek (ok 15 minutes) from the top of the lift up from Lelex. What followed was what many seemed to believe was one of the best GIN lunches ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Charcuteries to start – very tasty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We had La Loge virtually to ourselves and were rapidly provided with more charcuterie and delicious fresh bread. The saucisse and lentil main course proved both popular and an extremely wise choice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kobie expecting charcuterie with Fanck behind<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Blue Leader and his hound<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Katie and Franck, with the Genepi Box !<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tarte au myrtilles was a welcome follow up with coffee followed by Franck getting out his box of industrial strength genepi.  At one point it looked like Franck was fixing to have us stay the whole afternoon. He was an extremely warm and generous host and even given his announcement that the genepi and the coffees were on the house, it was hard to believe the per head cost of only just over 30 euros. Conversations were as usual wide rangeing. Peter T mentioned his anti-choking device, although there was some puzzlement as to why he didn\u2019t have it with him. It appears to look like some kind of sink un-blocker. Given the various suggestions as to what other bodily malfunctions\/orifices the device could be applied to, it was perhaps a blessing that by this time we had La Loge entirely to ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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More chatting helped by Franck’s Fluid<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Katie and Franck <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Preparing to leave<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The B Team heads back up to the Col alongside the ski piste<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The return commenced just in time to meet the 16.00 last lift deadline and we did finally get one of Peter S\u2019s clear patches with wonderful if fleeting views. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fleeting Views on the downhill to Crozet (before the sting in the tail)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The descent had a little bit of a sting in the tail with me ending up on my backside. Peter S helped me up and although it was not a remotely dangerous situation, it was a little reminder of the advantages of walking in a group. \u2018Vale\u2019 GIN.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An easy drive back to Divonne was accomplished before 17.00. The walk was not particularly long (5km, 300m deniv.) even for Section B but your author\u2019s legs reminded him that evening of the greater physical demands of snow shoeing across variable snow compared to walking. At least among Sections B and K9, the consensus was that this was an excellent outing and many thanks were due to the organiser given his thorough knowledge of the logistics, the terrain, the route etc. Actually, thanks to Mark Warren for setting up the table and Peter T and many others for explaining the routes and logistics to me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike Hempstead<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crans 23\/1\/26     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

La Loge via various routes B Team – 6 km 300m or so The snowshoe section broke ground in 2 innovations for this event. First, by appointing a leader who had never been to the area before and had no idea where he was supposed to go. Dear reader, I blush to admit it was … Continue reading “Blog, Snowshoe 22nd\u00a0January 2026 – Franck’s”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-snowshoes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ginclub.website\/home2\/gentsinnyon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6755","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\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginclub.website\/home2\/gentsinnyon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6755"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ginclub.website\/home2\/gentsinnyon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6777,"href":"https:\/\/ginclub.website\/home2\/gentsinnyon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6755\/revisions\/6777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ginclub.website\/home2\/gentsinnyon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginclub.website\/home2\/gentsinnyon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginclub.website\/home2\/gentsinnyon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}