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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 2890 |
9th March 2016 Hiking - Walking: Lelex to Grand Cret (1702m) Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny Max Speed: Distance Covered: Wednesday 9th March – snow shoe ***** Lelex to Grand Cret (1702 m) sunny clouding over later. Woke to a beautiful blue sky sunny day but it had been cold in the night getting down to -7 so had to run the diesel heater for ages before venturing out of bed! We had a decision to make, snow shoe to the Cret de la Neige or ski and as we were a bit on the drag we decided on snow shoeing and the weather was supposed to crack up later. I was also going to try my gps again as it has been playing up and not recording any data:( So at about eleven we left the van paid 14 Euros and went up the de la Catherine telecabine asked directions and started off on the two-hour trek to the Cret de la Neige. We crossed the great looking piste, only a little jealous of the few skiers enjoying the lovely conditions even if a little windy up here:( we even spotted a snow kiter in the distance. Any jealousy about skiing was forgotten when we found the snow shoe path which was marked with yellow poles all the way. Several people had already walked the path leaving a nice two feet wide gap in the deep powder making it easy to walk:) After seeing some snow shoers early on we did not see anyone else until two pairs of ski tourers caught us up as we neared the top! After passing under the des Logis lift and Asters red piste the path meandered across a wonderland of heavily snow laden trees – absolutely stunning !!! you had to pinch yourself that you were there:) Hawk eyed Mag spotted her favourite bird, a Crested tit and I stopped around every corner to take another pic! After an hour or so the path started to go up sharply making it slower going, the wind had blown snow over the path in places but we managed to follow the yellow poles. The second pair of old timer ski tourers stopped for a chat and said we were only a kilometre from the top so we forged on, we could see a snow covered sign and headed for that only to find it was the Soys le Cret and it another 30 mins to the Neige so we decided to head to the slightly lower Grand Cret which was only 5 mins:) The views along this ridge were out of this world with the high Alps across Lac Leman and Geneva with its huge fountain:) We were now looking for a picnic spot but it was far too windy up here and we seemed fairly close to the lifts and the green run down so headed that way. I then decided to head left away from the lift into the pine trees hoping to find the path at the bottom of the valley which seemed a good idea at the time. We were soon in deep snow on some steep slopes thinking if we get into trouble now it will cost as a fortune to get helicoptered off the mountain as I am sure our insurance doesn’t cover us up here!!! Starving now we made a little spot in the deep snow for our picnic then setting off refreshed we soon found the path near the red run:) Our plan was to walk back down to Lelex but we were knackered by now so headed back to the restaurant from yesterday and had yet another hot chocolate:) After an hour watching the kids jumping in the board park we headed down in the lift. We walked down to the stream below Lelex and then back to the van, we were out nearly 6 hours covering nearly 7 miles. Time for a cuppa and relax. Another 5-star day – skiing tomorrow??? After a lot of pratting about with my gps I have managed to get it to show some files for today so will have to wait and see what it has recorded when we get home!! Photo Gallery here |
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