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squiz
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Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 3072
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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!!
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