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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 2881 |
3rd March 2019 Skiing: Les Rasses in Switzerland Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny start with more cloud later. Max Speed: 28.10 (knots - unless stated otherwise) Distance Covered: 22.58 mile (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise) Sunday 3rd March – Ski ***** Les Rasses in Switzerland – sunny start with more cloud later. 4 hours 30 mins. out, 22.58 miles covered & 28.10 knot max speed, two lift passes with insurance and two Swiss cards 60 Swiss Francs (approx. £45) Our second good night at the tiny camper aire near the road at L’Auberson 4 km. outside Ste. Croix and after too cloudy days woke to blue skies which was much more like it. We could see the tops of the mountains so skiing just up the road at Les Rasses was definitely on:) We were not in a desperate hurry so Mag did her exercises admiring the view which was breath taking and showed the mountains we climbed yesterday:) We couldn’t even see they were there yesterday. Then breakfast watching snow shoers and ski tourers set off below our car park, before driving the ten minutes to the small resort. Being a Sunday and with a big cross-country ski competition on the car park was fairly full but we managed to find a spot at the end and we quickly got the boots on. A young family parked opposite to go ski touring, that’s walking uphill on skies for a couple of hours usually to the middle of nowhere and then skiing down in ten minutes, it is a great sport but the thing is they had a couple of really young children, one couldn’t have been more than three! He came with his bottle of juice and a complete set of walking skis and boots! we didn’t think they made ski boots that small!!!! Wonder how far they got before he had to go into the back-pack carrier! Mag went to the ticket office, and as I said before you can purchase passes by the hour (a great idea) so she got three hours which should be more than enough for a five-lift resort (two were not working). It cost 60 Swiss Francs but that included two magnetic cards for 10 francs which can be used in any Swiss ski resort. We went through the gate to go up at 10.15 meaning our passes ran out at 1.15. We were helped onto the t – bar (Mag’s favourite!!) by a very nice man:) It was a long lift taking you just to the left of the middle peak of Petities Roches (1583m) and we turned left at the top to spend the first hour at Le Cochet area where two button lifts took you to the top at 1483m and back to the restaurant at La Casba. The lift attendant here had her two dogs with her and had laid a blanket out for them but they were sound asleep on the snow through choice :) Once at the top of Le Cochet you could see the full length of the steep ridge we snow snowed yesterday, in was just jaw droppingly stunning and looked a completely different place in crystal clear blue skies:) This is primarily a family/beginner resort and you had to take care on the runs down with lots of kids and be patient at the lifts if they were a little slow or fell off but that was all part of the charm of this resort and to be fair most of the time we had the runs nearly all to ourselves:) The other fantastic thing about skiing in the Jura is the absolutely amazing views you get of the high Alps and you could clearly see both the great Lacs of Lemon and Neuchatel:) Of course when you are in the Alps you can’t see them all spread out in front of you like you can here. We did both runs off the top of the higher lift including the steeper faster black (it would have been a red anywhere else) which I videoed and actually did some commentary which will sound awful with my Suffolk accent!!! We then headed to the nice blue down from the La Casba restaurant and I headed straight over to the closed button lift where we walked up yesterday and found my snow shoe tracks right up the middle of the lift:) I was then able to make some nice ski tracks in unmarked snow, not perfect as it still had an icy crust which made turning hard. Later I took Mag down so she could take a pic and we had fun going together off piste. We then went over to explore the right-hand side and enjoyed some long top to bottoms including a very long blue path mainly through the trees, having that all to ourselves. Again, the ski kiters were out as well as a large number of snow shoers and ski tourers making the most of a sunny Sunday. Three hours is a long time when you are skiing nonstop with only drag lifts which takes a toll on your legs especially after yesterdays epic 8.5 hike so we were a little relieved when our time was nearly up and it had started to cloud over too. We managed to get the high lift up with a couple of minutes to spare and went in search of a picnic spot with a view. In true ski touring style, we shuffled up to the ridge and again found our walking tracks from yesterday. It was a bit breezy so we skied down and found a place behind a small pine tree for our rolls. It was still a bit chilly sitting in the snow for too long so we started to head back, first skiing down a huge snow field, off piste all the way, great fun. Then down the long blue and back to the van where Mag made some delicious hot chocolate with a bar of milk chocolate we had bought at the supermarket and hot milk :) With bad weather coming tomorrow, wet and windy apparently it was time to head down to Lac du Neuchatel and see if we could find a spot by the Lac? Leaving Ste. Croix you drive down a windy gorge and eventually come to a large built up area and we did park by the end of the Lac for a quick walk. Neuchatel lake looks huge from here just like the sea but there were lots of people about, plus hundreds of parking signs which we were not sure about so took the Lac side road away from the crowds. We tried a couple of small places with no luck and then as the road headed up above the Lac, we came to a small carpark for a new viewing point, the Reserve naturelle de Cheyres which offered peace and quiet and great views too – perfect. A quick walk to the view point before a cuppa and cake, we then had the most amazing sunset over the mountains, the whole sky turning orange and then deep red, sad part was I couldn’t get a clear pic because of the trees:( Corned beef hash for tea and we will have to see what next week brings as the weather is still changeable, favourite at the moment is head to Lausanne on Lac Lemen and then over to Bernex in the lower Alps before going to Margeriaz a firm favourite of ours to complete the holiday but we are undecided at the moment, that’s the fun of what we do, we just make it up as we go along:) Photo Gallery Here |
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