SnowSlider - Blogging From the mountains by ise

This is just down the valley from Les Haut Crêts where we were a few days ago. The weather forecast wasn’t so good but we had a plan to get out and ascend to the Chalet de Tsermon. That’s near the Vanil Noir which is one of the bigger peaks in the area. It’s a steep climb up and there’s a little snow at the top still. 

Most of the way up we were followed by a small goat herd, we thought we were stuck with them following us all day but they started to wander off a few hundred metres from the col. At about the same time we started to see some chamois and the goats started to make what seemed territorial displays, we guessed the goats and chamois didn’t mix too well and that the chamois had established control of the upper slopes.

We stopped at the “Pinte du Pralet Motélon” again on the way back for a drink and to buy some of the goats cheese.


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This is pretty close to the last couple of trips I’ve made in this part of the pre-alpes. Les Hauts Crêts is a pretty minor peak in the area, in fact so minor when we made the saddle underneath and the summit path looked sketchy that we didn’t bother making the summit.


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After a couple of weeks of needing to visit Zinal we finally got time to take a walk locally at Charmey. It’s one of the local ski stations although I’ve only managed to ski there a couple of times this season ( 2006 03 14 - Charmey and 2006 02 19 - Charmey ).

There’s one great lift, the “Rapido Sky” from 887m to Vounetse at 1626m and the Restaurant des Dents-Vertes which does good Rösti and Croûte au fromage and, of course local white wines.

At the top there’s only three lifts, all drag lifts of course, a couple serve some short slopes near the summit while the other rides up from (I think) around 1200m.

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Perfect conditions at Charmey, plenty of snow and fantastic weather with clear skies and temperatures below freezing. It’s predictably quiet of course, mid week at a local station doesn’t get busy.

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