SnowSlider – Blogging From the mountains by ise

Conscious that snow would be melting on the lowest sections I took 4 days this week to complete the Grande Traversée du Jura (GTJ) that I’d started back in January, along the way I’ve also completed the Grande Traversée Neuchâteloise (GTN)  and the Traversée du Jura Suisse (TJS). Although the remaining sections are generally taken over six days I decided to double a few up and cover the 140km in four days.

I started up at Le Prévoux in Switzerland, this isn’t technically the start of the GTJ but it’s close by and somewhere I could get to easily using Swiss public transport, from there I skied the couple of km to the normal GTJ start and headed for La Brévine where I’d been the previous week skiing the GTN and TJS. I’d switched sections around so I was intending to ski to La Brévine on the GTJ and then drop onto the TJS and ski to Les Verrières de Joux rejoining the GTJ there.

La Brévine (above left) is beginning to lose snow but the tracks were complete and skiable although the thin cover meant they’d not been made for a few days and probably won’t be again now. Although the snow was thin in places it was a pretty good days skiing and I easily reached Les Verrières de Joux (above right) although I had to walk the last few hundred metres.

Next day it’s a fairly long climb out of Les Verrières de Joux and I have to rack the skis on my rucksack for a while as it’s just not skiable, by the time I reach the track (above left) it’s snowing and there’s a strong wind so I ski to Les Fourgs finding a cafe to get a warm drink before continuing towards Métabief.

From Métabeif I’m heading for Rochejean for the night to stay at a Gîtes d’Etape, the CLAJ which was empty apart from some students from Paris who shared their dinner and company with me for the evening.

And the the following morning I climbed back onto the GTJ, this was hard work, it was easy enough to walk the few km back to the route up a closed road (above right) but once I’d got my skis back on I had to climb in the face of a strong wind to summit Mont d’Or which was really hard work. The day stretched a bit as well, the refuge I’d planned to use claimed no knowledge of my reservation and claimed to be full, a bit poor really, I’ve looked at the email confirmation and there’s no doubt they said they’d got space in and no doubt I’d confirmed I would be there.

Fortunately I found space at a nordic centre in Chapelle de Bois called La Maison du Montagnon which was great, the last nordic centre I stayed at was pretty poor, lousy service, poor food and generally not particularly good booked as part of a course. But this was excellent, the food was superb and I had a great meal with some other French nordic skiers and got a reasonable nights sleep with a good breakfast. But the extra distance notched this up to a 45km day which is a lot carrying gear really with nearly a couple of thousand metres ascent thrown in.

The next, and final, day I skied to La Cure via Les Rousses, I actually deviated from the GTJ slightly to go into Les Rousses to take a look around before getting a train at La Cure.

It’s a interesting time to ski on the GTJ, you’ve got to be prepared to walk for short sections, for me it becomes more of a journey through the mountains at that point and more enjoyable but you probably need to be sure your boots are OK to walk in!

I’d planned to take three days to ski from Les Verrières de Joux, just over the border in France, to Les Bugnenets using the Traversée du Jura Suisse (TJS) route which mostly coincides with the Grande Traversée Neuchâteloise (GTN) but it’s not been great weather all week so when I arrived in Les Verrières de Joux I decided to take the Grande Traversée du Jura (GTJ) route to La Brévine. La Brèvine is on all three routes and I was hoping that the GTJ route although longer had a little more height that might lift me out of the rain into some light snow. The rain did alternate between sleet and snow so that seemed fairly successful. I only managed one photo’ (the first one) as it cleared as I got closer to La Brévine.

Next day leaving La Brévine actually started pretty nice and I was skiing in light cloud and broken sunshine for a few hours through some great scenery. La Brévine sits in a wide flat valley so it’s fast skiing on flat tracks for a start before some longer climbs.

But by the time I’ve got to La Sagne that weather has altered and it’s snowing and raining alternately and it’s just damp. But again on the the third day it started clear and I started the climb up through the the foret (above right) in some nice weather.

But, by the time I got to the col it was terrible, driving snow and a strong wind. At first the wind was annoying and slowed me down as I pushed into it but just around where the above left photo’ was taken I needed to turn right so the wind was across my path and threatening to blow me over. I met a group of local skiers around and we stopped to discuss how pleasant the weather was before heading off in different directions.

The final shot is taken skiing out of Vue des Alpes which was heavy going. I’d got a detailed route card with split times for legs of the trail down to half a minute accuracy because I wanted to make a bus at Savagnières, the first bus was around 1300 and would get me home for around 1630 while the next was after 1600 and would mean Julie coming to the station to meet me. My split times up to Vue des Alpes had been pretty much on target but I was sure I wasn’t going to make the bus, the snow turned wet and heavy and kept sticking and freezing to my ski bases which meant I couldn’t glide at all so between that and having turned back into the wind I was certain I’d not make the time. But, despite that and helped by some downhill sections I cut 10 minutes off my total estimate and arrived with 40 minutes to spare for the bus so I was able to get a warm drink and wait in comfort.

It’s a small and low local station at Sorens and I don’t really know how the season will be this year but right now it’s a great little spot, the closest nordic skiing to the house down here and a chance to ski through terrain that’s normally meadows. I’ve been here and done the longer lopie so I didn’t know the surprise that awaits in the forest!

That was a surprise! Apparently they’re all done with chainsaw, or at least the park is called “chainsaw sculpture park”, I’m dubious, or impressed, it’s pretty detailed work for a chainsaw I’d say. There’s loads of them as well, this is just a handful nearest the nordic track.

Actually, that one’s just shed not a sculpture of a shed, it’s a nice view to the alps from here with the Gastlosen ridge just visible in the background.

I’d skied over here doing the Traversée du Jura Suisse but dropped off the ridge in poor weather. I wanted to go back and ski the section in the ridge so I parked at col du Mollendruz where there were only two other cars and set out along the ridge. It’s a around a 27km loop from col du Mollendruz to Pré de Denens and back and I didn’t really see anyone until near Pré de Denens where a group of school children were coming the other way.

After turning round at Pré de Denens I quickly caught the children up as the section was a steady climb with a couple of flat sections. Obviously I was stopping to take a couple of photographs which took a few minutes so I was later surprised on a descent to be passed by a couple of the faster children but they were dropping into tucks for speed.

And (above) I catch the children up again, my long legs and adult power giving me a huge speed advantage until some of them pass me again on the descent where youthful recklessness has the advantage.

Some views over the plateau to the main alpine chain, the forecast was poor weather in the morning and sun int he afternoon and that’s exactly what happened. In fact it steadily improved so it was fine weather by the time I got home.