SnowSlider – Blogging From the mountains by ise

Apart from some rock climbing on Saturday this is the first time Julie and I have managed to get out together since back in June and probably only about the third time this summer, it’s the first time I’ve been out for myself since July as well. But, it’s a great time, the autumn colours are coming out and the mountain’s empty, the cows have been moved down and a lot of the migratory birds are leaving and tourists are long gone.

There’s a nice path up from the nearby village of Chandolin, it rises about 500m but the angle’s perfect and we’re comfortably up at the Tsape restaurant in an hour for a local specialty, an “Assiette Valaisanne” which is a selection of dried and smoked local meats with local cheese.

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The plan was to park near Charmey and walk along the ridge to La Berra, it was supposed to be a very small ascent but I parked at a different alpage from the one I originally intended which added a hundred metres or so to the climb.


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It’s pretty normal at this time of year that cloud covers the plateau with the tops of mountains poking out, it lasts a month or so into December when the lower air is cool enough not to condense like this. It means that late October and November it’s just much nicer the higher up you go. I’ve (finally) received some new boots from Raichle so I went out for a few hours around Moléson. I already knew from the webcam that the cloud was going to clear above 1800m or so and I’ve lived here long enough to have seem this all hundreds of times but jut like every other time it takes my breath away as you break through the cloud and see all the peaks poking through.


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Like Sunday this was unfinished business, we’d set out to traverse the Hundsrügg a while back but some pretty violent thunderstorms made the ridge look unappealing so we didn’t make it. It’s actually a fair way as well, about 18km and a 1000m of ascent so that would have been a bit dire with lightning hitting the ridge around you. Yesterday I’d an early appointment in Fribourg so it made sense to go straight on to the Jaunpass and do this route.


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