SnowSlider – Blogging From the mountains by ise

It’s easy to see why few people go hiking this time of year above 1500m or so, it can be a bit difficult in places but it is worth it. Probably the most important things to consider are that you have to be prepared for the conditions underfoot which can be difficult with snow and ice presenting a significant danger in places, that you need to be a bit flexible with routes and have a few options to play with on the day and, finally, that it’s winter higher up the mountain and you need to observe usual precautions.

We were following an old road or track that goes parallel and above the Vercorin-Mayoux road, the plaque above commemorates the road being built in 1921 in fact, then up through the forest to join another track to come back along the mountain.

At some point our track vanished under snow, the terrain was awkward as the snow lying on the ground can cover boulders and if you step heavily you can go through the snow to the boulders below and potentially hurt yourself. You also keep going in to your knees in soft snow which is just annoying. So we decided to cut a line up through the forest which was extremely hard work, the terrain kept pulling us away from our waypoint so the 150m became more like 250m. You can see above left the sort of ground it was.

But after we’d hit the track as planned we got to a clearing in the forest and had a picnic enjoying the sun and spectacular views out over the valley.

On of the great things about snowshoeing, and living somewhere with a bit of snow, is you can quickly find yourself away from the beaten track. These pictures are just from a short tour around the forest behind the chalet. There’s no marked trails so you can wander through the forest as you want.

Apparently the abundance of rowan berries we seem to have this year is a good omen for a snowy and cold winter. So far it’s more in line with long range forecasts though, it’s not bad but we’ve seen temperatures ranging from -20′c to +4′c or higher.

The snow’s still pretty good although down here it’s below 2000m and it’s got a bit saturated by rain and melting, without the snowshoes it would be pretty heavy going.