SnowSlider - Blogging From the mountains by ise

So, farewell to summer then! I think that might be my last high walk for a while, it’s snowing now and the higher level routes will either be impassable or need snow shoes or skis. Being a Monday I was the only person on the mountain yesterday and it’s not unlikely I’ll be the last crossing this route this season now. The farmers have moved all the cattle down and shut up all the alpages and taken down all the fences so it’s eerily quiet on the mountain.


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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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Mont Chevreuil is an abandoned ski station near to Château-d’Oex and was once on the same lift pass. The lift runs up from Rossiniere, or used to as it’s not run all the time I’ve lived here despite what some UK ski web sites appear to think according to their “in depth” guides to Château-d’Oex. Anyway, we had left the car in the Col des Mosses at La Lecherette and walked in to Mont Chevreuil from there. It’s a great time of year for walking and the conditions alter so much, earlier in the week I was in shirtsleeves enjoying the sunshine in Kandersteg and today we’re in early season snow. We’d thrown snow chains and snow shoes into the car as a precaution but didn’t really need them. You could have snow shoed at the top and the higher parts of the descent would have been fun but there’s not enough snow yet to need this kind of kit.


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