Tag: Hiking

Our longly awaited La Tournette hike has finally come true. Overlooking Lake Annecy, La Tournette is a nice mountain having a lot to offer. The ascent starts rather innocently but we had nice views practically from the beginning.

The actual summit is this square block at the left side of the chain:

The weather was perfect for hiking – rather warm but no burning sun. Thanks to that we reached the ridge quite fast and continued on walking on higher altitudes.

And here it is – Lake Annecy. From that moment on it accompanied us on our tour more or less all the time.

At last we reached the square block of La Tournette. It didn’t look hikable but I already learnt that everything is hikable here! In this big cube of rock there was a little crack at the back. This is where chains and a ladder were installed so that wanderers could reach the highest point.

As usual, we made a little pause at the top but at some point we felt little drops on our noses and decided to get back. Fortunately it was a false alarm because what was ahead of us wouldn’t be very pleasant in rain. And what was ahead of us? Chains, ladders (ok, one ladder), vertical passages… I didn’t expect that our descent would be so technical! We all enjoyed it!

At some point the sky cleared a bit. Yey! But that was already when we were already at the foot of Tournette.

Oh yeah, did I mention we encountered tons of wild goats? They’re always soooo cute!

We soon went out of a tourist and animals’ bell ringing zone and started some more serious hiking through pebbles and rocks.

That’s a first look on our destination place:

Trou de la Mouche (Hole of a Fly) is basically an arch in a rock. We could see it for the most time of our ascent which made it pleasent to hike (it’s always motivating to be able to see the aim). But before reaching it we needed to get past the valley still covered in snow at some parts, then climb the ridge and made a last-ditch effort of almost a vertical climb to La Trou. But we were rewarded…

Although the clouds were lurking for us we were just in time to see a beautiful view on the valley, Mont Blanc and la Trou. Really splendid!

A short break to enjoy the views and grab a bite and off we go down at the other side of the arch, getting away from the clouds. That side of the rock was as nice as the other one!

We’ve seen Salève a couple of times already but we never actually hiked it. Today was a good day to change it so we set off on the route with our friends Kim and Derek.
Salève is not really high but there is a galore of routes around. We chose the one through a Cave of Orjobet on the way up and Grande Gorge on the way down with a little detour to see the paorama on the Alps.

We did a pause at the Haute-Savoie sign painted on the rock and then continued to soon reach the top where we could see Lake Geneva and the Alps.

Mont Blanc hid from us this time but no worries, we’ll get to see it a lot of times in the future.

This weekend I went with a group of CERN colleagues to La Dent d’Oche mountain which towers over the south of Lac Leman. Actually, it was not the first time I was in this neighbourhood as we did Pic des Memises with Radek just a couple of weeks earlier. Well, apparently Lac Leman doesn’t like me and hides its beauty from me because we didn’t have the best of weather (just like earlier with the Memises). Nevertheless it was a decent hike, with lots of technical parts and really nice company.

Once we reached Shalet d’Oche we could see Portes d’Oche (Door of Oche) which we would later see in close up on our way back. Also, the route becam way steepier and the clouds became to lower over the valley so we decided to speed up a bit not to be in the mist while on the summit. The route to Refuge d’Oche was not long from that point but pretty difficult, with vertical climbs equipped with chains.

The refuge was situated a bit below an actual peak so we didn’t stay long there. Only a glance at Lac Leman and off we go hiking to the cross – not a long distance but quite a challenging ascent.

We didn’t have a perfect view on the top but not the worst either.

 

At last… Let me tell you about my (first this season) a trully summer-like hike. With no storms, no hail, no fog, no mud… With a perfectly dry trail and super clear sky! And on top of that, the most awesome hike I have ever done so far. Ladies and gentlemen, Pointe d’Almet!
I went on this hike with CERN colleagues. We started from Col de la Colombiere and lost the route almost immediately (despite having gps coordinates and map!) We ended up literally climbing up a vertical wall without any gear. Pretty scary (a prelude to the later „really scary”).

45 minutes later we were basically still at the level of our car park, except a couple of metres higher. But the view was already very nice.

We continued on through roofs of the mountains in order to reach a ridge that would lead us to Pointe d’Almet. We lost our way again and ended up hiking through rocks and places we shouldn’t be hiking… We also had close encounters with bouquetins (wild goats with big horns). Fortunately they were friendly and understood that we came in peace 🙂

Once we entered the ridge we could see really marvelous views. Wherever we looked we saw something magnificent. Valley lakes on our right, Pic de Jallouvre and Aguille de Verte (that last one is known to us – see this post) on our left, and long and thin ridge in front and behind our back…

Soon the trail became even more demanding. We continued walking on a narrow path along the cliffs, frequently using our hands to find the balance and support in these difficult conditions. But boy it was real fun!

Cross of Almet was situated right after a tiny but deadly pass between two peaks. We really needed to focus and try not to fall into a chasm while crossing it. That was scary but once behind us, gave us a good deal of a sense of achievement. We spent some time by the cross and continued on along the ridge to actual summit which was situated some distance further.

Our hike continued in more or less the same conditions (cliffs, steep and narrow climbs, chasms – this kind of stuff) until we reached the end of a mountain with no path leading down. Bummer 🙂 Fortunately, the weather was good so we could make a cross-country descent through a grassy slope.

A rather rapid descent on a grassy slope:

Once down, we had still a long way to cover – we went along the footstep of the mountain that we earlier had gone through the ridge. It was nice seeing it from a larger perspective.
All in all we did 16 km but it’s not the mileage that made this trip my favourite hiking experience so far. A mixture of thrill, calm, snow, green, sun, chasms, grass, cliffs, rocks… I hope to do more hikes like that.

 

The snow started right after we did the chain passage. We were actually both surprised by the amount of it! Fortunately, it was very wet and heavy so we could pass through only with a bit of vigilance. A couple of minutes before the summit we could see a breath-taking view on the Alps, still covered in snow.

We made a pause by the cross but it was only the beginning of our trip so we didn’t stay long. Our round trip was supposed to go up to La Tête, then along the ridge of the mountain (which is actually pretty long) and then down at the other side and back to the car at the footstep of Le Parmelan. So we left a rather crowded top and went on a deserted hike along the range… We didn’t descent so there was snow everywhere – something that we hadn’t expected. It was very difficult to follow the path because there were few foot trails and the snow was hiding the paths from us. It was also hiding the wholes in rocks, so we really needed to watch our feet. The fact that we were the only human beings around was also a bit disturbing… If other hikers didn’t dare to claim the ridge, perhaps we were too bold?

Despite the uncertainty, we enjoyed the views – Annecy valley on the right, the Alps on the left. But it was no carefree hike and it actually became an opposite of carefree when we had to admit we had lost the trail. We reached a point there were only rocks and chasms around and what was worse, we really didn’t know how much time we had followed a goat trail instead of a marked route. We had no choice, we had to backtrack. Fortunately, at some point we spotted the correct trail, something like 30 metres under us. The problem was, we didn’t see any possibility to cross this distance at it was almost vertical, through rocks. In the end, we spotted a place that was good enough for us, so we took the risks and… slid!

As much fun as it looks in the photos, it was actually a scary experience. It’s not easy to control a slide like that and we had rocks and wholes covered by snow around. I felt a great relief the moment I found myself standing on the marked trail. From that moment our route continued rather calmly, even though there were pretty steep passages ahead of us. Nevertheless, nothing could frighten us afterwards.