Day out in Switzerland

brian

Since it's the long, slow summer time, here are a few snappys from a day I spent walking in my recent holibags (snow does feature, sort of).

You have to imagine the racket of the cowbells ...

Altogether now, ed-el .... rolling eyes

Spotted this chappy running around looking for a car to dry.

Protractors out, 40 degrees ?

Nice line

(one for JT wink

).

Take your snowfixes when you can, who needs snowblades when you have size 11s wink

Dent Blanche and the Lac de Moiry

Nice village from 4000' above on the Pointe de Tsirouc, rmgowers and ssnowman may just be able to make out their cranes wink

Matterhorn peeping round the corner.

... and lastly, I'm a sucker for a pano rolling eyes

(virtual pint to anyone that can name 6 or more of these summits).

A snowHead

Very nice Brian, we are hoping to get a week in August in Les Collons all going well. I am afraid I could not not name the peaks yey so your pint is virtually safe.

Last year was our first summer trip to the mountains certainly will be going back more often though Im not sure if I can get clan Fridge up some of the hills without the aid of the lifts, you looked liked you accessed some out of the way spots.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

brian,

Ok I will post the winter version.... and didn't know the gully was that rocky left side...also, the car park is a surprise...ha

I can't quite get my bearing from your photos angle but I'd guess that the Obelgarbelhorn, Dents du Herrens, Tete de Valpeline, Veisivi, Mont V Brule and Mt Collon feature in there.

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From the top ridge in Zinal looking down to the Grimentz side

but we saw this instead

We weren't the first...for sure..

But it was pretty good fum

but when we got down there we saw this way in..

so off we went
a good bit steeper and rockier..

is this what you meant brian? Laughing

But less tracked

so

and

and then the walk out across the dam, down into Grimentz, bus back for as many laps as you like...

Good fun

brian

brian

Gilberts Fridge, I got up and out on a couple of early mornings wink

You can drive all the way up the Val de Moiry in summer, past the dam and up to the head of the lake, where there's a spectacular view of the icefall on the Glacier de Moiry, worth a trip I'd say ...

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

brian, The Glacier looks amazing thanks for the pointers, I'm sure Mrs Gilbert would be up for it. My last hill walking was done at school a long time ago(Lothian had an excellent outdoor ed policy then) but I would love to discover more around Les Collons. Also interested in seeing thePyramides d Euseigne

Hopefully when we get there there will be some guided tours the website shows some short paths about 3 to 4 km that I hope will be gentle enough for our boys(me as well actually). When we were in St Martin de Belleville last year there were a lot of paths away from the top of the gondola our kids loved the nature looking at all sorts of crickets and butterflies etc so that takes the pressure off not forcing them. They are still young though so no extreme abseiling this year.

What really impressed me in St Martin was the variety of activities ie mountain biking, adventure days and the walking. Looks like most of that is available from the website.

Is there any swimming in the lakes or is the water temperature to low. We managed it last year but in a lake in the valley floor so the temp was bearable

brian

Gilberts Fridge, weird rocks ! Where are they ?

There are loads of marked walking trails all over the Valais. A couple of ones we did that the kids liked were the Sentier des Marmottes at Vercorin and the Sentier des Planetes at St Luc.

The Marmottes one is downhill from the top of the Vercorin gondola to the middle. They actually have some captive marmottes at the top

and games to play at various points on the way down.

The planetes walk has the planets spaced out at correct scale intervals from the sun. Warning - the far out ones are a long way out, we turned back at Uranus (no tittering please) !

Our kids also enjoy terrorising the local wildlife. Laughing

btw, o/t, I'm also a product of Lothian Outdoor Ed, Currie High School minibuses to the gorm, happy days Very Happy

brian, The rocks are in the Val d Herens in the village of Euseigne. I first saw them on the Investors in Property description for Les Collons.

Now If I can produce marrmottes as well as a glacier on this trip it could mean unlimited brownie points. Did you just come across it, I have been told they are incredibly hard to see.

For me I am a product of Gracemount for my sins. We never did the skiing in Scotland but had plenty of good days out in the Pentlands, Ben Mohr(SP) center near the Holy Loch for the odd weekend and a school camp in Perthshire. Remember canoing in a very cold Tay. Id like to think that Lothian kept up the Outdoor Ed department not holding my breath though. I remember some very dedicated teachers assisting the Outdoor Ed teacher.

The last picture with the cricket is exactly what my kids like.

brian

Gilberts Fridge, they're not that difficult to see, they are actually fairly big, roughly badger size. They will scarper when you get close to them though. I did see a couple out in the wild but wasn't fast enough with the camera. The ones at Vercorin are in a little fenced off enclosure and were happy to sit in their burrow mouths to be photographed. You can get a cable car up from Chalais (near Sierre) to Vercorin, might be more pleasant than driving yet another set of hairpins !

Other local attractions for kids we liked:

Mini theme park between Sion and Sierre.
http://www.happylandnew.ch/

Thermal baths at Leukerbad - spectacular scenery and you can swim/jacuzzi outside. We spent a couple of afternoons there and loved it. In fact we're going to go back for a weekend as part of one of our winter holidays.
http://www.burgerbad.ch

Underground lake also between Sion and Sierre, among the local vineyards which do a bit of tasting as well wink

http://www.lac-souterrain.com/

I went to Benmore a couple of times as well, remember the US navy warning us we'd be water cannoned if we sailed any closer to their nuclear subs Laughing

I don't know what the Outdoor ed situation is now, my kids are in primary so we've not got that far yet but it was brilliant when I was at school.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

brian, great photos. When I was there last month, I took some video footage on my camera, just to capture the sound of the cow-bells. It's amazing how loud it actually is.

snow reports

brian, thanks those links are superb, perfect for us, Mrs G is very happy. Will try and post how we got on when we return.

Great photo of the Glacier de Moiry.

You know it makes sense.

brian, the whole summer alpine experience - great. Thanks.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

brian,

Thanks again for those links, Happyland was brilliant for our boys they had a fantastic time. The best was that we were there the end of Aug when the Swiss kids were back at school so there were less than 10 families there the whole time.

Did not get a chance to go to the underground lake, save that for next year and although I did not get to any vinyards I did partake in a few private tasting sessions. We saw this place from the autoroute near Martigny so will look again next year to http://www.labyrinthes.ch/

The pyramides are worth a look but the look out point is on the road between Vex and Euseigne( just before the village).You have to drive through one to get to the second lookout point, take care as there is always people in the road getting a closer look. If you do go I recommend the Cafe de la Poste in Vex for lunch. Excellent seasonal chanterelle(sp?) mushrooms in a wine sauce mmmmmmmm. From Sion it’s about a 10min drive to Vex and then another 5 to Euseigne. If you have the time Evolene is quite a pretty we village further up the road, I plan to get a day skiing over there next season with a bit of luck.

Did a couple of days walking in and around Les Collons through the woods, gentle but very good. The Locals were very helpful recommending trails suitable for beginners with kids, long way to go before I start bagging Munros though

A snowHead

Gilberts Fridge,

On your travels did you get as far as Mache? I want to ski down from Greppon Blance and then get post bus...hopefully back to the main lift station that goes up into Verbier lifts system, which I think is at Les Collons.

I will also hope to explore the Evolene and the Arolla valley...

A snowHead

JT,
I don't know exactly what the name of the place it goes from but there is a regular bus that goes from the bottom of the Itinaire from Greppon Blanche back up to Les Collons.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

JT,

Didnt get there Im afraid, I only know what I guess you have seen from the piste map already that there is a bus from the bottom of the itinary route
back in to Les Collons. There is also a bus up to Evolene and antother itinery route back from Evoline which looks from the map to be to the same spot.
I also had it confirmed that Evoline is part of the Printze sector lift pass but not sure still about the whole 4 Vallees pass.

The Evolene sector is on the paper piste map but not on the interactive web one( am I the only one who thinks that the interactive maps are garbage or
have I hit grumpy old man stage a few years early).

Speaking with the agents a link between Evolene and Les Collons has already been approved at Federal level but has been blocked for years at local
level, they are not sure if it will ever be built now. The lift company is now investing back into the existing system. The Etherolla chair will be
upgraded next summer and a piste may be extended bellow the village to service the new build chalets going up.

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Thanks guys..the bus is good to know

brian

Gilberts Fridge, glad you enjoyed it !

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Day out in Switzerland

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