These are great, Greig. Ah, the hills of home! And you've got to bring Storm if we get this trip to Clova sorted....he looks great fun.

Cheers
Sheila

What about starting a thread to post all picture as Lionel suggested and crickey you lot will get me divorced ................I will see if I can earn enough brownie points for Clova...........................any one got a spare garden shed for when I get the big boot from the superior other half.

Right - the most likely situation fir me (opps for me - can't be sounding Aberdonian!!! ) is I won't make it to Snowdon but I'll be ble to do Clova!!

Husband can cope with that!

And BTW all you fit people I'll be SO much slower....

Jacqui

Today, Sunday 18/9/ I went hillwalking despite the poor weather conditions in the Alps. Very thick mist, very cold wind from the North and some showers.

I should have climbed the "Pointe d'Ireuse" (altitude : 1891 metres) by a quite difficult pass called, the Pas de l'Echelle (The ladder pass) where it's necessary to scramble. But as the weather was bad, the path was very slippery and muddy. I climbed up to the altitude of 1700 m to the foot of the Ladder Pass where I had an appointement with some friends... who didn't come. They should have climbed down the Pas de l'Echelle and it was quite dangerous so they cancelled their walk. I went back to the car to go to another place on lower grounds without mist.

This a picture (in perfect summer weather conditions) of the place I should have reached after climbing the Ladder Pass.



Picture thanks to : http://www.balade3d.com

Next post for the second part of my day walk.

Second walk of the day : I drove to a place called Vallon and I started to walk from the nice little Chapel Saint Bruno by the lake. Being on lower ground, the visibility was excellent as I was under the level of the mist.



I walked half way round the lake of Vallon to go up the valley of the river Diomaz.



Then I climbed up to the altitude of 1308 m at the place where the river Diomaz jumps from the mountain in about 10 different waterfalls. Beside the last waterfall, on the rock face, some monks from the Abbey of Vallon carved a flowered cross in 1651. This cross is still in very good condition. I went back to the Chapel of Vallon located at the foot of the Roc d'Enfer (Hell Rock).

The Hell Rock area is my favourite place for winter ski-mountaineering. Here is a picture of the place in winter.



In summer beside the beauty of the place, you can also meet some nice "randonneuses" ! (female hillwalkers).

Regarding 'female hillwalker' picture

I'll freeze If I wear that sort of gear up Clova next month!!!!!

Jacqui

hi Jacqui !!!

Of course, not in Clova in October.... but maybe in August ?

Ok - that can be my August walking gear!

Guaranteed to scare every other person off the hills!!

jacqui

Really Jacqui ??? I don't think so !

Today I went hillwalking most of the day. I chose to climb the second highest hill of my region, the Chablais in the Northern Alps of France. The name of the mountain is "Mont de Grange", it's a really beautiful mountain with ridges and the summit at the altitude of 2433 metres. The weather was perfect, sunny, with this beautiful autumn light, blue sky and a light wind.

I started the walk at the altitude of 1100 m and it took me 3 hours exactly to reach the summit of Mont de Grange at the altitude of 2433m (an ascent of 1333 m in three hours). I climbed the hill on a secondary path, steeper than the tourist path but with excellent ridge walking. In fact I walked the whole path on my own, I never met any hillwalker and I had the chance to see, not far from me, seven "chamois".

From the top I could see some high peaks of the French Alps, the Swiss Alps of the Valais region, the Mont Blanc range and some Italian summits.... and of course Lake Geneva. The views were really fantastic and very clear.

I went down the hill by a very long path and it took me more than two hours to reach my car. There was a lot of heather in bloom on the slopes of Mont de Grange, which is not very common in the French Alps. Quite common in Scotland but not much here in the Alps. I really had a great day hillwalking over here and I hope that some Riggies had also a wonderful day on the hills.

Sorry but I couldn't find a good summer picture of the Mont de Grange so these are winter pictures. But anyway, in one month or two, this is what it's going to look like.





And a picture of a "chamois" to give you an idea !

Right,

Made it up Helvellyn (950m)(Lake District, England) yesterday in the wind & rain!

Photos here: http://photobucket.com/albums/b33/jacquimair/

Ok Andy & Tiz....I was REALLY SCARED at 2 bits. One near the end of Striding where the only way is a SCARY scramble down 20ft chimney (thanks so much to the mountain goat woman who we met at exactly the right time and with David at the top & her at the bottom got me down) and then the last 100m up to the summit which to me was too steep. I had a 'Dorothy' moment (click those ruby slippers - theres no place like home...). I knew I had to get my a*se up there though as the only way back would be to climb up that 20ft rock & that wasn't an option!!!!! Anyway, got to the top ok.

Easy wander down Swirral on the way back - feeling dead chuffed with myself for doing it (seeing as I am so scared of heights I can't climb the ladder in the house to get into the attic!!!).

Tiz & Andy I will really cry if you take me on scary ridgy bits!!!!!!!

Up and back 4h 20min

Jacqui

Well done lass im just on the way out will post more later..............where is your sense of fun lool.

Live dangerously hehehehe

At one point I did say to David 'we have to get those wills sorted....' His comment was 'I'll be fine and I'll have the life insurance!!'

And the bar of choc and Bud at the bottom were the perfect end!

Hi Jacqui !!!

Well done for the scrambling !!! You need some training, the more you scramble, the more you get confident. And try to climb the ladder into the attic more often.

Yesterday, I went hillwalking with my friends Dominique and Alain. We climbed up to the top ot the Parmelan mountain though the weather wasn't very good. Cloudy sky and pouring rain in the afternoon. However we enjoyed the road.

The Parmelan overlooks the city and lake of Annecy in Haute Savoie at the altitude of 1830 metres. The total ascent is 800 metres but the whole walk (including a long walk on a beautiful wild plateau) was about 5 hours. Most of the ascent was done with dry weather but cloudy sky. Then on top of the huge plateau we got first some showers and then heavy rain on our way down. Hopefully we ate our sandwiches and drunk some nice red wine sheltered in the winter bothy on top of the Parmelan.

Here are some pictures of the Parmelan that I could find on the internet.



The top of the mountain is a very big plateau, a real labyrinth of "lappiaz" (limestone eroded by the rain in thousands of holes in the shape of veins - some holes are 20 to 30 meters deep - it's necessary to walk carefully watching where you put your feet).



We went down a place called the "Grand Montoir" (The big climber) which is a very steep and impressive gully with a beautiful "hanged path". Almost the whole of the path was carved in the cliff, many steps and wires to hold to while going down because the steps were very slippery. That was a thrilling descent (Jacqui would love that kind of descent) to end a enjoyable but quite wet day.

This is a picture taken from the lower base of the Grand Montoir.

Lionel

Tiz has offered to give me the scrambling training...he says he'll go easy on me to start with....

Will try to make it into the attic for the first time!!!! Promise. Thats can be step 1 of the training!! Plus all my old RR stuff is in boxes up there

As for the 'thrilling descent', well, I'm shaking just looking at the photo....FAR TOO SCARY!!!!!!

Jacqui