Today I managed to take the longest hillwalk since the beginning of my health problems last november (sciatica and damaged disk).

With my nephew Florian, we walked for about 2 hours and 45 minutes on the Hirmentaz massif (altitude 1600 m). We climbed nearly 500 m of altitude (which is not much... but very good for me at the moment). The weather was very sunny but quite cold with north wind blowing. We had beautiful views over Switzerland, Lake Geneva, the Jura Mountains, and of course the Mont Blanc range which was completely clear of clouds. There was still a lot of snow on the slopes but we found some nice green patches with lots of flowers in bloom. We saw the first blue Snow Gentianes this year.



Here is the only picture I could find on the internet of the place we have been today. In the distance is the Mont Blanc range.



I hope some of you have been hillwalking today...

Greetings from the Alps,

Lionel

Yesterday, Friday 5th May, I went hillwalking with some friends and their children. We climbed our local Alpine volcano named "le Môle". I managed to climb up to the top at the altitude of 1863 metres. The total ascent was 703 metres !!! This is my 2006 record so far as I now walk with my damaged disk. I hope things will be even better and that my herniated disk will be some memory of the past soon. The weather was a bit cloudy but we had some very nice sunny and bright intervals. The mountain was covered in daffodils making bright yellow patches on the slopes. Wonderful !

Here is the volcano (when in activity !!!) - In fact it's not a volcano but the shape of the mountain is really similar to a volcano, and the top is often covered in clouds.



And here is the path leading to the summital aręte at the altitude of 1863 metres.



The north side of the Môle was still covered in snow but we were lucky to walk on the south side of the hill that was free of snow and ice. At the top were remaining huge unstable cornices....




I hope that some of you are going hillwalking this weekend !!!

Two other pictures of the Môle in spring :

Really pleased to hear you are improving all the time Lionel. Fantastic news!

Unfortunately no hill walking for me this weekend - next time will hopefully be with SheilaB on the 15th May.

I really need to get out into the hills at the minute and escape things!

Jacqui,

Thanks very much for your post. Indeed I am glad I am improving though the sciatica is still here bringing some pain... but not all the time.

I will be looking forward to reading your reviews of your Scottish walks with SheilaB ! Do you have a digital camera ? I hope you will be sharing some great pictures here, Jacqui and you will enjoy nice weather on the hills...

Greetings from the Alps,

Lionel

PS : Do you plan to buy some chocolate or not ?

Lionel,

I will have my digital camera and will upload the pictures of our walk when I get back - I'm on holiday for a week and expect there to be no internet access ( how will I cope!!! ) where we are staying.

Sheila will probably have her camera as well so photos from both of us no doubt!

Jacqui

Today 8th May is a day off in France (anniversary of end of World War II) so I went for a great hillwalk with my friends Alain and Dominique who will be with me to travel to Scotland in August.

The weather was not very good (cold rain and cold weather) but the aim of the walk was to get used to a possible Scottish weather. And we had a kind of Scottish weather as we experienced some cold wind on the top, fog, a lot of rain and then sunshine and then in the end, thunder and lightening.

We started our walk from the lac des Mines d'Or at the altitude of 1300 metres.

There was still a lot of snow and we headed up to the direction of the Chalet de Freterole.

We had to walk up heading to the direction of the high pass (Col de Coux), altitude 1920 metres. When we arrived under the pass at the altitude of 1800 metres, suddenly a very thick fog hid the mountains and we had to do some navigation. It was raining heavily.

Then, when we reached the pass that is also the border between France and Switzerland where the snow was very deep (still about 2 meters of snow), the weather cleared up and we got some fantastic views of the "Dents Blanches" and the Swiss Alps. We didn't meet any officer of the Swiss customs. The wind and the rain were quite cold and we got very cold hands. We didn't stop for lunch on the col.

We decided not to stay long on the col and to head back down to the valley to find a sheltered place to eat our packed lunch. Just a last look at the Swiss Alps of Valais and we went down to the Valley of the Manche.

When we were back to the car, the sky got dark and then a storm started with thunder, lightening and heavy showers.

What a great day ! And I was really happy to feel so well when walking. So this is one more step for my training before hillwalking in Scotland in August.

Greetings from the Alps,

Lionel

I found a website with lots of pictures of the walk we did. The pictures were taken in excellent winter conditions. Not the conditions we got today. However if you are interested to see what the scenery looks like, just have a look here :

http://mmte.free.fr/minesdor.htm

Last Sunday afternoon we went to look for spring migrant birds beside the River Severn and the Gloucester and Sharpness canal at Frampton on Severn. It was low tide and I took some photos of the extensive tidal mudflats here. [The Severn has the second biggest tidal range of any river in the world, and the world record for long-distance surfing was made on the Severn Bore, a tidal wave that pushes upstream for many miles at certain times of the year. This website has more info. http://www.severn-bore.co.uk/]

These are my photos:

http://s17.photobucket.com/albums/b83/JanD...7%20May%202006/

Not exactly a hill walk(!) but the weekend before we were in Scotland and we did a bit of walking at a slightly higher elevation. I will post some pics of that soon - including some Lochaber/Glenfinnan ones for Tiz!

Puffin,

Beautiful pictures of your walk under nice weather. Waiting for more pictures to watch ...

Greetings from France,

Lionel

Cant wait to see them Puffin


I will be doing the shed on the canal at frampton slimbridge this saturday

Second Munro trip of year starts tomorrow (first was Ben Lomond Riggie meet). Off at 6 in morning, drive 380 miles, climb Ben Wyvis, north of Inverness in afternoon, then 5 Munros in 2 days down Strathcarron, then Fionn Bheinn at Achnasheen (near the airport) on Sunday and drive home..........and then back to work on Monday for a rest! Fingers crossed for the dry sunny weather to continue!

Lancs Dave! I have a lovely view of Ben Wyvis from my house and I must say it is looking pretty good just now! There is still some snow lying in what looks like the deeper gullys but our weather just now is fantastic. Not sure which hill/mountain I see up west from the back of my house, it must be up Strathconon way, it also still has some snow on it. I hope this good weather stays so you can see Ross-Shire at it's absolute best. Please take some photos from the top of the Ben and post them! Thanks and have fun.

Realconon, my book says of Ben Wyvis, "A vast, characterless, sprawling massif which may well discourage anything but the briefest visit"!! Well, I've been there before so I know better. We're staying in a B&B in Garve after the walk. Is there more than one pub/hotel in Garve and, if so, which is best?

Thanks, Dave

Dave, I think the Garve Hotel is the only watering hole in Garve! The hotel used to be really good for food, but I am not sure what like it is now! Quite a good choice of hotels in Strathpeffer or the Coul House Hotel, Contin (probably the nearest to Garve!). The Coul House is quite upmarket but the pub used to have a great atmosphere, it was well used by the locals, but the hotel has been sold within the last couple of years, and like many hotels in this area, I heard they don't encourage the locals to visit and get legless!!! The only pubs in that area are all part of hotels. The Drouthy Duck in Conon Bridge has a good reputation for food now, and with our new No Smoking Law, all pubs are a pleasure to sit in!!

The Ben may be vast and characterless, but I think the views must be something else!

Right, at the expense of all the things I should have been doing, here are some (quite a lot, actually ) of my photos from our May Bank Holiday trip to Scotland.

http://s17.photobucket.com/albums/b83/JanD...2006/?start=all

We had a day and a half in Strathspey, mainly birding (and largely failing to see what we were hoping for!) during which we walked up to the base of the cliff face at Coire an Sneachda on Cairngorm, starting from the main car park. A small step for the hillwalkers amongst you, but a giant leap for Puffin-kind and Himself!
One day was spent driving slowly from Kingussie to Strontian, at the eastern end of the Ardnamurchan peninsula, via Glen Spean and with a minor detour to the Glenfinnan Monument. (Thought of you, Tiz!) We stayed just outside Strontian and had two days in that area before returning home on a very wet and windy Tuesday!

One day we were on Morvern, searching for large creatures with wings when we met a very small creature indeed - the Common Shrew, which proved to be very obliging! As I knelt down for a closer picture, the little beastie scampered between my knees for a wee snooze out of the wind, then when I moved, hurried under the car to shelter, in the process finding a nice juicy grub to eat! So I managed some good photographs in the end, even if they weren't quite the 'in its natural habitat' ones I had hoped for, and involved my laying flat on the road. Good job we were a bit off the beaten track! As you can see this is a tiny animal - my trousers are made of a finely-woven polyester fabric, not the coarse cloth they appear in the picture!

For those of you who do not know it, Ardnamurchan Point is the most westerly point on the British mainland, and (sometimes!) has stunning views in all directions, including to Mull, the Treshnish Isles, Coll, the Small Isles - which are Canna, Muck, Rum and Eigg - and beyond to Skye.

Lovely pictures Puffin. Makes me want to head out west today!