Yesterday's walk in the Alps : with my friends Dominique and Alain, we walked up to the Lake of Lessy and climbed and walked the Buclon ridge (2100 metres). Beautiful weather, very sunny and quite hot on the south face of the "Buclon summit". Olivier who is a moutain guide and a friend of Dominique and Alain cooked a "light lunch" for us at his chalet by the Lake of Lessy and we drunk a bottle of Normandy Cider homemade by his wife Marie Laure. Then it was very difficult to climb the south slope of the Buclon (very steep and we had maybe eaten a bit too much). Here are some pictures :

We started from an Alpage pasture !



Here is the Buclon Summit seen from the north face :




Here is the whole ridge that we walked :




We had lunch at Olivier's chalet overlooking Lake de Lessy (second chalet from the left)




L'Aiguille Verte (the green needle) seen from the ridge :




Another view from the ridge (2100 metres) :




Last picture is a panoramic view of the great ridge walk we did. In the background is the Pic de Jalouvre (2406 metres).



Another fantastic day on the hills !

Greetings from France,

Lionel

Thanks to Pierre Alexandre for his wonderful pictures of the walk.

Thanks for these great photo's too Lionel

Fantastic scenery, Lionel.

Well, it was too hot to do much during the daytime over the weekend, but we went out and about in the evenings (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) instead, all within about 15 miles of home! Sometimes I forget how much lovely countryside there is virtually on the doorstep but as John has a new camera and he wanted to practise with it before we go on holiday next week, it got us out. I've put a selection of my photos here:

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

The Cotswold Hills can't compete with Lionel's Alps and I bet he's got bigger and better wild orchids there, too!

If any of you have read Laurie Lee's "Cider with Rosie", Slad is the village he lived in; he's buried in the Churchyard there, just across from "The Woolpack" where he liked to drink.

Puffin,

Thanks for showing your beautiful pictures... I like the orchids very much. I think that every place has its own beauties and treasures. It's very important not to miss them.

Greetings from the Alps,

Lionel

Great pics Lionel

I would like to do the Alps some day. Although, I would need more practise on the Scottish hills first!

Thanks to everyone who appreciated the pictures. I borrowed them from a friend who is already a great hillwalker ... and he is only 14 years old.

Scotgirl,

You are welcome to do the Alps one day... and training in the Scottish hills is very good as the Scottish hills are as great as the Alps, according to my experience.

It's funny but my friends and I, we train in the Alps in June and July to be fit enough to walk the Scottish hills in August.

Greetings from France,

Lionel

Great photos Lionel and Puffin

Thank you Annie !

He's a great photographer too!

On saturday I did a longer walk than usual with my friends Alain and Dominique as part of our training for the Scottish Munros in August.

We climbed the second highest hill of my area, Mont de Grange : 2432 metres. One of my favourite hills in the Northern Alps of Chablais. We walked for about 7 hours but the weather was very stormy. First humid and "heavy" before the storm. We were on top of Mont de Grange for about 15 minutes and suddenly the weather changed. Huge clouds were coming towards the top. We had to run down to avoid a very violent storm on the arête. Big thunder and lightening as we were running down the hill to avoid the dangerous parts of the mountain during the storm. Then we got hailstone and cold wind. Dominique was freezing when we reached the bottom of the hill but we had still one and a half hour to walk to reach the hut (Refuge des Tinderets) for a very good hot meal and red wine that we deserved. Then we walked back to the car and it was eleven o'clock at night. Another great day on the hills despite the storm.

Some pictures of Mont de Grange : the long ridge towards the top.



The Lake des Plagnes seen from top of Mont de Grange.



The summit with a big neve as it is usually in June.



The Mont de Grange seen from the distance.



The hut : refuge des Tinderets



Greetings from the Alps,

Lionel

Here is another picture of our walk to Mont de Grange, taken by my friend Alain.

Mont de Grange - 2432 metres

Lionel - awe-inspiring stuff as usual!

And Puffin - lovely photos! A beautiful part of the country, as you say, but it takes more than nice views to make such stunning pictures, so full marks!

Did you know what the orchids were at the time, or did you look them up in a book afterwards? I wouldn't have a clue. But I've learnt that the one I always thought was so interesting is a bee orchid - thank you! And bonnie beetles!

Sorry it's taken a while to reply, Rig - I have been away (Skye/N.Uist/Arisaig with day trips to Eigg and Rum) and we only arrived home last night, so I'm just starting to catch up with everything! I did know what the orchids were as I've been interested in photographing British wild orchids for years and we went specifically to look for them. Also managed to find the N. Uist speciality - the Hebridean Marsh Orchid (finally, after failing on previous visits) in the last hour before going to check in for the ferry back to Uig, in a place I'd wandered over the previous day!

Today I climbed a corbett near Balquidder (Trossachs area) called Stob a'Choin 869m. It was pretty muggy and midgie going up but soon got into a welcome breeze. The wild flowers were the most amazing I have ever seen on a hillside - must have been about 40 different species at least - just like a carpet. Good views from the top as well. A nice wee hill. Appropriately named Dog Peak too as the collies were giving it lauldy at the farm on the way back!

Some photos Here

Cheers
Sheila

PS Anybody else walked or climbed today on this fine day?

Lovely pics as ever, Sheila.
Envy your fitness and ability there, as I'm unlikely ever to get such views. But you certainly earn them!

Can't compete on the climbing, but had yesterday afternoon off and did a long ramble - will post pics later.

And, later, here they are!
Taken in the Naaf valley, east of Cologne, showing the lovely half-timbered houses of the scattered farming community.

http://usera.imagecave.com/RRFan2/Naaftal_30_06_06/

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Today spotted lovely young cormorant family by the Rhine. (Oh dear, Puffin says they're only duck! How embarrassing is that!)