Hi Annie,

Great pictures as usual !! Well done for all those 3000 feeters, you should be ready to climb 3000 meters now. To finish your Welsh 3000s, do you have to climb the Welsh In Pinn ? Or do you have to fight any Red Dragon on top of a remote hill ? There must be a way to finish and celebrate. Thanks for sharing your pics. For me, it's a revival of my Welsh hillwalking memories. Great !

Greetings from the Alps,

Lionel

I was late to download my pictures this week, so this is last Sunday hillwalk with my friends Eric, Fabien and Michel who are members of the Red Feet Hillwalking Club.

We climbed one of the highest hills of my region, the Cornettes de Bises (2432 metres - 7976 feet). Unfortunately the weather was not very stable : we had some short sunny intervals, mist and heavy rain at the end of the day. We finished our walk with a nice meal in a small alpine restaurant, we shared a cheese fondue and drunk a nice local wine, by the fire-place. That was a great day despite the bad weather. We were also lucky to see quite a good number of ibexes and marmots.

The pictures are here :

http://s131.photobucket.com/albums/p282/Ch...Pieds%20Rouges/



Greetings from the Alps,

Lionel

Great pics Annie & Lionel!

Annie - yes, your birdie is an Oystercatcher so you can get rid of the "?"
Strider seems to be doing well on that stile - he must find coming down the other side a bit harder but then he's not exactly pick-up-and-carry portable, is he?!
Amazing looking down on the helicopter, too.

I went up Ben Vane over Loch Lomond (not to be confused with Benvane over Loch Earn) last Monday but then went to Skye for 3 days on Tuesday so never bothered writing about it. Vane took us so long to do all I wanted to do when I got back home (at 10pm) was have a bath, try not to drown in said bath and go to bed.



Anyway it was a horrible steep boring hill with a number of false summits and a relatively clear path to the top. That's all there is I can say about it really though the views from the top were good.

Ben Lomond

Ben Nevis from the top





We arrived ther at 12.30pm and left again at 8.30pm, we got pelted by hailstones, took half an hour trying to get me up a rock that had no footholds though for once we both managed down without the usual falling on our behind.

Great photos Crunchie and Lionel...the views from the top of Ben Vane are worth a few false summits though

Puffin - thanks for confirming it's an oystercatcher..other half insisted it was a curlew

Hi Lionel

Hmmm 3000m sounds interesting ...did do some high level walks in Canada and USA a few years back not sure how high they were though definitely higher than anything we have in UK though

Think I'll just celebrate with a quiet pint when I finish them later this year. We're supposed to be off to do some walking in the Lake District this week...never done much walking there tend to drive through on route to Scotland ..... hoping to do Scafell Pike and Helvellyn (via Striding Edge)

Annie

crunchie and lionel
great pics.
lionel the scenery is amazing like something out of lord of the rings.

Crunchie - well done on your 2nd Munro!

Lionel - great photos as always

Annie - hope you get better weather for Helvellyn than the day we did it. Really windy and quite a bit of rain. We went up Striding and down Swirral. All fine apart from one horrible bit on Striding when there is a 20ft chimney to go down. But I managed it so anyone can.

My photo - nerves had recovered enough to take this photo of Striding edge from Swirral Edge:



Good web link to that route: http://www.stridingedge.net/Lake%20Distric...ding%20Edge.htm
and here http://www.ukweatherworld.co.uk/forum/foru...posts=3&start=1

Love this photo of Striding Edge I found (wish we'd had weather like that!):


Just found a wintery link here: http://www.stridingedge.net/Walks/2007/01....ry/25.01.07.htm. Stunning photos!

Saturday 02/06 evening, I had a fantastic ski-tour on the highest slopes of AVORIAZ just under the top of Hauts-Forts (2466 metres). I skinned up Arare at 6 PM and was back to my car at 8:30 PM after a great slide on soft but nice snow. The total ascent or descent is still 400 metres and there is still quite a long distance to be skied.The snow melted a little bit on lower grounds but at night as it freezes, the snow keeps quite well and I hope to be able to ski more in June. The North wind was quite strong and it was cold at the top, but going down I enjoyed a fantastic sunset (see the pics).

My pics are here :

http://s131.photobucket.com/albums/p282/Ch...trets%20Machon/





Greetings from the Alps,

Lionel

Hi Annie, Alun, Jacqui and all those who like mountaineering,


Thanks very much for your comments. I am glad you enjoyed the pictures.


Greeings from the French Alps,

Lionel

Lionel - great photos...glad to see you still have plenty of snow out there

Jacqui - thanks for the links.....the chimney looks interesting, just as well Strider is getting used to doing a bit of scrambling

Crunchie,

Beautiful views from top of Ben Vane ! That's a place I would like to hillwalk one day. Please keep posting your next pics.

Annie,

If you go to the Lake District this week, have a great time and I hope the weather treats you well. I will be looking forward to watching the pics.

Greetings from the Alps,

Lionel

Hi Alun,

I am sorry but I have just realised that I didn't post my last hillwalking day in Wales with you. That was the walk near Dan Yr Ogof where we saw dinosaurs , the remains of a crashed plane and those famous holes in the mountain (I forgot their English name : lost holes ??? ). What a great walk to end my beautiful hillwalking trip in Wales. For this trip I would like to thank very much for their fantastic and warm welcome : Tiz, Andy and Fiona, Jim, Annie, Alun !!

The pictures are here :

http://s131.photobucket.com/albums/p282/Ch...an%20Yr%20Ogof/



Greetings from France,

Lionel

Hi Lionel.
Yes it was a great couple of days walking in the Beacons with you and Annie.
And the area of Carreg Goch(red rocks) is so bleak and wild it is my favorite place on the Beacons and usually you don`t see anyone and its usually raining and misty when i am there so to see 20 or more people up there and sun was a novalty lol.
The holes are mainly called shake holes altho a few are called swallow holes.
And the last area where the rocks have eroded like crevasses is called Castell y Geifr(castle of the goats)is realy fun scrambling about lol.
Thanx again for bringing the nice weather with you it was a pleasure to walk with you,tho navigating the streets of Bristol was not as easy as the Brecon Beacons lol.

http://www.scottishhills.com/html/index.php

you can find my hillwalking diarys under tombuidhe in this website these days !!

You will find a healthy batch of Riggies over here too.........Sam, Lionel, Jacqui, Cruncihe , Tiz ..........any more takers ????????