Back in Switzerland, briefly, it was a spur of the moment decision to go to Gantrisch this morning. It’s been pretty cold with a chilling wind and really not so much snow falling so we nearly didn’t go anywhere but the the thought of Gantrisch crossed my mind and when I checked the webcam it seemed to say the snow was excellent. There’s a downside to snow in this area, they don’t clear the roads back to tarmac so it was a long drive up an icy, snow-packed from Zollhaus although it’s really only a few km in reality.

We climbed the peak in the middle of the second photograph back in the summer so if you follow this link, via-ferrata at Gantrisch, you’ll get a very different view of the same area.

You can also see on the photo’ the impact the wind is having, the riming on the signs and seats should tell which direction the wind is blowing (for no prize at all, take a guess) and you can see some snow being transported off the ridges higher up. The route I’d wanted to do would have been fairly safe but it did need a traverse and ascent over a slope that would almost be certainly be wind-loaded so we opted for the forest on the north side of the road. Kicking the snowpack on the way up confirmed my suspicion about the slopes with a soft-slab sitting on top of some fresh snow in a pretty unstable configuration although the effect was pretty localised so it was probably avoidable.

The tracks in the forest proved to be excellent, I’d not snowshoed around here before although I have nordic skied on the other end of the ridge. You also get these great views. Above left and below left you’re looking over at Jungfrau massif, it’s the first group of peaks coming from the right of the frame past the local ridgeline. So that’s the Jungfrau, Mönch and Eiger in order.

Then below left we’re looking the other way at the Jura on the horizon with a dusting of snow, hopefully that’ll pick up while I’m away and we’ll get a good few weeks in February. Right now though, at least for nordic skiing, this would be the area to come I think, there’s a small nordic area here stretching along the ridge to Schwarzenbüh (link to Schwarzenbühl blog entry) and it’s almost certainly easier to park where we were today.

Tags: Gantrisch | Raquettes | snow shoeing | snowshoeing | Switzerland snowshoeing

It might have been the first day snowshoeing in Switzerland but my plan to ascend the small peak of Le Chasseon in the Jura range didn’t really work out, I’d expected to carry my snowshoes some way up but when I arrived at the car park I decided the snow cover was going to be thin all the way up. I’d also noticed driving up that there seemed to be more snow further south on the Jura ridge, probably not more than 10 or 20km away so I decided to try that instead.

Since it was an improvisation the first place that crossed my mind was Mont d’Or near the French ski station of Métabief. To get the best snow cover the obvious plan was to drive as far up Mont d’Or as possible then climb to the top and traverse the ridge. The chances for good views down in Switzerland and across to the alps looked pretty good.

And although it was a hastily improvised plan it worked out just fine. I snowshoed up in good snow cover and nice weather and arrived at the Mont d’Or summit quite quickly. Up on the ridge the snow was heavily wind effected and unconsolidated, the easy angled slopes eliminated any risk of avalanche though. Initially as I’d gained the ridge the weather threatened to turn with the forecasted storm seeming to arrive but the sudden squall quickly passed and the skies cleared again so I headed along the ridge towards Le Morond which is the high point of the Métabief ski station.

I think these photo’s were the pick of the day, the alps clearly visible in the background and some really, really great skies to add a bit of atmosphere.

Tags: France snowshoeing | Jura | Jura Snowshoeing | Raquettes | snow shoeing | snowshoeing

Snowshoe Magazine, based in Denver, Colorado, has another article from SwissMountainLeader this month. It’s a feature articles and talks about the Aravis in France as a snowshoeing destination.

Snowshoe Magazine is a great online publication for anyone interested in snowshoeing anywhere in the world, sign-up, it’s free!

Read the article : European Snowshoeing Destinations: The Aravis, France

Tags: snow shoeing | snow shoes | snowshoeing in France