Ahead of the game

Frogs have already laid their eggs in the ponds in Zinal

Spring has definitely arrived early this year. The swallows and martins flew in at least 3 weeks ago and up in Zinal the frogs have filled the little pond with spawn, the willows are in full flower and the Plats de la Lee has virtually no snow on it

Pussy willow in full flower

It's been about 4 weeks since we were last able to  cross country ski here

One fine day

It's been a week of blue sky and warm spring weather but the forecast says it's changing at the weekend. So today we headed up to the Cabane d'Arpitettaz for lunch out on the terrace. After a 1200m climb a cheese sandwich never tasted so good. The view up to the glacier is amazing, as was the spring snow we found on the ski back down. PK

Where the river runs through

The gorge at the end of the 'Plats'

The southern end of the 'Plats' flood plain is blocked by a wall of rock -while the footpath climbs up and over, the Navisence river has cut down through it, forming a narrow gorge. This steep gorge is impassable in summer due to high water levels, but at this time of year you can climb across the exposed boulders and work your way up gorge. It's a wild mysterious place - especially today with the swirling mist and low cloud. PK

The 'high' way from Zinal to Petit Mountet in early autumn.

Fresh snow on the mountains are golden autumn colours

A real gem of a walk and at this time of year the colours are jewel like - sapphire blue sky, emerald ferns and ruby red leaves of the myrtile bushes - and to think autumn has hardly begun. A real contrast to the last time I wrote about this route which was in July when there was still snow to cross and the pink alpenrose was in bloom.

A wonderful traverse with fabulous mountain views

It's a real favourite and by using the cable car there's hardly any climbing. You just stroll south across the mountain on a long traverse which slowly descends via the Cabane Petit Mountet to Le Pla and back to Zinal village. For nearly half the walk you are over 2400m and the views to the east are unbeatable, plus at this time of year we were the only people up there.    PK

Descending to the Cabane Petit Mountet

Look back on winter 2015/16

As the season comes to an early end, it's nice to look back to just some of the epic ski days we had. After a lean start it turned into a great winter.

Tree-mendous!

Skiing the trees

The new year arrived with lots of snow - one memorable storm lasting practically the whole week. Things quickly filled in, and we skied the trees like we've never done before. That fabulous sensation of snaking down through the gaps, dropping onto pillows of deep, fluffy, forgiving snow.
As our ski buddy Ray said 'I could hand my pass in now, as it doesn't get better than that' - high praise indeed.

Tree-mendous!

2015's Weather

This has been one of the warmest and driest December's on record (here in Switzerland). Lots of blue sky days and no new snow. So what was the rest of the year like?

January 2015
















Started pretty mild, with rain to over 3000m, then strong winds and not much snow below 1500m. But the upper slopes had some good snow, and the month ended with a 2 day storm.

February 2015

A delicate start, with all the fresh snow on top of some unstable layers - the resort blasted practically every slope to make it safe. Temperatures rose for a mild half-term week. Overall some good skiing

March 2015 

Some great snow and skiing especially if you hiked

April 2015

Some great snow ended the season. However, the overall impression of the winter; not many big dumps of snow - just small storms.

May 2015

The winter snow melted away quite quickly, opening up the walking routes early.

June 2015

Beautiful warm weather, and the meadows were soon a mass of flowers 

July 2015

July was a heat-wave and a fire ban was enforced - this lasted well into August.

August 2015

No fireworks for the 1st August celebrations (despite heavy rain on the day). The heat-wave ended, but fine weather continued with an occasional summer storm bringing much needed rain.

September 2015

The hills were very dry and the grasses golden. Wonderful autumnal walking weather.

October 2015

The larch colours where stunning this year - getting more golden by the day. There was the usual early dusting of snow down to valley which soon melted away.

November 2015

Very little precipitation and the fire ban was brought back in. The autumn colours continued to look stunning. The resort delayed opening for skiers by two weeks - the snow finally arrived around the 20th.

December 2015

Sunny, warm and settled with no new snow. A huge high sat over this part of Europe forcing all the bad weather further north, across the UK and into Scandinavia. 

The 'just so valley' - the Vallon de Rechy

Just so...

Why call it the 'just so valley'? Well it's just so - consistently amazing, beautiful, untracked, quiet, remote, varied, huge and long... as is the list of words which describes how much I love this valley. Throughout winter we've had some amazing journeys, whichever route we've taken, and there are lots.

Here's a small collection of images from this and previous years ski days. It's not bad in summer either...

Great skiing

Wonderful views

Magical, even on a grey day

Makes a great day tour

For more images see our FaceBook page - here are a few links to some of our Vallon de Rechy days

www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1045216575493610.1073741881.232723673409575&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1038136209534980.1073741880.232723673409575&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.822418427773427.1073741862.232723673409575&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.622151517800120.1073741826.232723673409575&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.587871347894804.147912.232723673409575&type=3

Snow - making it happen

Snow making 

After an unusually wet summer, autumn was long, warm and relatively dry. Finally, temperatures have dropped and winter is creeping in, but the 'good' weather has continued, so not much snow. But at least it can now be made, which is exactly what's been happening.

For the last week or two all across the alps and around this valley, snow cannons have been drawing thousands of k-joules of electricity to pump and mix water with air, atomising the water into droplets which, when jetted into the freezing air form ice crystals. Over the years snow making techniques have improved so it's now less icy and comes pretty close to feeling like the real thing.

But it comes at a price:
To cover 100m x 100m's to a depth of 30 cm you need 3000m3 of snow, made from 1.3 million litres of water.
The estimated cost for 1m3 of snow is about £5 (chf 7.50) so the above 10,000m sq would cost about£15,000 (chf 22,000).

To put this into a context, a piste 60m wide and 800m long will cost around  £72,000 (chf 105,600) - that's a lot of ski passes and all you've got is a pile of snow. You then need piste machines to spread it around and the lifts to get people up the mountain....

And of course there's the cost to the environment - the extra energy used, water drained from reservoirs and other water sources and the extra water when it melts - which isn't just when spring arrives. The snow they made in November all melted on the lower slopes because it was so warm, but higher up the snow making is putting down a good base so for the Christmas guests things are looking 'al-white'.


Figures are based on information in the following articles:
www.theguardian.com/science/2014/nov/07/snow-climate-change-effect-on-skiing
www.mtbuller.com.au/Winter/Snow-Report/Snow-Making
www.adventure.howstuffworks.com/outdoor-activities/snow-sports/snow-maker.htm

Seeing the wood for the trees.

Followers of our Facebook page will have noticed that I often take pictures of snowy trees. Snowy and cloudy days obscure the mountains and the forests around the chalet come to the fore. On these 'dull' days I love the natural monotone caste and the layers of snow and branches are great to photograph. Recently, we've had some pretty snowy days so I've put together the following collection of colour photos...

Water damage

Trees and islands have been washed away and a new river route formed

Early last week we had two days of heavy rain which caused the Navizence River to break its banks and carve out a new route for itself - something locals have not seen before. The force of the water was so great that bridges and islands were swept away, boulders the size of small houses moved, trees ripped out and banks eroded back. At its height the river flooded nearly the whole width of Le Pla.

Bridges have been swept away or left miles from the water

What's been left is (I think) a more beautiful and more natural looking river which meanders a broader route - new islands have been made and the banks re-sculpted.

Walking along what was the jeep track- now stripped down to the moraine a few feet down

Work has already begun to reinstate bridges, and jeep tracks - but it will be interesting to see what they can do to the route used in winter by cross country skiers. Currently the once wide jeep track is down to the width of a footpath and one of the crossing bridges now spans a boulder field - the river now takes a route several hundred meters away leaving you unable to cross from east to west bank.

Looking down Le Pla and the new look Navizence River

Snow shapes

For the last 4 days it's been snowing on and off. We've had about 80 cm's fall in the village. So today, in between snow showers and snow clearing, I took my camera out into Mottec to photograph some of the wonderful snow forms.