Let the hiking season begin: Orsière (1750m)

I have to admit it - I got a bit tired of skiing. Maybe not that much of the activity itself but rather the side effect that we didn't spend enough family time together. So this week we are taking a break from skiing, not from mountains though!
To inaugurate the hiking season I chose something easy, in any case, when we have a toddler on our back we're not able to climb hell rocks and devil pits. Pointe d'Orsière seemed like a good choise - with no technical difficulty and low altitudes. And it was, with one 'but'.

The weather was a bit unfortunate. We drove there in full sunshine and took off all the layers in our car. But as we entered the car park it got gloomy and with every minute it was only worse. Throughout the whole day we saw the sun only a couple of times on our way back.

Although the route was very easy, we did struggle with ourselves. When you look at this outing from the perspective of our past hiking routes, this should have been like a walk in a park. But it really wasn't! It's sad how fast we lose the stamina when we stop doing sports. On top of that, our son is really heavy now so the 550 m of elevation gain we did is the maximum for hikes with him.

 
The whole trip made us so tired that 100 m before the summit we even considered turning back. In the end we turned down that thought and continue to the top following ski tourers' trails. We spent only a couple of seconds at the top and descended by crossing the snowfields in the fresh powder snow. It's always the best fun, as it literally lifts you when you rush down the slope in snowshoes. By no means the best part of the day!

Stats: max altitude: 1750m; elevation gain: 568 m; length: 12 km; duration: 4h 10 min