Discovering France in winter

This year's winter passed so quickly! It wasn't the fircest one (actually it wasn't fierce at all) and now the world starts to bloom. Due to the fact that we started skiing we didn't have much time to do short trips around but I manged to collect a couple of photos mostly from my (or neighbouring) village. here they are.

Challex:

Saint Genis Pouilly:

Annecy:

Tete de Bostan (2406 m)

Our first big hike this season -Tete de Bostan. We're gaining elevations gradually, 2406 m is already pretty high up so I can't wait for the rest of the season to see if we are able to beat our record. I saw photos from Tete de Bostan on my friend's FB and immediately decided I wanna go there. I knew it would be a challenge with nearly 1400m of elevation gain but couldn't resist anyway. Especially after our previous hike that was not very satisfactory when it comes to length.

Before having challenged the mountain, as usual I checked the opinions and conditions on route. One guy wrote: "It sure is one long ridge". I seriously can't argue with that! This mountain has like 3 false summits! You think it's there, you can see your destination, you're approaching with the rest of your powers only to learn that it's not there and you have like another hundred of meters to cover. A bit annoying :) For example look at the photo below where I am pointing to what turned out not be our destination and Radek pointing to the real Tete de Bostan.

We had a very nice weather that day. The sun was frying us and we got some really nice tan despite having put factor 50 of sun block :) And the views were rewarding throughout almost all of the hike.

Final meters were tough to me but I was making a steady progress because I was curious of the vertigo-building line right before the summit (see photo below).

We were right on time on the top as soon after we did some photos the weather changed and became clouded. Going down was frustrating. We shared our route up with lots of ski tourers and every time I saw them I was envy they had skis and I didn't. I mean, I know I probably don't have enough skill to ski down such a slope but it would have made everything so much easier! I have no doubts that ski touring will become my thing soon! But for now - long and tedious way down on snowshoes.

Quaint Annecy again

I am seriously unable to count how many times I have seen this place. I know every corner of it's main part now, yet it doesn't stop to entertain me. Such a beautiful dot on a map of the world.

Pointe de Bellevue (2041 m)

I really longed for a proper hike and was very excited about the one we were supposed to have that day. But I also chickened out a bit and settled for a not-so-challenging route which turned out to be a mistake. I mean, don't get me wrong, the hike was very nice but I had a bit of a feeling of dissatisfaction afterwards - like I wanted more that day but the route had finished... Anyway, we will have a chance to have another one so nothing's lost.
But to the point - our destination: Pointe de Bellevue - which in translation would be Peak of Beautiful View. It really was, but I'll get to that later.
We started our hike on a very steep meadow where we gained elevation super quickly. It wasn't a real trail, we just crossed the field where convenient for us. We didn't intend it, we were following someone else's gpx track that had been named as the official route. Bummer.

What I liked most about this hike was the constant presence of Dents du Midi. Most of the hikes we do here are more in vicinity of Mont Blanc. It's funny because every time I see Mont Blanc it tempts me to climb it some day. And when I was close to Dents du Midi it made me wanna hike them again since last time we were there we didn't have perfect conditions and it's this kind of mountain that you wanna see crystal clear all around you.
Back to Pointe de Bellevue - our route there was pretty easy and as soon as we left the grassy steep hill behind us, we equipped our snowshoes and continue along the slopes straight to the top. From there we had a really nice view around the valleys and to the surrounding tops. Although there was no sunshine, we could see as far as the Italian mountains.

It was pretty windy up there so after a couple of photo shots we continued our hike down the marked trail to the ski station, where we took the already known off track path. It was a nice walk but made me want a bit more.

Stats: Max altitude: 2041m; elevation gain: 800m; Length: 7.3 km; Duration: 3h 40min

Spring already

Today we made a walk to Jardin Alpin in Meyrin and we discovered spring! No wonder the blooming started since the warm temperatures are taking in lately.