Cirque du Fer à Cheval

Today I took my brother and his friend to see Fer-à-Cheval. It's a huge limestone amphitheater of mountains and waterfalls. There are a couple of routes to walk - we did the easiest one: an 8-km-circle in the valley (mostly flat). Even though at first the air clarity was not perfect and in July some of the waterfalls have already dried up - the view was magnificent and the walk very pleasurable. At some time we even dared to dip our feet in a cold brook - perhaps it sounds trivial but it was a real challenge with the water as cold as a couple degrees Celsius.

At some point we reached a huge waterfall splashing heavily just a couple of meters from us. It was immerse and gave us a really nice chill on a hot day. Bartek was a daredevil - he stepped into cold water to be closer but didn't make it long. The water was freezing and the air wave rather tremendous.

We reached the furthest point in the circle where we had to turn back and go at the other side of the stream. We sat down in a shadow and had some lunch and then we moved on down the route to see (and touch) the glaciers. That was pretty awesome, yet another point to cool down on a very hot day. Yep, that's snow by 32 dg. Celsius.

Then the path moved on mildly through the rest of the valley and later in the forests. It was a very pleasant walk and I'm sure I will do it again in spring when the waterfalls are even more prominent and plentiful.

 

 

Le Reculet again

Le Reculet is a fun mountain for Genevian area inhabitants because in principle you can climb it after work. Today we had some free time so I took my brother and his friend for a walk in the mountains. They finished tired (after whole day of sightseeing it wasn't that easy to climb) but satisfied. And for me... Yet another season at Le Reculet. Amazing, every time I go there there is something new (this time these were the yellow blossoming trees).

Trip to Annecy

This week we have guests - Radek's brother and his friend are visiting us. So for the weekend we set out to Annecy, a lovely village close to Geneva. There was Les Noctibules festival ongoing, although to be frank, we didn't benefit at all from that, because we didn's stay long enough to go and see the concerts.
Our first destination was Annecy beach. The place is situated on the shore of the Annecy lake, so with the recent heat waves we had to take advantage of that and refresh ourselves in a chilly water. We also passed by the Annecy cathedral where we parked our car, went pastAnnecy chateau and had a look over small but lovely marina.

Properly chilled by the water we went on to see the old town of Annecy. Narrow allays, colorful buildings, blooming bridges - that's the spirit of Annecy. The town is well known for its beauty and many people choose to live there over Geneva. We strolled a bit through the lovely passages, grabbed an ice cream and moved on to the promanade - yet another treat for tourists.

The promanade is situated along Lac Annecy shore and is simply beautiful. One can stroll slowly admiring the lake and water leisure activities with a perfect surrounding of mountains. The place is always full of life, winter or summer, and never stops to amaze.

 
We continued on down the promenade, to the less touristic place of Annecy and headed back to our car. It was still early so Radek decided to take our guests to Le Reculet (see another post).

Aiguille Verte (2045 m) and Lac de Lessy

This weekend I went for a hike to see Lac de Lessy situated in French Aravis mountains. Even before doing a first step, I knew it would be something special, because in order to get to the starting point I went by car through a marvelous pass situated at ~1700 m. Eventually, I started at 1350 m and ascended to 2050.
This is how my starting point looked like:

The route was rather mild in the beginning, I followed the trail which was well marked (I lost it only once and had to go past the field in order to get back on track). After a while I reached a viewpoint where most families with children stopped. It looked really nice, but it was only a prelude to what I was to encounter later.

I continued the trail side by side with a flock of goats hidden in a shade (it was a very hot day). I continued along the trail which led first through a hill-side and then through the ridge of the mountain with a spectacular view on the valley. The higher I got the more beautiful the view became. While on the ridge I was able to see both sides, Lac de Lessy on my left and valley and view on the Alps on my right.

In the last picture you can see Aiguille Verte ("green needle") on the left and Lac de Lessy on the right. Up to that point the route was a mild one, but the last 50 meters to reach the peak were much more difficult with last 10 meters I called a "Cursed Pass of Death". I read earlier in the net that the small passage between the two teeth of the mountain is a very dangerous one and the Internet was right this time. I didn't dare to cross the Cursed Path of Death. But the two peaks were situated just a couple of meters away, so although technically I didn't claim Aiguille Verte, practically I feel like I did.

To descend I took a short and very steep way down. Although it wasn't an official trail, a lot of people went that way and it saved a lot of time to me. All in all I made almost 8 km that day.