“be prepared” – Anniviers Explorer Tour
Just had the great pleasure to take a hut tour around the Val d’Anniviers with a group of “explorer scouts” from the UK. For those of my generation explorer scouts are what we used to call venture scouts and are a mixed-gender organisation. This was a group of 12 explorers and two of their own leaders.
People watching the news from the UK around the world have wondered what’s happening with young people there so I’d like to say what great ambassadors for the UK and the Scout movement the explorer group were and how much I enjoyed our tour!
It’s been cracking weather, some storms in the evening but hot and sunny during the day. In fact it’s been hot down in the valley so being up at 2500-3000m is the best place to be.
That’s the ridge of the Sex de Marinda which we made an ascent of for a picnic lunch, we’ve left most of our sacks on the Basset de Lona which is why nearly everyone (apart from me) is travelling light there. You can see the Lac Lona on that photo as well. The lake is pretty low right now, that didn’t stop the group doing a little wild swimming though. Up at the Becs de Bosson cabane we found they were short of water as their water supply had dried up. That made the night there a little more basic than normal!
There’s some Edelweiss growing on the side of the Becca de Lovégno which we climbed up for the amazing views over the Val d’Anniviers and the Val d’Hérens.
And finally, after a picnic near L’ar du Tsan (first photo) we dropped down the valley and walked in by the Vercorin bisses for our pickup.
No comments
The Space Beneath My Feet
September 23, 2009 Filed in: Grimentz | via ferrata | Zinal
There’s a via ferrata a couple of km down the road at the Moiry Barrage, I’ve not been over that way this summer although it’s a popular ski spot in the winter with a few lines crossing the barrage itself.
Barrage de Moiry
We had a vague plan to go around to the barrage and scramble up on the ridges as a bit of practice for my mountain leader assessment which covers some basic rope-work, it’s worth practising as typically we’d probably use rather more technical equipment if we thought we’d be needing it.
It turns out the ridge I picked is the same rock as over on the Sassiniere and it’s terribly loose so I was pleased I’d given Julie a helmet! It was also about impossible to locate many good anchors so it was all a bit awkward.
But, it was worth doing although the descent was terrible as well. From there we had a late lunch at the little cafe near the barrage which turns out to be great serving the best Croûte au fromage I’ve ever had, served with rye bread and apples with some berries on the top. Highly recommended!
|
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. |
|
||
