Spring Walk to Mayens de Cotter

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After another spell of warm weather, I was interested to see how high the snow-line was on the south facing slopes.  I’d hoped to reach a small (though probably still frozen) lake at Béplan, which is at around 2,500 metres (8,200 ft).  However, the snow defeated me at just over 2,000 metres (6,500 ft).  Nevertheless it was good exercise and a wonderful walk. 🙂

This was on the outside of a chalet in Villa.
Chalet Les Criquets is left of centre.
My first butterfly capture of the year !

 

 

Just another day in Evolène…

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After a little snow yesterday, the sun came out again, as promised by the weathermen.  So I just had to go for another run – this time up the road to Les Haudères.  I couldn’t tell you how long it took, (as my digital watch was hiding somewhere), but it was 7 to 8k or about 4 miles.

While relaxing in the garden, I spotted what I thought was a parascender landing on the cross country piste, but it turned out to be someone ‘kite skiing’ (if there is such a sport).  See first picture below.

Re-posted (I hope) with 4 more photos. 🙂

With my apologies for the quality of this picture but it was taken from our chalet with the zoom on my compact camera,
Sorry – another poor image – this one taken through the window.

 

 

Riverside Walk on the piste

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After a week of relatively warm weather, the Evolène to Les Haudères cross country ski piste has been closed for the rest of the season.  Since you’re not normally allowed to walk on the piste, it’s given me the opportunity to take a slightly different route to Les Haudères, along the far side of the river.  I hope, therefore, that these images give an alternative perspective to the ones I took, and posted, on 6th January.

Comeback run

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It seems like a year since I last went for a run, but in reality it was probably no more than 3 months ago – though that was the first in 3 months as well.  I’ve been inspired to go out by a number of things:  a) my cycle ride on Saturday was along my favoured marathon training route, b) Janerunswild’s blog, c) the sunny weather and d) the need to lose a few pounds.

I live in hope of completing all of the Swiss marathons and, having completed the Geneva, Lucerne, Lausanne (twice), Jungfrau and Swiss Alpine, I think I’m now over half way there.  I also plan to do the Sierre-Zinal race one day.  Also called the Race of the five 4,000s, it’s considered to be one of the most beautiful mountain races in the world.  (For info, it’s 31k / 19 miles long and climbs from around 500m to just over 2,400m, passing the famous Weisshorn Hotel en route).

With this in mind, today I ran for around 45 minutes.  It felt like a 10k (6 miles) but in fact it was nearer 8k (5 miles).  So I have a lot of work to do if I’m going to enter and complete that race.

I never take my camera on my training runs as it’s extra weight and would mean stopping.  So the photos below were taken at the end of the run and in the fields near our chalet.  (I thought these might add a bit of interest for any non-runners ! 🙂 )

I spotted this next to where I parked my car.
For info. the golf course photos on my Cycle ride post were of the Sierre Golf Club.
I passed this guy during my run and he re-appeared when I got back to the car. Nothing ever surprises me in Switzerland any more !

Cupcakes

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I’ve noticed that many bloggers post some of their favourite recipes, so here’s my “recipe for success” with Cupcakes (and many other cakes for that matter)…

Step 1. Find a partner who simply LOVES to bake.  Note: This may involve travelling the world until you find the right person.  I found mine in the Dolomites, while on holiday in Italy, but you can find them in lots of other places too.

Step 2. Allow them the complete freedom of the kitchen – never interfere or get in the way when they get the urge to bake. (And never get cross when the kitchen looks like there’s been a massive explosion, otherwise the recipe might not work the next time!)

Step 3. Sit back, relax (maybe even post something on your blog) and breathe in the fabulous smell of fresh baking.

Step 4. Tuck in and enjoy those beautiful cakes !

It works for me every time. 🙂

With many, many thanks to Jude… (who baked these, and indeed many other cakes, for a charity event today).

Slightly more famous Swiss ski resorts no. 1 – Grimentz

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For many years Grimentz was (maybe even still is*) our favourite place to go skiing.  It has everything, from easy slopes for beginners, to some very challenging black runs for the experts.  This is especially so now that they’ve built a cable car to link with the nearby Zinal resort.  On the way across you get a view of the terrifying (for me anyway) Piste du Chamois, which runs straight, and almost vertically, down the mountain before it turns left back to Grimentz.

*The jury is still out between Grimentz and Nax.

Sadly yours truly forgot his camera (and mobile phone) again, so these pictures were taken during some of our previous visits.