Dwight Peck's personal website

La Barillette

Overlooking Lake Geneva and supplying all our telecom needs


Good snowshoe hiking in mid-January 2013

You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.

La Barillette makes a highly visible destination for the day.

We're bursting with enthusiasm and starting out from L'Archette, La St-Cergue, above the village of St-Cergue, 18 January 2013. La Barillette's landmark is the telecommunications tower on the horizon.

Road's end here is also a favorite training track for dogsled racers, as a prepared dogsled racing track comes in close here.

Dr Pirri is in fine form today (except, of course, for knees).

This is our own personal favorite mountain in the Jura, the Pointe de Poêle Chaud (1628m),
La Dôle's little cousin.

We're in the little hanging valley of Le Vuarne, bound for the heights

The farm of Le Vuarne (1319m), the only farm in the valley

With Dr Pirri's forbearance, we're making a short detour to photograph Le Vuarne for our Farms series.

Beautiful colors in the sunlight

Le Vuarne

Dr Pirri will be growing impatient, we'll rejoin him.

A last look

Happily, Dr Pirri has not gone on without us.

At the western top end of Le Vuarne, we've gone rather steeply uphill for a while.

Some touring skiers are hot on our tracks.

Dr Pirri dawdles on an old farm track halfway up the head of the valley, and we plan our next moves.

One continues up the hill.

Steep loose snow here, but our TSL raquettes are equal to the circumstances.

We're still planning our next moves.

La Dôle from the col between La Barillette and the Col de Porte

La Dôle zoomed, with its Geneva Cointrin airport radar facilities on top.

The Chalet de la Dôle (1439m) in the bowl below

With its lift station to supply the radar facilities by cable. This is Kristin's favorite chamois photo-hunting spot in late spring.

Chilly wind's rising -- stupid zipper!

The Pointe de Poêle Chaud from another angle

The telecoms tower of La Barillette over the trees -- it looks obvious enough now, but that's the last we saw of it for the next half hour.

Until finally, emerging from the forest . . .

The Alps over Lake Geneva (Lac Léman), Les Dents du Midi in the centre.

The telecom installation on La Barillette supplies television, radio, and what not to the Suisse Romande and some of France frontalière.

A quick portrait, and then we circle down to close the loop.

La Dôle in the distance

Signs everywhere warned us not to get too close to the pylon in winter, because chunks of ice would fall off it, and they did.

Wardrobe malfunctions all sorted, Dr Pirri is catching us up.

La Barillette as we pass over the brow of the hill

The restaurant of La Barillette, formerly a ski restaurant at the top of the skilifts from St Cergue, now a charming summer restaurant montagnard.

The road up the mountain from Gingins is blocked to the public in winter, but normally plowed to ensure professional access to the radar and telecom installations.

The rustic restaurant-café de la Barillette

The abandoned top station of the old ski lifts

It's good to have noticed that ski station, because we're planning to descend by the old ski pistes and complete our loop.

First, some thoughtful philosophical and political effusions, and then we can continue our descent.

The farm of Le Vuarne below, and now we're closing our loop back to our devoted Volkswagen, awaiting us patiently.

GO!


Feedback and suggestions are welcome if positive, resented if negative, . All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 13 February 2013.


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