Dwight Peck's nostalgia gallery

Leysin, Switzerland, and its wonderful mountains (2)

More mountains in the Préalps near Leysin

The village of Leysin, tucked up into the side of the mountain, overlooking the fog and staring across the Rhône valley at the Dents du Midi. Allegedly more hours of sunlight per year than any other village in Switzerland.

Lac d'Aï

The huts near Lac d'Aï in early evening in the spring melt, from the side of the Berneuse, 1984.

(Young Miss Marlowe Peck, at the age of about 3, tried to walk across the ice that wasn't ice anymore and splooshed through into icy slurpy, a good couple of hours' walk above the village. But, wrapped up in several sweatshirts and jackets, she was soon grinning amicably and poohpoohing the whole affair. But Lac d'Aï has no real bottom, and a year or two later, in summer, Marlowe and her Dad were chagrined to see a promising local lad try to wade out to retrieve his snagged fishing bobber and sink forever.)

The same huts on a summer evening

The same huts at Lac d'Aï, winter in the early 1980s

Hopefully, everyone got out before the snows came.

The Sphinx on Tour d'Aï, centre left, La Berneuse to the right, and Lac d'Aï between them, ca.1980.

Les Fers

The Chalet des Fers in about 1981, before the skilifts were built; Famelon behind.

And the same from above, also before the skilifts were built in the mid-'80s

But now with the skilifts, like enormous mechanical spiders all over the landscape

The Combe de Bryon, and the very deep cave called the Gouffre de Bryon under the cliffs to the left of the cleft and pathway. (The gouffre descends over a thousand meters, it's said. Marlowe Peck shimmied down about 100 meters at the age of 6 or 7, practicing up for her assault on the Caves of Naye, until it became apparent that ordinary electric headlamps would no longer suffice and big spelunker magnesium lights would be needed. The limestone Truex above Leysin is said to have the highest concentration of caves and holes in all of Switzerland. There are few things more chilling than gingerly rounding a rock buttress on a wintry evening and finding something like "J24" painted on the rock -- it means that the speleological society has catalogued this as a major cave entrance, and you're probably standing on a tiny snow bridge over it, possibly not for long.)

The Combe de Bryon

Pic Chaussy

Pic Chaussy in 2005, running off to the right towards La Tournette and Châtillon. The skilifts were closed down in the late 1980s and the restaurant on top was left to vandals and the winter winds. Lac Lioson lies directly down behind Pic Chaussy.

Mont d'Or

Mont d'Or, from the Tour de Famelon, in late afternoon

Pierre de Moëllé, the hollowed out rock in the col at the foot of Mont d'Or, a gun emplacement since the last war. The chalet on the right is a restaurant montagnard in summer when the military isn't shooting -- this is the edge of the military training ground of Hongrin, one of the biggest in Switzerland -- and a command post for the military when they are.

La Chamossaire

La Chamossaire (2113m), across the ravine of the Grande Eau from Leysin, in January 2005

La Chamossaire from just below the summit, about 1980

Lac d'Hongrin

The Lac d'Hongrin just to the north of Leysin.

Lac des Chavonnes, on the far side of the Chamossaire, winter 1978

Les Dents du Midi

Les Dents du Midi from Leysin, 2005

The Dent de Jaman (left) and the Rochers de Naye, from the ACS college building during its 18-month sojourn in Les Avants, 1980-81.

The Leysin Tours, Mayen and Aï, atop the distant snowfield, with Les Diablerets above them to the left, seen from the Dent de Vaulion in the Vallée de Joux.

The Leysin Tours from the west, above the Lac de Tanay, November 2006.

Index of Leysin local mountain photos

Feedback and suggestions are welcome if positive, resented if negative, . All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 29 December 1999, revised 9 May 2008, 13 March 2014.

Leysin mountains

Leysin scenery

Leysin village

American College of Switzerland