Dwight Peck's personal website Big
dams in Switzerland
Barrage
d'Emosson
Mid-July
2007, Kristin's visiting, and we're looking for a venue with nice quiet mountain
views in the twilight hours.
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.
We've been hiking all round
the Lac de Salanfe, just over the mountain to the northeast,
for a few days, and we thought we'd do a little sightseeing at the Lac d'Emosson
before driving home. We're sweeping through Martigny now and starting up the hill again.
Here we are, 16 July 2007, at the overlooking tourist destination
called La Gueulaz (1960m).
Excellent
views from La Gueulaz -- that's Mont Blanc in the right centre, and the Aiguille
Verte on the left.
Further
along the Mont Blanc chain, from the carpark. With a smudge on the lens.
The
restaurant at La Gueulaz, with the Aiguilles du Van (2578m) above.
That's
the glacier of Trient running down the left side in the
distance.
Advertising
for an Homage to the great Swiss-French writer Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz, being
held in a Galerie Victoria in Finhaut, the last village on the way up to the dam.
Here's a homespun translation of Ramuz's
wonderful mountain novel Derborence.
This
is the Barrage d'Emosson, completed in 1975, the
second largest dam in Switzerland. The original Barrage du Vieux Emosson (1955,
the "old Emosson") is up in the notch in the centre, and it's there
that one finds the famous dinosaur tracks on the rocky slopes. (The original dam
of Barberine, 1920, is now under this lake and can be seen when the water level
is low.) The French frontier runs along that ridge on the far horizon -- in fact,
the French frontier loops around the bowl of Vieux Emosson and runs right here
under the dam, too. This side of the hill on the left is in France, but we're
in Switzerland.
The
narrator came here in the early 1980s with Marlowe's mom after the International
Herald Tribune published an article about the famous dinosaur tracks and provided
directions -- drive to the dam, then follow a path "up to the right"
for a few hours and -- voilà -- dinosaur tracks. We found nothing!
The
next day, the IHT published a correction, clarifying that the article should
have said, "up to the LEFT" from the dam. A one-word error.
Modern tourist infrastructure
Looking
northward past the Gueulaz at Mont Ruan in the distance, in the centre, and the
back side of Tour Sallière on the right (recent views of Sallière
from the other side here).
Swiss
tourist promotions sometimes include the text (in the white box) of the laws protecting
them.
Feedback
and suggestions are welcome if positive, resented if negative, .
All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 6 August 2007, revised 4 November 2013.
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