In
the Jura mountains, what with US-led global warming and the general lack of steep
slopes, the population of southwestern Switzerland has been discovering, over
the past 15 years, that neat little snowshoes are frequently more fun for roaming
about our forests and mountains in winter than are great whacking touring skis.
It's
a wonderful sport -- safe, healthful, and not terribly taxing -- rather like golf
in that respect, except that for snowshoeing you don't need to rent a golf cart
and plaid trousers.
You
will not find this terribly interesting 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.
The
Chemin des Crêtes, southwest of the Col du Marchairuz, 25 January 2003.
Near
La Dôle, March 2007
A pleased snowshoer getting from Point A to Point B, May 2002, in about the only way it
can be done in the region of Crêt de Mondise in a snowstorm.
Some of us spend much of winter snowshoeing about in the nooks and crannies
of the Jura seeking great dark holes in
the limestone forest floor (you mustn't ask why).
Snowshoes
can get you almost anywhere in the Jura in the winter -- like the Pointe de Poêle
Chaud in February 2000, and in the summer as well though that's a good deal clumsier.
Alison
and Marlowe Peck in some pretty deep and unsettled fluffy snow.
Christmas 2000.
But,
as Foreign Minister "Tzipi the Killer Clown" Livni would say, there's
always a down side.
Extremely
bad snowshoe technique, Tour de Mayen (Leysin, Switzerland), 1980
The
risks of snowshoeing
Problems
do occur from time to time, as here, when our French-made
TSL snowshoe broke two hours out from the Col de la Givrine and had to be patched
together with baling wire, which, just luckily, we happened to have with us.
And
from time to time, accidents may happen.
As,
for example, when two former professors of the American College of Switzerland
landed in a heap descending from Mont de Bière
Devant, January 2000.
And
as, for example, when one of them goes for a sprawl near Petit Cunay for no sensible
reason.
Stone
walls in the forest can be a Big Problem.
So,
good advice to novice snowshoers, "avoid tangling your snowshoes up. Otherwise,
you'll be fine."
Above
all, Mind The Step.
Demonstrating the preferred method of snowshoeing uphill when there's scarcely
any snow on this windblown hill anyway. Note the adroit use of poles and the hardy
trousers purchased in Zermatt in 1981. Maps are no use at times like this.
A snowshoer demonstrates snowshoeing techniques in the presence of angels, and invites
readers to join him on his pathetic attempts to
find that comforting vision once again, all through the year 2001-2002.
Snowshoer
gazing up at the flagpole near Mont de Bière Devant from the northeast,
February 2003.
Dr Joe contemplating our next uphill, on what looks to be one's last snowshoe hike in the Jura in this lifetime,
22 February 2019
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and suggestions are welcome if positive, resented if negative, 
.
All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 27 August 2002, revised 4 May 2019.
Dwight Peck's personal website
