Dwight Peck's personal website

Snowshoeing in the Jura

More fun than playing the numbers in New Jersey

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.

Mont Tendre, January 2000

You will not find this 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.

Dr Joe dashes up the front of Mont Tendre, just above the cliffs called Les Rochettes, January 2000. The farm called Pré de Ballens is just visible in the upper left.

The narrator demonstrating snowshoe technique with the Mont Tendre summit pylon in the background, January 2000. A few months later, these wonderful tiny 15-year-old bamboo snowshoes finally fell apart and we all went back to plastic.

Dr Joe's bamboo snowshoes are even tinier -- we're all waiting for TSL to begin marketing its affordable 225-model plastic snowshoes with the crampons on the bottom, neat buckles, etc.

Dr Joe chasing the lunch wagon towards the top of Mont Tendre.

Dr Joe obstructing a fine view of the length of Mont Tendre and the windswept Rochettes front of it, with La Dôle just barely discernible on the horizon right of center, and fog over Lake Geneva.

Snowshoe tracks everywhere on Mont Tendre, January 2000. No ski tracks, though.

The narrator leading the way home in a dizzy carefree snowshoe plunge down into the forest, January 2000.

Jura snowshoeing

Snow camping