Snowshoeing to Tearoom de la Plage, February 2003

Dwight Peck's personal website

Winter 2002-2003

Very eventful, but in a quiet way

As round the world some of them were trying in vain to convince the rest of us that it would be a fun idea to go bomb a lot of the folks down in Iraq, D. Peck and friends spent the fall and winter hiding out in the safest place they could think of.

Two day siege of the Tearoom de la Plage

You may 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.

8 February 2003: Prof. Pirri sets out from Marchissy (880m) for the Tearoom of the Plage (1320m) in fairly deep snow, but with little hope of making it all the way in the meagre time allotted.

Self-sacrificial Dr Pirri aspires only to making himself useful by breaking enough trail to enable a successful assault on the Tearoom de la Plage ['Tearoom on the Beach"].

Dr Pirri and his hiking partner, 8 February 2003, topping out at the Les Fornets meadows, halfway up to the ridgeline, posing for photos, and then dashing back down to watch interviews with the Rummy-Man on the BBC World Service news. [Fox News is available in Europe, but only by direct feed to psychiatric wards, for those few patients for whom psychotropic chemicals are no longer working.]

We're letting Dr Pirri lead again.

Dr Pirri unwisely walking out of his snowshoe in a narrow combe . . .

. . . and then plunging into a hole. Required by his quaint notion of self-sacrifice.

A renewed attack upon the Tearoom

Benefiting hugely from Dr Pirri's work the day before, on 9 February Prof. Durham follows his track from Marchissy up near Fornets, to join the Sentier du Coq up into the cliffs under the Tearoom de la Plage. And behaves strangely on a fallen tree.

With some avalanche danger along the Sentier du Coq, Prof. Durham takes the short way up through steep forest right under the Tearoom de la Plage.