Our winters are nothing like what they once were.
The winter of 2010-2011 was crap for snow in our region, and we must try to learn to adapt.
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.
Lurking in the Creux d'Enfer de Druchaux
A Creux d'Enfer is an expansive jumbly limestone hollow with holes in it, and the Creux d'Enfer de Druchaux runs crookedly up northwestward between the headland pastures of Druchaux and the massif of Mont Tendre.
It's 16 April 2011 and we're checking out some nice walks to suggest for Kristin when she gets here next week. This is much as we remember it -- moss-covered, and dank.
Any Creux d'Enfer can be magic in daylight, hopeless at night.
Once topping out at the end of this, we'll travel on to Mont Tendre,
but the end of it isn't anywhere round here.
It's good to see that, even with Mr Bush's Global Warming, there's still a little snow to be seen in mid-April.
We're out of the combe and approaching Mont Tendre up the southeastern front of it (where all the Dead Trees congregate), called Les Rochettes.
Dead trees everywhere, and new flowers
A testimony to deadness, on the one hand, and to new life, on the other, in flowers that should last about a week.
Only a few dead trees left, and we're up under the open sky at last.
The summit pylon of Mont Tendre
The last eager steps to the summit pylon (1679m)
Carpets of spring flowers on the way back down
The Mont Tendre ridge, south of the summit
The last of the snow for 2010-11
We're stopping off for a look at the little cabin that's tucked in under some of the cliffs.
It's called the Cabane du Rocher, which makes sense, but we don't know why it's there.
Back up onto the pastures again
Now we're down the Creux d'Enfer again, and here's another big limestone hole in the ground.
And the famous one that's got the fixed ropes hanging down into it from the logs across the top
They're new logs, by the way -- compare these old things a few years ago.
The 'protected area' signs are gone as well. What's that about?
Retracing our steps with Kristin leading
That's Kristin leading, 24 April 2011.
That's me, following
Those are the moss-covered rocks.
And the little bit of fugitive snow, still persevering
Kristin in the Creux d'Enfer
On our way -- there's a summit to visit.
Kristin on Mont Tendre
Kristin peeking down at the Cabane du Rocher as we pass along the ridge
Kristin confronting limestone . . .
. . . vast floors of washed-out limestone
Following instincts, no need for a map
More big holes in the forest floor
Always curious
Kristin in the Creux d'Enfer
More limestone obstacles in our path
Back to the hole with the fixed ropes
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All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 5 September 2011, revised 6 September 2014.
