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.
A few more winter scenes from the Swiss Jura
It's that time of the year again (22 April 2018), when you can't decide whether you'll need your snowshoes or they'll be an unwelcome burden. If you're trying to start out in isolated places, snowpack on the road will try to stop your car before you're anywhere near the snow still in the forest.
In a very isolated place, just above the very steep forest called the Côte de Bière, there is this enigmatic thing. It must be guarding a huge limestone hole in the ground, but if so it's got a sturdy snowplug blocking it up. Our guide could not be persuaded to test it out.
Having decided not to bring snowshoes, and having got this far, we won't go downhill at this time.
We'll continue uphill and seek out some solid ground.
A nice mix of snow and no-snow. But as the day progresses, the snowy parts are getting slushy and awkward.
We're on a little ridge, at about 1360m, just south of the farm of La Foirausaz.
Now we've passed the entrance to the road past the farm of the Pré de St-Livres, heading in squashy snow up the little paved road towards the farm of La Correntine.
Fed up with the slidey snow on the roadway, we've moved up onto the ridge north of the road, figuring 'closer to the sun = less snow'.
Which was another bad idea
We're following beside the stone wall another kilometre or so, approaching the ski club hut at last.
The nice little chalet of the Ski Club of Bière at 1460m, built in 1938 and named after the pastures roundabout here
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Views of Lake Geneva below, looking toward the towns of Aubonne and Morges
Our informal objective was the Crêt de Mondisé (1524m) about 800m to the north, but we suddenly became lazy.
We're going to make an exploratory loop through the forest and call it a day.
The farm of La Correntine (1439m). We been here before, fairly often, once having bushwhacked up the forest to directly below the farm building, but for some reason the memory of the best way down seems particularly cloudy today.
Leaving the farm. South-facing slope = No snow.
No slope, shady trees = Lots of snow
Our bushwhacking through the forest is going very badly so far.
It must have been a tough winter.
Much later, out of the trackless waste, we're saved. That's the trailsign at the head of the Pré de St-Livres dirt road.
So we go bushwhacking again.
The memory is doing a little better job this time . . .
. . . that's our way back down to the car.
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All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 26 April 2018. 
