Sunday, January 29 & Saturday, February 4 - Sunday, February 5 2012
One of the biggest reasons
that Switzerland is our favorite country in Europe is because it is bursting at
the seams with outdoor activities. If
you’ve been following our blog for a while you’ll know that some of our favorite
trips have been our summer hikes in the Alps with our friend Andre. It had been too long since we had seen him so
we asked if he’d like to join us for some snow shoeing the last weekend in
January. We toyed with an overnight
adventure (which unfortunately didn’t work out – dang!), but settled on
a day trip.
We rented a car Sunday
morning and were off toward the southeast tip of Lake Geneva, specifically to
the small mountain village of Morgins. As we drove, we were immediately concerned
with our chances of good visibility when we saw nothing but clouds and fog in the
vicinity of the Alps – but we carried on, hoping for the best. As we turned off the freeway and up toward
the mountain pass, the clouds thinned enough that we agreed to give it a shot.
This was our first time snowshoeing
in Switzerland so we were really excited to give it a whirl. Unfortunately the path we chose was a little
too ambitious for our gear. The trail
was to take us up about 800 meters (about 2,600 feet) to Pointe de Bellevue, a beautiful outlook over lake Geneva and the
Alps (of course the name of the point also influenced our decision). :) The two of us had purchased snowshoes not
really understanding that there are different types for different purposes: flat/rolling
terrain snowshoes and mountain/steep terrain snow shoes. When we looked at the underside of our
snowshoes we saw only a few spikes, primarily towards the ball of the foot –
and then looked at Andre’s, his had spikes, jagged edges, you name it. The result of this difference was the two of
us struggling up and sliding all over the steep hill while Andre walked with
relative ease (or maybe he’s just that much better than us, a very realistic
possibility). :) 
Seeing that we were almost a
couple hours into our hike and only about 1/3 of the way up in altitude, we
abandoned the idea of reaching Bellevue and made the more level loop back toward
where we parked. This was a great
decision as the trail took us through virtually untouched trails, under snow-blanketed
trees, and past deserted cabins which gave us the amazing feeling of remoteness
that you hope to get when out in nature. In
fact, we only passed one other hiker the entire 4 hours we were out and
about. Regardless of missing the mark on
Bellevue, this proved to be a great warm-up for the next weekend…
The first weekend in
February...
We had purchased a Groupon deal for an overnight stay in the small
Swiss town of Le Pont, combined with
a cross-country ski rental voucher. Ang
had never been cross-country skiing and Dave had been only once with his
Grandma Gen way back in the day, so
it was something we were both eager to try out.
We set out for Le Pont
Saturday morning via train and, unlike our previous weekend trip, there wasn’t
a cloud in the sky and the views of the snowy tundra were captivating. We use the word “tundra” because it was cold.
Actually, for the previous week (and a couple weeks after that weekend),
there was an artic blast that hit most of Europe. The coldest day in Geneva was Friday when the
high was 16 degrees Fahrenheit and even colder with the relentless wind chill
coming off the lake. Needless to say a
trip up into the Jura Mountains
during an icy Siberian winter blast was a little crazy, but we were too excited
to pass it up.
We arrived to Le Pont around
noon and were delighted at the sight of this tiny village set in between two
lakes – Lac de Joux to the south and Lac Brenet to the north (see map
below). We checked into our hotel and
changed into our snow gear.
The ski
rental place was a 30-minute walk around the south side of Lac de Joux to the
next town of L’Abbaye. Unfortunately when we arrived the shop was
closed for the lunch hour, so we had to wait for another 30 minutes. That was
ok as it gave us some time to return to our youth and enjoy a nearby
snow-covered playground including slide, zip-line, and swings. Afterward we did as the Europeans do and
grabbed a pre-ski treat at the local restaurant – for us this was chocolat chaud (hot chocolate).
By the time we got our gear
we had a little over 4 hours of daylight left – plenty of time to test out our
cross-country skills… and we quickly found that we had very few! We had high hopes considering how
unexpectedly comfortable the rental
boots were (we joked about buying a pair just to wear casually), but those
hopes were dashed within the first few minutes as Ang had a few painful falls
onto her ski edges and Dave got crossed up several times.
The best word to describe
the first couple of hours was “clumsy”.
This could have been the result of a few different things. First, we had no idea what we were doing, so
within minutes of starting we pulled out YouTube on our phone and typed in “how
to cross-country ski”. It’s amazing what
you can learn online. :) Feeling slightly more confident after our 2-minute
pep talk, we set forth and then realized the second possible reason for our
clumsiness – the trail conditions kind of sucked. The setting itself alongside the lake was
excellent (see photos below), but the wind was blowing hard and snow was
building up in drifts. One minute we
would be in a grove, and the next we were either skidding along concrete or
buried in a couple feet of drift snow.
The third reason, and most likely, is that we just needed practice,
because by the end of our journey we were feeling much more comfortable (moving
quicker and falling at a much lower rate).
We just did our best to keep our bodies moving so that we didn’t
freeze—it was so unbelievably cold.
A couple more comments on
our route – in the middle of this frozen tundra, we were surprised to see the
most vibrant red berries growing along the entire path. They looked so delicious we wanted to eat
them… but we also didn’t want to die so we overcame those urges. :) 
Another cool thing was to see periodic signs
with bible verse inscriptions (in French of course) and challenging questions
to those that read them. This one is
from Luke 6, and the follow up question is “and you, what fruit are you
bearing?”.
All in all, we had a great first attempt at cross-country skiing and the scenery couldn't have been better. We turned in our skis and
trudged back to Le Pont through the snow-covered hiking path. When we arrived, we were greeted with a
gorgeous sunset over the horizon and light reflecting beautifully off the
charming lakeside village. Feeling
daring we crept out onto the iced-over lake (at least the limited portion that
was iced-over) for a photo op. While you
laugh at our first attempt (when after racing from behind the camera, Dave fell as soon as he reached Ang), take note of that water you can see over our
left shoulders in the background…
That evening we enjoyed a
nice dinner in the hotel’s café, sipped on some wine, and watched the first leg
of The Godfather trilogy.
Did we mention it was cold
outside? Remember the bay we photographed
on Saturday evening? On Sunday we woke
to find it was completely iced over, thousands of feet further out than the day
before. Another telltale sign of the
cold was how our Camelbak water packs reacted.
They proved ineffective as our well tubes eventually froze over if we
didn’t keep the water moving every few minutes.
At one point Ang’s tube was leaking onto her jacket and pants, unknown
to her. Within mere minutes she found
icicles frozen to her clothes. Yep, it
was cold.
Although we were tired from
a long day on Saturday, we decided to do a little snowshoeing and explore more
of the lake on Sunday. This time we
walked around the north side of Lac de Joux and climbed to some stunning views
of the surrounding area. We were amazed
to see how many people were out on the ice as the day progressed, easily 100 or
so (where did they all come from in this sleepy town?).
After tooling around for a
couple of hours we caught the train back home.
What a fun time and another example of how a small, unassuming Swiss
town and countryside can provide such an outstanding weekend!
We got home with enough time
to watch The Godfather Parts II & III—marathon indeed! Did anybody ever notice how depressing those
movies are? We finished in time to watch
the Super Bowl (getting into bed around 4am)… Patriots suck!
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