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Walking in the Haute Savoie: North. Janette Norton
Читать онлайн.Название Walking in the Haute Savoie: North
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isbn 9781783625543
Автор произведения Janette Norton
Жанр Книги о Путешествиях
Издательство Ingram
Safety
When heading off on any of the walks, always let at least one person know where you are going and the time which you expect to return, and log the following emergency numbers into your mobile:
General emergency number for the whole of France: 112.
Mountain rescue in the Haute Savoie: +33 450 53 16 89.
Here are some other important walking rules:
Read the route description carefully and look at the map before you set off.
Give yourself plenty of time by setting off early.
Check the weather forecast before you leave, and do not set out if there is a danger of fog, storms or snow.
Keep on the marked path – if there is a short cut, it is usually shown. If you get lost, go back the way you came if possible. Avoid going across patches of scree or snow, and watch out for slippery grassy slopes.
Be careful when crossing pastures with cows or sheep, as cows can attack when they have calves, and sheep are often guarded by large white pastous dogs, which are trained to defend their flock.
Be careful not to dislodge stones or boulders – they can gather momentum as they roll down the mountain and hit other walkers.
Be sure that you have enough warm clothes and food, and plenty of water if it is a hot day.
If you are not used to the sun at altitude, remember to put on a high-protection sunscreen and to wear reliable sunglasses.
Never walk alone, even if you know the route.
If you get caught in a thunderstorm, get off high, exposed ground immediately and take shelter, but not under an isolated tree or rock. If lightning strikes, remove any metallic objects you might have on you and, if necessary, curl up on the ground to avoid being struck.
If there is an accident, wrap the person concerned in a survival blanket. Use your whistle – six short blasts means you need help (three short ones means you are all right), or six flashes from your torch if it is dark. If you have to leave to get help, make sure you know where you are located and leave as much warm clothing and food with the victim as possible.
Remember that these mountains are a cultural heritage and should be left unspoilt for future generations – happy walking!
Peaks of the Chablais from Pic des Mémises (Walk 18)
Using this guide
The 30 walks in this guidebook are grouped into six sections: Salève and Vuache, Vallée Verte, Vallée du Brevon, Pré-Alpes du Léman, Val d’Abondance and Val de Morzine. Each section starts with an introduction to the area covered in the walks that follow, with a few towns and villages mentioned as convenient places to stay. At the beginning of the route description for each walk there is a box giving a range of useful information: the start and finish of the walk; distance; figures for total ascent and maximum altitude; a difficulty grading and an approximation of time (see further below); the relevant maps; access information to reach the start point; and signposting encountered on the walk. This information is also summarised in a route summary table in Appendix A. Throughout the route descriptions place names and features that are shown on the map are highlighted in bold and facilities that are passed are highlighted.
Walk grading
None of the walks in this book go higher than 2450m and many of them are considerably lower. As a simple guide, they are graded as follows:
Easy: these are short walks on good well-marked paths, with a total ascent of less than 500m. Some can be done in a half day.
Medium: these are longer walks with a total ascent of up to 800m, also on well-marked paths. They generally need most of a day.
Strenuous: these walks are more demanding, involving longer distances and a total ascent of over 800m. They require a full day of up to eight hours.
Difficult: these are also long, with a total ascent of over 800m, but in addition have some steep and exposed sections requiring a head for heights, or entail some scrambling, often with the help of chains or cables.
Walking along the ridge to Pic des Mémises (Walk 18)
A very useful indicator is the profile plot of altitude versus distance for each walk, which shows the distribution and steepness of the various uphill and downhill sections. The total ascent is the sum of the height gains for all the uphill stretches, by definition equal to the total descent for a circular walk. As a guideline, with a light rucksack you should be able to climb 300m in one hour, with a faster descent. The altitudes in the profile plots and the total ascent have been extracted from the recorded GPS trails, after removing off-route wanders and smoothing GPS hiccups when too few satellites are available. GPS altitudes are accurate to about 10 metres at best, becoming tens of metres or worse in gorges or near steep cliffs.
View from the Refuge de la Dent d’Oche (Walk 20): photo Richard Saynor
Timings
The timings in this book are just an indication for a reasonably fit walker, and are mostly consistent with the times given on the local signposts. The actual times can be longer in bad weather, or when the slopes are slippery after recent rainfall; from bitter experience we also know they can increase significantly with age!
The timings do not include pauses for picnics, rests, taking photos or looking at flowers. It is important to leave an hour or so extra for this so as to enjoy your day.
SALEVE AND VUACHE
Geneva countryside and the Jura from the Salève (Walk 1)
The Salève and the Vuache are situated in the west of the Haute Savoie, to the south of Geneva. Both are limestone mountains that, geologically, belong to the Jura range and not to the Alps. Since they are lower than 1400m in altitude the walks here can be done early in the year, and you will meet numerous other walkers, some of whom are on the GR Balcon du Léman long-distance footpath which crosses this area.
Anyone who has been to Geneva has seen the Salève, for its long profile dominates the city, rising above the lake in front of the glistening snows of Mont Blanc. It has a long history, and tools and bones dating from prehistoric times have been found in its caves. It has been part of the Savoie since the Middle Ages when one of the kings of Burgundy gifted land on its slopes to the church. In 1170 a Carthusian monastery was founded at Pomier near St-Blaise, whose guesthouse provided lodgings for the many pilgrims who passed through the area on their way to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.
The first exploration of the gorges and caves of the Salève was in the 18th century by the eminent Geneva scientist Horace Bénédict de Saussure, often considered the founder of alpinism. It was from its heights that he first saw Mont Blanc, which had not then been climbed, and offered a reward to the first person to climb it, going on to make the third ascent himself in 1787.
In the following century the beauty of the Salève was discovered by writers and poets of the Romantic Age, and then climbers started to find more and more difficult routes up its sheer cliffs. Once the Geneva section of the Swiss Alpine Club was founded in 1865, more routes were pioneered, one of which, the Grande Varappe, gave its name to the word for rock climbing in French, varapper. It was the club’s