Spring seized Switzerland swiftly this year in a bold early attack, met with little resistance by the snow which proceeded to melt at an alarming rate. I began to suspect our ski touring season might be drawing to a close when Tim and I arrived at the beginning of a planned randonnée to find the entire slope we were supposed to head up was completely snow-free. We tried some creative re-routing but after a morning of circling around the base of our objective without finding any way up that didn’t look like a paddock, we retreated to a pleasant patch of sunshine in the forest next to a mountain stream to drink tea and try to be philosophical about the changing seasons.
My beloved touring skis, les corbeaux, looking a little out of place in the forest where we drank our tea
Icing my sore foot in a (very cold!) mountain stream while drinking tea instead of ski touring.
I knew my ski touring season was over shortly thereafter when I fractured a bone in my foot at the climbing wall. It is not at all a serious fracture, but it has resulted in four weeks on crutches, with a couple more to come, and definitely no more ski touring. Fortunately it is an excellent season for discovering activities that involve sitting still (not usually my forté). The beautiful, calm, sunny spring days we’ve been having are ideal for taking a rug and a book to the lakeside and admiring the still-somewhat-snowy mountains over the reflective expanse of Lac Léman.
French Alps across our Swiss lake
Swiss Alps, lake, and Lavaux vineyards
Plus de canards!
A spring sky with clouds to make your heart sing
A tree in Lavaux threatening to sprout leaves
Magical light in Lavaux
Temperatures have been so uncharacteristically warm for April that I even dared a swim in the lake recently. Water temperature could euphemistically be described as ‘refreshing’, but it was certainly viable (at least by New Zealand standards). It was a real pleasure to have my first lake-swim for the year, and I can’t help but be a bit excited about the impending arrival of summer! Even if I can’t yet bring myself to fully admit that my ski touring season is over by transferring my touring skis down to the basement.
Contemplating my first swim of the year at Rivaz
alpineparrot 