Mont de Bière Devant, January 2006

Dwight Peck's personal Web site

Winter 2005-2006

Short breaks from poring over the newspapers as the Bushies implode

You may not find this tangibly 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.

Supplementary chamois hunts in the Monts de Bière region

Here's a view of our old party venue, Les Dents du Midi at the far end of Lake Geneva, seen from the Pré d'Aubonne near the Col du Marchairuz. It's 8 January 2006 and we're planning to go stomping around in the forest in the region of Mont de Bière. Who knows what we'll find? Chamois, maybe?
We won't find anything that hasn't been seen before, evidently -- it's been a while since the last snow and there are snowshoe tracks everywhere.

Now, from the vantage of an experienced observer lower down the slope, Dr Pirri's plan for getting down this porous ridge is clearly a bad one. But Dr Pirri has never been one to take evidence simply for granted, on unsubstantiated reports however passionately shouted at him, so . . .

. . . his independent case study can be added to the pool of resources on this issue.
Grand Cunay from somewhere along the east side of Mont de Bière, 8 January 2006
The shed on the meadow of Mont de Bière

Dr Pirri seeking illumination in the forest
Disturbed by hikers sneaking up on him with cameras, this forest denizen calmly leads us on and then crosses over to the next ridge . . .
. . . with his friends, eight of them in all, and they stare up at us as we stand on what has just now become the wrong ridge.

A chamois scout sneaks around behind us

The little troupe marches off up the adjacent ridge, and then crosses back over onto our ridge up behind us, thus having completed a circle around us and got back to where they began before they were so rudely interrupted.
Bye boys, we're coming back to see you again next week.

Hello, Chamois friends?!? We're back.

It's 15 January 2006 and Dr Pirri is tracking chamois in the same forest not far eastward from the Col du Marchairuz.

Recent chamois tracks in this limestone hole in the ground! But they're not here now.
Apparently they've been tipped off.

Prof Durham, who's been promised good chamois sightings today, is disappointed but still eager to march on up through the forest on the trail of those distinctive little hoof marks in the snow.
Mont de Bière and still no chamois in any direction. Plenty of human tracks, but the chamois are being cagey, and toying with us.
The shed at Mont de Bière, 15 February 2006, from the south.

Dr Pirri stands on a ridge between the two Monts de Bière amid a profusion of chamois tracks in the snow. It's very frustrating. They're probably watching us right now, from somewhere up there, smiling.

Dr Durham is recalling that certain promises were made about chamois sightings on this cruise, but the chamois don't seem to be cooperating. As any whale-sighting tour operator can tell you, the nature tourism industry is built upon fairly fickle assumptions.

We're recovering from a little snowshoe mishap. We were concentrating too hard on peering through the darkening forest for beady little chamois eyes mocking us and exulting in our twilight departure from the vicinity.

Prof. Durham persisting

Here's a little tourist attraction in the middle of the forest leading down onto the Pré d'Aubonne.

"Hallo? Is anyone there? We don't want to intrude!"

Tell-tale chamois tracks at the mouth of the cave.

"They've been here recently, but they're gone now. They may have been tipped off."

There is a certain common feeling welling up among the party that we've been beaten, the chamois brutes have proved much smarter than we gave them credit for, and it's time now to give them back their snowy forest.
A word to the wise: when you're thrashing about in the forest near the Pré d'Aubonne, keep your eye out for this thing lest you stumble upon it unawares.