Dwight Peck's personal website

Winter 2008-2009

The best snow we've had in the Jura in a decade, but it's gone now, and we can't admit it to ourselves.


Mont Sâla in the springtime

It's late May, we're still preoccupied with weighty matters of no consequence, and we're going to relive our past by walking up Mont Sâla again for old time's sake.

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.

Ooops, wrong hike. This is an interesting rock near the Perroude du Vaud farm, 22 May 2009 -- we left it on the FujiFilm disk from yesterday.

Here we are, that's all right again. We're walking up the notch path now from near the Les Pralets farm to the Combe des Begnines, 23 May 2009, bound for the inimitable Mont Sâla.

We're nearing the top of the notch path through the cliffs in front of the Combe des Begnines. The mouseover shows the same scene three weeks ago.

A little subterranean surprise near the top of Mont Sâla.

Mont Sâla (1511m)

There were a couple of nice ladies on the summit enjoying a personal moment, so we've raced quietly on past without the usual summit vistas -- we're intent on traversing over the top, anyway, and going down the far side.

This is the far end of Mont Sâla's summit area, shall we say, looking towards La Dôle in the distance. We're going to leap over the edge and, if the parachute opens, descend out through the Forêt des Pralets to the car.

Just before leaping, we're glancing back towards Mont Sâla's summit. Not wanting to intrude or anything; our fellow summiteers are on the far side of the cross. Literally, not figuratively.

There's the unnamed 1515m bulge in front of us, with Mont Pelé invisible behind it. We tighten up our shoelaces and prepare to leap.

Before leaping, a look back down at Les Pralets farm and buvette. At the time, we could see Dieter, our Volkswagen, from here, but you can't, because there's a little red dot over it.

All right, all systems checked. Let's leap -- our path out of here is somewhere in that green finery.

Last look at the wider world -- and Lake Geneva in the background -- before joining the hot, claustrophobic world of the tangled old forest.

Almost ready to leap. Our way leads us along the top of this impediment . . . and then, we leap.

We leapt. So far so good, probably.

There is an old path through here, albeit unmarked. We can either scrounge all round on hands and knees to find it or bang on our head trying to get the memory working again.

That's familiar. In fact, with a mouseover flashback, we can almost see Kristin here just two years ago, going the other way.

Now we're at the bottom and sauntering out towards Les Pralets again. 23 May 2009 -- the middle of a wonderful four-day weekend, courtesy of Jesus (Ascension Day) and IUCN (compensation day). Thank you both!


Feedback and suggestions are welcome if positive, resented if negative, . All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 27 May 2009, revised 20 October 2014, 18 September 2019.


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