Tuc de la Serbe, sommet de Peyre Blanc from Col de la Core

A little tour from Col de la Core with Sheri.Unsure of conditions we were carrying crampons, an ice axe and snowshoes, none of which we ended up using. The snow was firm in the morning but by afternoon we were post-holing up to our knees sometimes. 

The Etang dèEychelle was still mostly frozen despite the balmy weather and south winds. Scars from people throwing stones in probably, had frozen over to make some strange patterns. We had lunch at the cabin before climbing westwards to make the ridge close to point 2256m.

From there we followed the ridge northwards over the succession of easy tops ending with Tuc de la Seube, finally descending to Col Auèdole and then following GR10 to regain our path of ascent from Col de la Core. Only about 1100m of ascent but a surprisingly tiring day!

Tuc de la Messe (left) and the ridge of peaks between Col de la Crouzette and Tuc de Seube (right)

The autumn colours in the valleys

Looking West

Cour Vic

After the recent snows a trip was hurriedly put together to go play. Sheri plus our neighbours, Sandrine, Sophie and Nanou joined us for a stomp from the Col de Pause up to the Cabane d'Areou and across to Cour Vic for lunch opposite Mont Valier. A fun descent of the couloir below allowed us to use the snowshoes we'd been carrying all day.

First snows

At the cabane d'Areou

Etang d'Areou looking very green

Reflection

Reflection with bird

Sheri, Susie and Sandrine below Cour Vic

Nanou and I

Sheri

The hills are alive with the sound of music

Cave under the nevés on the Cuns d'Aula

More nevés

Telephoto shot of solitary isard

Cloud magic from the summit looking back towards home

Getting ready for the snowshoe descent

Descending the couloir...a great ski when there's more snow

After the snow some crisp clear mornings and our first frosts. The last of the harvesting of main crop fruit and veg was completed just in time and the sheep seem to be done with mating. 

Playing with the extreme end of my telephoto lens and cropping the image produced this shot that I'm quite pleased with. It would have been nice to get a higher resolution but limitations of my lens don't really allow for using the Olympus Hi-Res function - the grainy texture adds a certain ambiguity to shot.

First snows of the winter

Me and d'Arcy holding the fort whilst Susie is in the UK. Glorious weather this week though I'm mostly stuck inside doing Architectural work. Found some time at the weekend to finish the inside of the new window - tiling, chanvre chaux and plaster repairs.

Some snow showers forecast here next week as temperatures are set to tumble.

Wilded boars below the house

More from the camera trap....click on the play arrows to view.

Autumn colours and first snows

weekend work

Ordered at the beginning of the summer the new window for the south gable (bedroom) finally arrived. The old window had a cill higher than head height, so we couldn't see out and had always leaked, so the project had been on the cards a long time. 

It took some time to carefully lower the wall, especially as the house is built without mortar, one huge granite block had to be split in-situ as removing it would have lead to a collapse. 

The old timber lintol had to stay as it holds up the wall, so the uprights of the new oak sub-frame had to be made to fit into the existing mortices of the old ones (which were removed as they were now too short). The new oak assembly weight about 150kg so ropes and pulleys were brought into action to hoist it into place, the window was fitted just before a storm arrived.

We were completely watertight by noon the following day. Just some internal tidying up of the wall and finishes to do. The bedroom is much brighter and we can now see mountains, trees and the garden...and reach to open the window when required.

Etang Garbet and Pic des Trois Comptes

Another trip upto the Etang Garbet and beyond, this time with Jasper. An earlier start and cooler weather made for a faster pace and reached the Etang bleu in about 2h 30.

Bearded vulture

Another 1h 30 following vague cairns over granite slabs saw us on the ridge at point 2539m.

Closely overhead clouds of turbulent clouds were racing past and after climbing up 50m we went from calm balmy weather to bitter sub-zero. We put on all our layers, hats and gloves.

We didn't stay long on the summit (2626m) before scrambling down in the direction of Puntussan. Numb hands and bitter cold lessened our desire to press on and on reaching the col we trekked back to point 2359m. (I'd already climbed Puntussan in a bit of an epic adventure in 2007).

A long descent back to road  by the same route made for a 8h 30 trip.

Having separated the rams from the ewes and lambs before we went to Italy, we needed to build another shelter for the ewes. They seem to like it.