The Leukerbad Via Ferrata
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The Leukerbad Via Ferrata

Byrichard

The Leukerbad Via Ferrata is a mythical Via Ferrata for those who practice the sport in the french speaking part of Switzerland. It is mythical both for the duration and for the vertical movement. The climb itself takes around 5hr30-6hr and the vertical change is 1000m. Via ferrata is rock climbing for tourists. A team of specialists look at a climbing route and then install a safety cable, spikes and other features to help people climb the via ferrata. The cable is static.

Via ferrata have a number of origins. Some via ferrata routes are along old smuggling routes, others were used by the French resistance as hide aways and others were used to get troops from one side of the mountain to the other during the first world war. In the 1960s to 1970s they were reinstated to attract tourists.

Leukerbad is a spa town with a collection of baths heated by geothermal activity. This year I chose to stay at the Alfa hotel and the price included access to a covered parking, access to the spa and access to the lifts. When you see that the lift is 34CHF and the Spa is around the same price the saving is interesting. As the town is small I parked the car when I arrived and did not use it until I left.

People like to catch the first cable car up and try to make it down before the last cable car down. Walking down to town is possible but most people are knackered after the via ferrata.

The Via Ferrata has three main parts. The first part takes you from the base of the Via Ferrata, by the big Swiss flag and up to a terrasse where grass grows and people have snacks. If you are not used to spikes then this route will surprise you as much as it did me. I would recommend finding a shorter Via Ferrata (VF) with spikes before doing Leukerbad.

The second part can be tackled one of two ways. The first way is to climb up as a climber, using foot holds and hand holds wherever you can find them. For those with less experience pulling yourself up with the cable is possible. If you use the cable then do not make the mistake I made my previous three times. If you are not afraid of heights then pull on the cable perpendicular to the cliff. It’s easier. This requires that you are not bothered with heights. The route has been changed. It used to be a more direct and upwards path. Now the path zigzags until you get to the cave.

Half way up the path to the cave a new VF variant is being added which takes you to the right and upwards towards a nepalese bridge before rejoining with the main route. The cave is interesting. It gets darker but you do not need a torch. In the cave you have two variants, easy, and hard. The easy route is along spikes and you climb up a ladder. The hard route has standard hand holds, a wooden bridge and then crosses over to the main route.

Where the two paths intersect you exit the cave and go up a chimney. The Chimney is relatively easy and you can rest against the wall. It then traverses right and you go upwards. As there are few hand holds and footholds you can either rely on climbing experience and climb using the rock or you can use the cable as I described in a previous paragraph. There is eventually a small plateau where you can have a quick snack, a drink and restore your energy. You still have a few more minutes of climbing until a real plateau. From this plateau you can enjoy the view.

This is the point by which I was usually exhausted. For the first time doing this via ferrata I was smiling at this point. Usually I’m exhausted and can’t wait for it to be over.

The passage through the cave you do on foot is nice but I have never had the courage to go over the edge and climb up. I take the footpath across the scree field to where the two paths intersect again. From here you have another half an hour of climbing to a slightly overhanging ladder. When a VF friend got to the top of the ladder and saw over the crest she said “Wow” because that view is so spectacular. The source of the “Wow” is a large circus with two glaciers. This year the glaciers had a lot of snow and you could clearly see the curves which illustrate glaciers in action.

If you take the Alfa hotel then your entrance to the spa is free. You will need to ask them for a card for the locker. The spa has a bath fed with warm volcanic water at 47 degrees and with larger cooler pools. Those pools are at about 36°c. You have the choice between bubbles or jets.

For food I ate pasta the first night. On the second night I had an entrecôte Sauce Café de Paris and it was delicious at the Pizzeria Giardino.

While I was capturing portals whilst playing Ingress I walked through the old town of Leukerbad and found these traditional buildings and implements.

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Mol̩son Night РVia ferrata at night

Byrichard

I expect that going to do the Moléson Via Ferrata by night will be like scuba diving in the lake. I expect that on the Moléson night I will see the cliff face in front of me and that if I turn around I will see darkness around me. I suspect I will be able to see certain stars and city lights in nearby towns. I am curious to see how bottomless the void behind me will feel. I also expect a fun ambiance.

You need to sign up to participate and an e-mail is enough. They want your name and address, to know whether you have your own equipment or whether you need to rent and whether you have already tried via ferrata before. Now that I signed up I am looking forward to the new sensation.

This is a via ferrata I have done when it was cloudy, when it was about to rain, with maintenance crew and with friends. I know it well. I look forward to experiencing it in yet another way.

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Fribourg was liberated by Fribourg, Lausanne and Geneva Ingress resistance fighters

Byrichard

This weekend teams of Resistance Ingress agents from Fribourg, Lausanne and Geneva met in Fribourg to neutralise and capture all Enlightened portals. Some teams were on foot to liberate portals from the centre of the city. I was with the bike team and we took care of liberating all of the portals on the outskirts. It involved cycling up and down hills, a thunderstorm and being rained on.

I really enjoyed being part of the cycling team. It’s a fantastic way to get around and it’s a good way of seeing a big portion of unfamiliar cities with a minimum of effort. My team members were on electric bikes and I was on a mountain bike. This was great for me. I had to work hard to keep up with them. This was a good workout. There were moments where I generated up to an estimated 1300 watts of power for very short bursts and got the fifth best time on a segment.

I enjoyed this experience so much that I would love to do this again in other cities around here. Cycling gave me a workout and playing Ingress gave me time to recover. It seems that if you’re creating fields having a bike is ideal. You can get almost anywhere from anywhere within a city within minutes with a minimum of effort. By car this would be dangerous and impractical and on foot it would be slow and impractical.

The Bulle Slowup
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The Bulle Slowup

Byrichard

Bulle is a city by a lake in the Canton De Gruyère in Switzerland. Last weekend they held their annual slowup event. A slowup is an event where roads are closed to motorised transport in favour of cyclists, roller bladers, skate boarders and other self propelling sports. The loop is around 26km long and there are ares to stop and enjoy food every few kilometres.

At this event you can also get your bike maintained for free except for parts that need replacing. It’s a great opportunity to take an old worn out bike and have it reconditioned. As I spent several days getting mine back in to condition I did not abuse of this opportunity.

[caption id="attachment_2432" align="aligncenter" width="300"]The first climb The first climb[/caption]

The landscape around Bulle is nice. As you cycle you can see the Moléson mountains in the distance, and without clouds for a change. You can also enjoy a few climbs and descents. The gradients are not steep and the climbs are not long. A friend of mine was on rollerblade and it impresses me that she did around 30km.

[caption id="attachment_2433" align="aligncenter" width="300"]Father and daughter Father and child[/caption]

The best feature of slowups is the ability to enjoy a wide road and cycle anywhere you like without the usual cars overtaking too close and too fast. As a result parents and their children can enjoy this beautiful landscape.

[caption id="attachment_2434" align="aligncenter" width="660"]BYOB, not bring your own bike or beer. Bring your own barbecue BYOB, not bring your own bike or beer. Bring your own barbecue[/caption]

It’s amusing to see someone take a cool box and barbecue for such an event. I didn’t see them stop and start preparing food though.

 

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France Télévision Coverage of the Tour De France

Byrichard

The Tour De France is a 3600 kilometre race over 3 weeks with one independent race each day. They start in an international city and then make their way to France within two or three days. The programmes are built around three specific shows. There is the pre-show Village programme followed by the first part of the race before the depart until well after it. The last segment is moved to France 2 for peak viewing and audience.

During the first of these programmes you learn about the city the tour de France is leaving. You get artist interviews, food preparation and other small animations. During the second programme, the first part of the race you see the cyclists and the landmarks and places worthy of note. You get landscape shots of the countryside, aerial shots of castles and learn about where they are cycling for future tourist visits should you be in one part of France or the other. You also get to see the cycling.

Today they’re cycling through the Pyrenées so you will see the cyclists face the challenge of climbs at the same time as working on making their endurance last long enough.

There are a lot of sports on television but very few of them have the intensity and landscape of cycling. Tennis is in a court, Football is in a stadium, golf is in a park. Only Cycling provides television audiences with a journey, a voyage. I love this voyage and love the “French Landscape programme” as I like to call it, for this very reason.

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Cycling with the Cateye Stealth Evo+

Byrichard

I bought the Cateye Stealth Evo+ a few weeks ago because this summer I am rediscovering my passion for cycling. I made this decision because the Suunto Ambit 3 is not optimised for cycling. I wanted to have a way of checking my cadence whilst at the same time having a GPS track and easy data transfer with a service such as Strava.

Price

I chose the Cateye Stealth Evo+ because of it’s wireless technology and price. I saw that the Garmin 500, 510 etc were offering all the same features but at a slightly higher price.

Setup

The hardware takes a minute or two to set up. I first set up the speed and cadence sensor on the frame before aligning both the speed sensor and cadence sensor. I then tightened everything once I had tested that everything was working properly.

The cateye device has two menu sets. Menu set 1 is for cycling and menu set 2 is for configuring the device. The first step is to go to menu 2 and pair the heart rate monitor and Speed and cadence sensors. Once this is done go to a computer and configure the device. You can tell it which timezone you’re in, whether DST is valid or not, wheel size and more. This takes seconds with the computer interface.

Cycling

To turn on the device hold the power button for 4 seconds and then wait for the stop indicator to blink. It starts to blink once it has acquired your GPS location. At this point you can click the power button once and the indicator will change to go. Once you start moving you should see the timer move forward a second at a time and the odometre mark the distance travelled. The speed and cadence sensors will automatically activate when they detect that the wheels and pedals are moving.

The device automatically pauses when you are stopped and starts again when you are moving again. If you stop for an extended period of time you can power off the device and then power it on again when you resume the journey.

When you complete your journey stop logging the ride by pressing the power button and then holding the menu button at the front of the GPS for a few seconds, until you see the metres back at zero.

Online service synchronisation

The Cateye Stealth Evo+ and computer software make it easy to synchronise to three services by default. These are the Cateye cycling atlas, Strava and Training peaks. As the people I cycle with and share trip information with are using Strava I sync to this service first and then to others. I export the data file from Strava and import it to Sports Tracker almost flawlessly. Cadence data is not transferred.

Strengths

I have used a number of mobile phones and sports watches and this is one of the fastest devices that I have dealt with. I really like that the heart rate monitor and speed and cadence sensors are on almost instantly and I love that the device is so simple and intuitive to use once you get the hang of it.

Weaknesses

The key thing to remember with this device is that it has two modes/menus. Cycling and Setup. All of your navigation is done via the front button. I wish that I had set it up via the computer rather than via the menus on the device as the computer interface takes seconds.

Conclusion

While the Suunto Ambit 3 is my primary device for all sports the Cateye Stealth Evo+ has replaced it for cycling. I like that it provides a dedicated hardware solution that is easy to install and small and light to carry and potentially install on another bike. Integration with Strava works flawlessly so I am happy to keep using this product.

For another point of view on cycling tech

Cycling in the Vallée de Joux

Byrichard

Cycling in the Vallée de Joux is an enjoyable way of taking advantage of the summer heat we are currently lucky enough to experience. The Lac de Joux is a small lake and the ride distance is around 22 kilometres. In winter this lake freezes and I have walked over it whilst others have taken the opportunity to ice skate. It is located in the Jura after the Col De Marchairuz if you are coming from the Léman region of Switzerland.

The cycle around the lake is relatively flat for most of the journey. I cycled clockwise starting from the western side of the lake. There is a 13% grade climb to contend with so be ready for it. It is not long but it is steep and you’re almost to the top when you get to the train tracks. Traffic is sparse so you can meet the challenge without stress from cars.

There are two sets of sign posts that you can follow. One is for cross country bikes and the second is for road bikes. I had some fun doing a little of both as my bike allows for this.

Cycling around this lake is pleasant. As you travel to the North of the lake you climb through the mountains with the occasional glimpse of the lake with it’s wind surfers, pedalo and other related sports. You can smell the pine trees and have a number of places to stop for a drink and rehydrate yourself.

When you get to Le Lieu you can follow the road to a second lake along a nice easy road or you can choose the VTT (mountain bike trail. You have a short climb up until you get to dirt roads. These take you over the hill and back down the other side with a very nice view on a secondary lake.

[caption id="attachment_2421" align="aligncenter" width="576"]You have a nice descent from Le Lieu to Le Pont. You have a nice descent from Le Lieu to Le Pont.[/caption]

From here you go around and arrive on the Eastern side of the lake where you find two or three restaurants and an epicierie. That’s where I stopped to get a refreshing drink. It felt so good to ingest cool liquid and I was pleasantly surprised by the relatively low price.

[caption id="attachment_2422" align="aligncenter" width="660"]OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Lac de Joux[/caption]

From the Eastern Edge of the road you can cycle along the foot path or you can cycle on the road. Out of respect for walkers/hikers I chose to go along the road. On the Southern side of the lake the road is rising slightly so you won’t get too tired. It’s from this side that you have some really beautiful landscapes to appreciate.

Now that I have cycled around this lake I hope to make my way up to larger and larger lakes. Switzerland does have healthy opportunities. Eventually I want to cycle around the Léman once I feel my physical condition is right.

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Geneva to Hermance on a bike

Byrichard

Hermance is a place where I have dived frequently and so it is only natural that I hard to ride from Geneva to Hermance on a bike. The ride is an easy and pleasant ride. It takes you out of Geneva and through the fields to the East of Geneva before taking you down to Hermance where you have a good view of the lake. The ride back takes you through a few villages before getting back to Geneva.

The landscape undulates with only one climb as you leave the lake and take the back roads towards Pallanterie. From that point you follow the road until you get to the French border and cross to the left and head straight for the lake. It’s at this point that you start to see signs for Hermance and follow them down a steep road to the lake side.

Hermance is a nice small town where you see divers and at this time of year animations. There is the beach which is free for divers and paying for normal people. You also have changing rooms and showers. There is a café/restaurant where you can have a drink or snack before heading back. I would like to do this circuit again with a group. Stopping in Hermance would be more pleasant.

I love for the GPS track of my rides to be a loop so to ensure that this was the case I cycled back via the lake road. There are bits where you are with cars but for the majority of the route you have a dedicated cycle path.

Cycling with the London Beer Bike group and with a group in Geneva

Byrichard

The London Beer Bike group could tempt me to move back to London when and if I can find work there. When I left London it was the city of social media, where for the months after I graduated from University I would go to tweetups, seesmeetups and more.

The last time I went to London I met with the London Beer Bike Group (LBBG) and enjoyed cycling across London with a group of others. The pace was relaxed and it allowed me to see the city in a way that I am not used to. When I lived in London I would move around by tube and by foot. As a result of this I learned the layout of the city but only within reasonable walking distance.

Cycling in London as a group is fun because you are safer. Cars can’t overtake you as easily and when you move off from traffic lights you can move as a group. It’s also an opportunity to see new parts of the city. London on a bike feels smaller. You don’t have to take the busy roads. You can take side streets and cross parks to avoid traffic. As I dislike sitting and listening to small talk this is ideal.

I mention this because later today I should be meeting a group to do something similar in Geneva. As cycling to Geneva and back is a 60km round trip and as I will return later in the evening I will use the car to get the bike down to the lake side and then cycle from there to Geneva with a possible destination of going towards Cologny. I know the roads around there from scuba diving.

 

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The Fitbit Charge HR

Byrichard

The Fitbit Charge HR is one of the better heart rate and step counting solutions out at the moment. It allows you to keep track of your steps and heart rate twenty four hours a day for a little less than a week between charges.

It is a wrist worn activity tracker that detects whether you are walking, running or climbing up a hill. I tested it over a period of weeks while hiking, doing via ferrata, cycling and sleeping. As a result of the test environment I was informed by the device that I had gone up 250+ floors in a single day. That’s when I was playing on a via ferrata or two.

I also tested it while I was sleeping. It automatically goes in to sleep mode so there is no chance of you forgetting. As it tracked my heart rate while I was sleeping I saw that my resting heart rate could be 47 beats per minute. As I challenged myself with a 1000m hill climb on a bike followed by via ferrata and hiking my body became fatigued and this was reflected in my higher resting heart rate. It went up by four or five heart beats per minute.

When I was using the Fitbit Charge HR I had it automatically tracking my heart rate but you can choose whether it is on/off or automatic. I kept it on automatic. When you take off the tracker the two green led lights stop blinking automatically after a few seconds.

I liked having the Fitbit Charge HR for a few weeks and liked that it tracked my heart rate and showed me how many floors I went up. As I spend a lot of time in the mountains though the results were skewed. The biggest weakness with the Fitbit Charge HR has to do with the regionalisation efforts by Fitbit. I live in Switzerland and until recently I had the site in English. For a few weeks I have had to switch languages between french and English several times. I wrote a tweet to get a response but they asked me to send an e-mail. I sent an e-mail detailing the problem and then they asked me to detail what the problem was. The problem is that I am in the French speaking part of Switzerland, my laptop and phone are set to English and the app and website default to German. Due to their regionalisation efforts when I sold the device as planned I did not replace it and went back to using the Fitbit flex. As both straps for the Fitbit flex broke I carry the sensor in my pocket.

As a point of reference my primary fitness tracker is the Suunto Ambit 3. When I cycle, swim, do via ferratas or hike that is the device that is tracking my progress and overall fitness level. I also pair it with Strava.