Creux Du Van Meetup
It has been at least four or five years since my last meetup. A few years ago I went to meetups with people from Geneva and before that to Glocals events with people from Lausanne and Geneva. I stopped meeting people from Lausanne because I was working night shifts as a deicer and I stopped going to meetups with the Geneva meetup groups because of my broken arm. The pandemic then happened and I went for years without going to meetups.
COVID Isolation
Since then people have chosen to live with the risk of COVID rather than masking and getting to COVID zero so I have had no choice but to compromise on my values by doing things with people in the physical world once again. Of course I will only do outdoor things. I am not going to go indoors when there are constant flare ups of COVID, especially when the pandemic is not tracked, to sell the lie that the pandemic is not over.
Having said this going to a meetup event, to be with people, after five years of social isolation felt good. I didn’t feel any different than when I was being social in person two to three days a week for years in the pre-deicing and pandemic days. I couldn’t be social when working as a deicer because I was working night shifts and people were heading out just as I tried to go to sleep before waking at 2am for a 4am shift start.
Creux Du Van
I arrived half an hour early, and had time to park with ease, and wait for the group. In the process I heard church bells ringing for many minutes before eventually stopping. The group arrived in one or two cars, and a train. We did the walk but it was far busier than when I did it solo. When I did it solo it was almost rainy and foggy. I walked up and reached the clearing and saw bouquetins.
The conditions were overcast and rain threatened but did not fall. We had plenty of wind instead. The views were slightly less spectacular than the last time I went, because of the clouds and lack of contrast.
I spotted some yellow rock where a recent rock fall had happened. I don’t know how recent it was. The beauty of the Creux Du Van is that it’s a semi-circular cliff. You walk up from one side and then you walk along it. As you walk you see different portions of the cliff. Both times I have been I have done the walk from the same direction. Next time I would like to do this walk in the reverse direction, and I would like to walk to the base of the cliff.
When I walked this walk alone I didn’t go down to the Gorge de L’Areuse because I was worried that it would add too much distance to the walk when I was already tired. In reality I think it’s the same distance via both routes.
The Stats
According to the Suunto Peak 5 this was a 5hr44 walk covering a distance of 16.9km, made up of 27,380 steps, for me. We ascended 906m and descended 873. It was 2hrs 20 of climb and 1hr58 of descent, with time for a snack at the top. My recovery time is about 26hrs. I am down to 7hrs left, to recover, now.
And Finally
I like this walk and I will do it again.
