For those who appreciate documentary screenings there will be the Screening of The Pursuit of Endurance at the CICG in Geneva. This event will take place on Tuesday 6th of Octobre, 2015 from 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM The event is free and will include a Q&A session.
This screening is happening within the context of the 2015 Conference for a Green and Inclusive Economy from the 6th to the 7th of October 2015.
One evening this week I was walking in the countryside at the foot of the Jura enjoying the evening when I walked by a couple. They were sitting on a bench looking across some fields towards the Mont Blanc, the Alps and of course the Lac Léman. Leaning against the bench were two e-bikes with good suspension.
It made me think about retirement and free time. It encouraged me to think about the freedom and pleasure of exploring the landscape on a bike without having to make the same effort as if you were on a conventional bike. I thought of the range it would offer and the gradients you could climb. It would in essence give you the freedom of a car with the practicality of a bike.
Of course there is a barrier to enjoying this pass time and that is the price of these bikes. In Switzerland they cost as much as a scooter. They lack the range and flexibility though. Electric bikes, in relation to road bikes are in fact cheap.
I already alternate between a car, a scooter and a bike and with the change in weather I prefer the comfort of the car or the speed of a scooter. If it’s raining then I would much prefer to use the car. It is a shame that they have this promotion at the end of the pleasant season. If they had this promotion at the beginning of summer then I would have taken advantage of it. I will take this option if they offer it next year.
I come from the age of bloggers and self-installations. In fact, I come from the age of HTML pages and static websites. In those days we surfed the web looking for and finding content. We also found interesting bits of code and we added new features to our websites. We would install forums, guestbooks and more. In so doing our static websites became dynamic. At this point, our website could grow a community.
At this time we had our PhpBB forum, our own wiki, our own WordPress installation. When we said, “My website”, “my blog” or “my forum” it was ours. We were the webmasters. We were the ones that had found the code and figured out how to install it on our web host. Communities were small and geographically dispersed across countries, continents and time zones so most interactions were verbal.
Fast forward to today and most people do not have their own web server, their own wiki, their own web page or their own blogs. What they have are social media accounts hosted by others. They are not administrators, they do not have the technical knowledge. According to investors, marketers and other groups, these people are users of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google Plus and other websites but their power is restricted to what they post and whether they delete their account.
They are so disconnected from the mechanics of websites that they say “My Facebook”, “My Instagram”, “my twitter”. Web sites and by extension social media are not like books, mobile phones or bikes. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are not yours. Your influence is restricted to your personal account, no further.
I wanted to have my own microblogging platform, I wanted to have my own diaspora server and more. I never did because my technical skills and budget did not allow it. With both of these, you needed server permissions that I was not willing to pay for. At that time I would have had my own Twitter or my own Facebook. I would have installed them. I would have been the administrator. I would have had the challenge of finding a crowd or tribe to populate it with content.
Recently I was also thinking about the discussion about curation that people were having. There was a time when the idea was to get people to surf the web, find content and organise it in such a way as to make it easy for others to find content. Now that we’re in 2017 the idea of curation has evolved. Everyone shares content so the need for dedicated people has dwindled.
When the temperature drops and we find ourselves living beneath the clouds for weeks or even months going up to the mountains to get above them is always pleasant. Another option is to take advantage of the cool temperatures to explore caves where the conditions are constant year round. For Halloween a group of us went to have a bonfire and barbecue at the entrance to the Big cave of the Grottes des Fées.
[caption id="attachment_2665" align="aligncenter" width="660"]
Improvised BBQ[/caption]
We explored both caves. We explored the large cave as far as it was possible to do, had a snack and then we went to the second smaller cave. The video below shows the entrance to that cave.
The video above is from when the snow melts. As the snow melts so much water is released at once that it floods the cave around once a year.
The cave system has 21 kilometres worth of tunnels, passages and more. Animal remains were found within, mainly fossils and cave bears. The earliest records of  this cave system date to the 1700s with more exploration taking place in the 1800s with notable water flow in the 1950s and again in the 1990s. Over the last decade people have explored the cave system using wind as a way of seeing where new passages could be found.
We see in many of the accounts written in french that an important aspect of cave exploration is finding the wind. It marks where big chambers are and where excavation of debris can take place to clear paths wide enough for people to cross through.
The large cave is easy to explore as it is possible to spend most of the time and there are no or at least very few squeezes. The large cave terminates at a metal door where progressing further is not possible unless you are with a trained guide to introduce you to the really interesting parts of the cave.
The small cave is more interesting to visit because it gets cramped and there are moments where you have to worm your way along. Either your arms are ahead of you or behind you. There is no way to move them once you cross through. In total there are two or three such passages. As it widens after these squeezes the motivation to explore remains intact.
Tomorrow we will finish exploring the little cave and in future, maybe in summer we will find a guide to help us explore the rest of the cave system.
The Moléson Via Ferrata by night event is organised for the 13th of August 2016. This is an event that I have been tempted to do for several years. The principal is simple. You wear the usual via ferrata equipment with the exception of a torch. You have to contact the Moléson tourism board either by phone or e-mail and provide them with your information. You will then get a free ride to the start of the via ferrata. They insist on experienced climbers so I assume that they climb the red via ferrata.
The event is not only entertaining for those who are climbing. It should be entertaining for those who watch from the ground. Usually when you watch people climb a route you need to look carefully to differentiate them from the surrounding rock. At this event climbers will be lit up, against a dark mountain so the route will be clearly visible. It will highlight the main route as well as the segment or two that are a little more challenging.
If I was to be free to do this via ferrata by night I would expect the experience to be similar to scuba diving in the lake and caving. I would expect that when I look out at the landscape I would see the cities and towns from the region. Remember that the Moléson slogan is currently “On y voit ma maison”. “We can see my house”. One of the great advantages of trying a via ferrata by night is that you have no notion of how high up you are. You could as easily be 1km up as twenty metres off the ground.
There are three reasons for which I have been unable to do it so far. The first time I couldn’t participate in this event is that I was working on that day and it would involve four hours of driving. The second time I signed up but the event was cancelled due to the weather being unkind. The third time I could not do this VFÂ was due to Leukerbad. I had already committed to the climb and booked a hotel. In theory this year I am free to climb.
If you are thinking of trying it leave a comment.
This morning I decided to go for a benchmark run for a new Garmin training plan. After I ran the required 5 minutes and four minutes of walking I continued with my walk. I had a route that I wanted to walk but because I saw people, and dogs on the paths that I was thinking of walking down I took a bigger loop once, then again, and then a third time. In the end I walked 12,000 steps this morning. I walked from Nyon to Cheserex to Borex to Arnex and back towards Nyon.
This is more than a five minute walk. Between running, and walking it took me one and a half to two hours. That’s the same time as it would take on the buses. That’s because the bus route is long and winding. I am not hear to discuss buses.
This walk illustrates that if we gather the habit of walking from one place to another, without getting into a car, the area within which we live actually shrinks, rather than grows. That’s because buses, trams, the London Underground and other forms of transport skew our perception of time and distance. What feels like a massive distance on the Roman Metro is actually an easy walk on the surface. It’s the same in London. The centre of London is tiny, once you build a mental map, by walking around.
The same is true of the Swiss countryside. It’s because my scooter was crashed into by a woman staring at her phone, rather than the road in front of her. The scooter and I skidded several meters but I stayed upright, but the rear shock absorber was skewed. I was fine but I still went to the hospital for a checkup, in case of pain later on.
When the scooter was in for repairs I was forced to walk to the scooter place several times to learn about progress. As I did this several times the distance went from feeling long, to feeling short. Over time I expanded my local walking habit until I could walk from where I live to Founex, to Gingins to Crassier, Nyon and beyond.
When I realised that I had so many walking routes that I could appreciate, without getting into a polluting car I kept the habit. We always hear about how we need to make towns pedestrian friendly, and how we need to reduce speed limits. I think this is forking stupid. I think we should focus on making it possible to walk from villages, from the suburbs, to towns, without feeling the need to drive.
Dog walkers, and others, get into a car to do a three or four kilometre walk several driving minutes from home. If pedestrian, and cycling routes were added parallel to roads the need for cars for short journeys would vanish. We need cars, not because we don’t want to walk from A to B, but because there is a busy road that feels to dangerous to walk along.
Recently I decided not to walk towards the lake anymore. I like the road and I like the landscapes but cars drive along these narrow agricultural roads at speed. People wave to thank me for standing a meter or two from the roads, but I stand so far from the road because they drive like homicidal maniacs. It’s not safe to walk near the road.
I will keep repeating myself. We need safe walking roads that are banned to cars, for cycling and walking. It is counterproductive to say “if you drive to this parking, and walk along that loop you will encounter no cars. These cars are dangerous around me, a solitary male, which is normal. What horrifies me is that they behave the same with women walking with prams, couples and more.
It is counterproductive to speak about wanting people to have a walking culture, if to walk, or cycle, is to expose yourself to people speeding by you, too fast and too close. The environment won’t benefit from people like me, for as long as people speed and drive too close to pedestrians.
During the pandemic I had enormous walking freedom, because the mental illness of driving had vanished for a few weeks, so walking was safe. When the mental illness of driving came back so all the routes I had enjoyed became dangerous and emotionally toxic. I went from having dozens of walking route down to a single circuit now, that I can do clockwise, or anti-clockwise, for diversity.
I had the mental illness of getting into a car to do an 8km walk two hours from home, instead of just walking eight kilometres from home. It frustrates me that so many walking routes that I enjoyed are too dangerous to walk now.
Geneva, Lausanne and Fribourg are speaking of 30km/h limits in town, but it’s not in towns that you need to lower the speed. You need to make it enjoyable to walk from villages, into towns, and vice versa. You need to get people to forget about their cars. You need people to feel safe walking from Cheserex to Nyon, from Borex to Grens, and from Céligny to Arnex.
When you walk from home, you see more. You see the migration of cows from their fields, to be milked. You see sheep in one field one day, and in another field three days later. You see the crops grow, get harvested and new crops planted. You notice the beehives and the plants that the bees love. You also get to know every single local road. If you look at the heat map I generate by walking and cycling you will see how well I know the local area.
Walking is a pleasure, but too many people are driving like maniacs, because they’re in a rush. If they left the car parked, and walked to where they need to be, they’d be calmer. People need to learn to leave their cars parked, and walk.
I don’t want to see my old habit of driving every day come back. I like that I walk and cycle three to four days in a row, using the car just to shop, and only because of the 15 minute rule. If not for the 15 minute rule I wouldn’t use the car for shopping.
For three years I was a fitness club member. I loved going to the gym up to three times a week when possible. I loved training so much that I bought apps and devices to track my progress. Any time that I could not spend three sessions a week at the gym I felt disappointed. That passion, when you are in full time work can be hard to keep active.
I tried going to the gym at 6am and I tried going after work but the habit never picked up. In Switzerland fitness memberships can vary from 700-900 CHF per year to over 1200 CHF per year depending on the membership perks you take. If you go to the gym 52 times a year that’s 23 CHF per session. If you go twice a week it’s reduced to just 11 CHF per week. If you go three times a week it’s 7 CHF per session.
In theory this is a reasonable price. It’s less than a week’s pay for most professionals. In practice you want to justify the expense. You want to go to the gym when you have time. This means weekends, evenings and on public holidays. I was often frustrated to have free time but for the gym to be closed.
I would love to see gyms that take your outdoor sporting passions in to account. Running and cycling are already somewhat covered in the lac Léman region of Switzerland. What I would like to see next are ski days, via ferrata excursions and canyoning within the club.
During week days and when the weather is bad you would train in the fitness centre. As soon as summer weekends and holidays would allow then as a fitness centre you would enjoy the great outdoors. I see through Glocals and facebook groups that the interest to do activities in groups is there. Fitness centres could attract a younger demographic to join.
I love physical fitness and I love exercise. If I lived in a city like London or Paris I’d be happy to sit in a gym and train. I’d have filtered air and less traffic to contend with. As I live in the Swiss countryside though I want to take full advantage of what nature has to offer. When I find a fitness club that offers discounted canyoning, waterskiing and other activities, and subsidised via ferrata and ski days then I will rejoin.