Traversée du Jura Suisse

Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 1:02 pm Post subject : Traversée du Jura Suisse

After two days on the GTJ (Grande Traversée du Jura français) I stopped in the small border village of La Cure. From here my plan was to hit the TJS (Traversée du Jura Suisse) and move north up the Jura range on the Swiss side. I can really recommend the hotel in La Cure, Hotel Arbez Franco-Suisse which I though was excellent, so good I'll probably go back with Mrs Ise sometime.

One option, and the one I'd recommend, would be to take that train to the next village and use the marked trails to get to the Col du Marchairuz where I was aiming to spend the next night. But, I'd decided to ski backcountry into the end of the ski area and then cut into the Col du Marchairuz from there. This obviously is somewhat challenging, you need to cross quite a big distance outside of marked trails and being able to do that safely, it goes without saying you shouldn't do that alone.

So I set off on my own picking up a raquette track for the first few km.

That worked quite well mostly but at times the steep slopes were too much for the grip on my skis and without skins I was reduced to herringbones or taking them off altogether at a couple of points.

Then I hit a forest section, this was awkward as there were no proper trails and I had to micronav through the forest. I tried to pick up forestry tracks so I could move quicker but it's a gamble that they're going the right direction, mostly my plan to cut over the summit of a minor peak and drop into a forest track worked. It's hard to tell from the map how clear the trail was going to be in the winter, I'd reasoned as the track skirted a couple of building you'd be able to get a quad bike or similar up it which meant a big enough clearing to ski reasonable quickly through.

The main alpine chain just off in the distance above there. This turned out to be demanding skiing for a couple of hours but I hit the edge of the marked ski circuit as I expected and was rewarded with a few km of track skiing more or less descending so I was able to boost out with my poles and lope through the forest pretty quickly.

Over Col du Marchairuz direction it doesn't seem they've tracked the trail for days and snow's drifted into it so it's tough skiing but I only have 25km to cover so it's not too bad.

I quite fancied a bit of cheese but it was shut, they do a great cheese here called comte which is superb.

And here's a token couple from the next day, not such a nice day, cold and damp and not nice skiing on a non-existent trail.

quite nice, a big talking lion ran past pursued by the white witch at one point which was nice

looking down at the frozen Lac Joux, I sked down to the lake to escape the weather on the ridge line and skied the lake shore, unfortunately the ice wasn't good enough to ski on the lake which would have been fun and allowed me to knock a couple of km off the run into Le Pont.

So that's the first 100km of the Jura traverse, maybe another 200km to go )

Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 11:09 am Post subject : Raquette?

What is a raquette track? In Canadian French, the word "raquette" translates to the English word "snowshoe". I didn't think that snowshoes were used a lot in Europe, compared to North America.

Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 2:54 pm Post subject : Re: Raquette?

It means just the same in French, it's very popular in Europe particularly in areas like the Jura.

I skied part of this route again today on a different trail from La Givrine towards the col du Marchairuz then back to La Cure in really excellent conditions.

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 7:30 am Post subject :

Ise, that looks fantastic. where exactly are the tracks on pic 8?

Phil

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 8:07 am Post subject :

Again, the pictures are fantastic!

thumbright

I know its the photographer not the gear that makes a good photograph but still, I have to ask, what brand and model of camera do you use?

fishskicanoe

xcskiforum 10K Joined: 03 Jan 2009 Posts: 20

Superb again Ise,
Will be down for ten days starting Friday will try Col du Marchairuz up to Mont Tendre On Sun ,when due to be sunny, 50cm 100 base
30cm due during week Cool

.
Goff

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 8:53 am Post subject :

isn't geocoding great ? Very Happy

how is this for exact?

http://regex.info/exif.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsnowslider.net%2Fgallery%2Fimages%2F2010_nordic%2F2010_01_27_jura_days_3_and_4%2F20100127-122453.jpg

Near Le Vermeilley part of the La Givrine nordic area.

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 6:33 am Post subject :

Ah I see, that's in the Vaudois region near the Lac Leman. News to me, thanks, looks great!