There was a time when I would have gone to Charmey and climbed the Square Vide II route without hesitation. This is a K6 route that starts with an overhang, before continuing over several more overhangs. I tried the first part and decided not to continue. I climbed back down before getting over the overhang.
Years ago I would have done it because I went to climbing gyms every Thursday evening, and did via ferrata almost every weekend so I had a much stronger upper body.
I live in a Minergie, which, in theory, means that I never need to worry about climatisation because the building keeps itself warm in winter and cold in summer. In practice the features that make a flat fantastic winter make it awful in summer.
Good in Winter Large windows, in winter allow heat radiation in, so you use the sun to heat your apartment. From Spring until Autumn it has the opposite feature.
As it is meant to be warmer over the next few days I went for a bike ride this morning, rather than in the afternoon. The rational is that by going for a morning bike ride traffic could have been less. The other reason is that it’s slightly cooler in the morning than in the afternoon.
Today wasn’t a warm day, but I felt like going for a bike ride, and I wanted to see if a different time of day made it more pleasant.
I understand Meetup, GoSocial, Facebook Events and other event based social networks. The one that I don’t understand is GoSocial. It’s a social event network that has visibility on Facebook but you can’t comment, and chat rooms for Geneva, Lausanne and other places.
Instead of creating an event where everything is visible with ease, as with Glocals, Meetup.com, Facebook events and other social networks it is a pig’s breakfast of one chatroom per event, and a list that is manually updated for participation that is only visible when you’re already included within the chat when it’s updated.
If the Lammenhüutte is too strenuous for you there is an easier option. A walk to the Majinsee and back, via the Thermal gorge. This is an easy hike with 300m of climbing and descent on wide gravel paths rather than narrow hiking paths. It takes you by a cold water lake before taking you through a vertiginous gorge that is not for those that suffer from a fear of heights.
I have gone up to Leukerbad at least three times for the via ferrata and this could have been the fourth or fifth time that I do it. I chose not to do it. During the pandemic I spent a lot of time hiking, with little to no exposure to heights. As a result of this I lost the habit of being high up.
I realised this when I was just three or four meters up on a sea defense in Javea/Xabia and felt afraid of the height I was at.
When I was flying between England and Switzerland regularly I packed so that everything would fit into a bag that I could take on board. When I travel by car I pack less effectively. Today I have two tents, two different types of sleeping bag, a sleeping mat, a Bare Dry suit inner suit, a single set of via ferrata stuff, crocs, hiking shoes and trail glove 7s on my feet.
We are currently in a heat wave. During heatwaves my velux heat up in the afternoon sun and radiate heat both into the apartment during the day but also at night after the sun has set. I have found that during a heat waves it is wise to close the blinds and close the windows as soon as it is hotter outside than inside.
When it is hotter outside than inside closing windows keeps the apartment slightly cooler, but not much cooler.
More often than not I speak about the desire to do something, rather than the desire not to. Before showeing this morning I was looking at hiking ideas, to find some that would appeal to me and I did. Some friends/people I know want to do the Daubenhorn Via Ferrata on Saturday but I feel little to no desire to do it.
Three Experiences So Far I have done this Via Ferrata three or four times and almost every time I have said “never again”.
For a few days I played with an e-bike around St Moritz and in the process learned that riding an e-bike is intuitive. It’s on hills and when you’re riding into the wind that you feel the advantage of e-bikes.
The trick, with e-bikes is to learn to ride gently. With a road bike and mountain bike you get into the habit of pushing hard. With an e-bike you need to pull back.