Admittedly I was quite worried when temperatures hit 27°C in Chamonix a week before my last Snowshoe trip! But with a little imagination, a willingness to travel and a certain amount of luck we managed to have a fantastic Easter week, largely on snowshoes with some flowery spring walking thrown in for good measure.
We had sunshine every day except one and so we enjoyed fabulous alpine views. Early starts were necessary to take advantage of hard frozen snow, and this gave wonderful alpine sunrises.
As is often the case at the end of the winter, we needed to have finished our walks by early afternoon, so hot siestas were enjoyed, sipping cold beer and watching the world go by.
We climbed 5 summits and one high pass in our 6 days, had several golden eagle and lammageier vulture sightings and were always joined by playful alpine choughs for lunch.
For me this week confirmed my view that snowshoeing is an extremely versatile way to explore the mountains in winter, regardless of the snow conditions.
Now it's time to hang up the raquettes for this year and to prepare for the summer season.
