Lap Outing - Lake Taney - July 4th 2006

8h00 at the LAP: nobody there! Actually, it was right the time we planned to leave from the lab for our outing. People were slowly coming and we ended up at being fifteen people.

Direction: Lake Taney - Switzerland

The plan:
We were supposed to go to the little village called "le Flon" to first park the cars, then to go up to the lake by foot (~1h), to have a break, to climb all together to the Grammont at 2180 m, to go down, to have a barbecue and finally to go back to Lausanne. The surprise of the day happened when we discovered the road to reach the village was closed. We couldn't go further Vouvry which is in the valley at 500m high. The road was blocked until 11.30 am. So ...

The plan became:
We decided to go the lake Taney by foot from Vouvry. Motivated people could climb to the Grammont at 2180 m and the we would all meet together to have the final barbecue at the lake.

Claudio was guiding. We began to walk on large paths, next to a little beautiful river. It was pretty stiff. The group began to split little by little because of the stiff road. Before arriving to the village "Le Flon", we found an intersection with two possibilities to reach the lake: a short and a long way. Paolo, Christophe, Andrea, Stephan, Nitin, Devanshu, Sriram and Ajay took the shortest way to the lake to have enough time to climb up to the Grammont. The other group didn't plan to go to the Grammont, so they took the longest way, because it was supposed to have a better view, according to Claudio, our fabulous guide!

Concerning the motivated people, we tried to hold a good rhythm in order not to eat too late in the afternoon at the lake. Before arriving to the lake, Nitin was getting very tired. We started climbing the Grammont, letting Nitin at the lake, waiting for the second group to arrive. Between 700 and 800 m of climbing was ahead of us! Paolo just asked if it finally was a good idea! :-) We walked all together on large paths. It was again quite stiff but the paths were not so difficult. We saw some clouds moving towards us, some drips started to fall, but nothing to worry about! Discussing between each others during a walking effort is not easy if we want to go fast! So silence was the only sound to hear during our ascension. Some little pauses were necessary, especially near fountains or good views. The top was almost there! Suddenly, such a beautiful view appears! It what so beautiful that climbing to the top became almost useless. But Paolo told us the view is even more beautiful at the top. So we provided a last effort to climb to the top and hunger started to appear... LAP AT TOP ! Yeeaaahhaa, yes the view was so incredible! Unfortunately, the sky was a little bit cloudy and the other end of the Geneva lake was under clouds. But the other side was clearer and we saw the Rhone Valley and the surrounding mountains. Altitude : 2180 m. The ascension finally lasted about an hour and a half. Going back to the lake was quite fast and easy!

Concerning the other group guided by Claudio, they followed the longest way to go to the Lake Taney to let time for the other group to climb to the Grammont. This way was supposed to be easier and to offer a beautiful view. The reality was somewhere else!! They got lost because Claudio didn't believe in the signs! They went almost at the opposite of the lake! Surely, they got lost and had to walk off-paths! Stones, big slope, no path.... The coal we took for the barbecue returned in its original place because the bag broke and was lost in nature.

The second group arrived at the lake when the first one was almost at the top of the Grammont. People waiting at the lake prepared the barbecue with wood because there was no more coal. Both groups met again next to the lake, around a beautiful barbecue prepared by André and Claudio. Lot of people took a bath into the lake while others were eating.

Given that we climbed to the lake from the valley by foot and some people climbed also to the Grammont, almost everybody was tired, so we decided to go back to the cars by bus. While waiting for the bus, we stopped at a bar to have a drink or an ice cream. The bus let us in front of the cars.

That's the end of this beautiful LAP outing! Thanks to everybody!