Swiss winter walk in woods

The warm southern winds have the waterfalls running again

The foehn began to blow about 4.oo this morning, gusting and whistling and pounding all the wooden shutters. This is a excitable south wind that blows through the Alps every now and again, bringing warmer air. It clears the air so you can see much further, but there is a kind of quivering quality to it that makes you breathe more quickly and shallowly. We move around tentatively, as if something is going to happen any moment, and we need to be ready.

We slept fitfully during the second half of the night. After comforting coffee with hot foaming milk added, we all decided that the best way to live with the foehn is to get out into it. Family and friends drove down to the valley and up to the other side, the wilder Val d'Anniviers, to the resort of Saint-Luc.

Across the Rhone Valley, then along the Val d'Anniviers

Up the slopes to the resort of St-Luc, which opened a new snow park with jumps.

I decided to walk in the woods, taking my camera and seeing what the world was like in place nearly hidden from the wind. Click on the Flickr badge above to see the pictures.