by Sarah Hines, Year 11
Last weekend, from the 31 st of January to the 2 nd of February, the first group of Year 11
students who are doing the Duke of Edinburgh Silver Award went on their qualifying journey.
They had previously done a Practice Journey at the beginning of January, but now they have
completed both journeys, therefore completing their “expedition” as part of the International
Award.
The expedition lasted three days and two nights and was up in La Givrine, towards the north of Geneva
and the Lac Léman.
It began on Saturday morning at Eaux-Vives train station, where everyone met up to take the train
to Nyon. Despite being very early ,everyone was happy to be there. The train ride wasn’t
long, and soon they changed to a local train that brought them straight up to La Givrine,
where they needed to stop. It was quite sunny, and the views from the train were beautiful.
Once they arrived, the guides gave them all the necessary equipment including snowshoes,
poles and radios. The groups then proceeded to leave the departure place one by one by
following the route plan that had previously been done. Though it was a bit cloudy to start
with, the sun did appear, making the weather warmer. They snowshoed all the way to checkpoint three,
which is halfway to the hut, where they were going to spend the night.
Checkpoint three was in the middle of several cross-country skiing paths, and there were
many other people there due to the nice weather. All the groups stopped and had a nice
lunch, which was followed by a big snowball fight.
The groups then proceeded with their journey up to the hut and individually left the
lunch spot. The walk was relatively short and by mid-afternoon, everyone had arrived at the
hut, called Chalet Grütli. It had a beautiful view over the mountains and was quite big. The inside,
on the other hand was quite cold and it took a while before the fire warmed up the hut.
Everyone, therefore, had the chance to unpack a bit, get settled in the dorms and then do the
route plan in groups for the next day, using the coordinates given by the guides. Once that
was done everyone had a chance to relax and talk for a while until dinner. At dinner, two
people per group were chosen to go and cook, using the bunsen burners. The cooking space
was downstairs by the entrance next to the kitchen, meaning that it was quite cold. The
water took a while to boil for some people due to the altitude. Still, eventually everyone was
able to enjoy the pasta that was served with either pesto or tomato sauce, depending on what
each group brought. After this, everything was tidied up, and everyone talked and played
some games until they were told to go to bed. The night was quite calm, even if it was a bit
cold to start off with and generally people slept relatively well.
The next morning everyone had to pack up, have breakfast and clean up the hut in time to
leave for the hike. Everybody helped with the cleaning and very soon they were ready to
leave.
Once again, every group left separately and planned to stop at checkpoint three yet again for
lunch. The hike was very sunny and pleasant, but halfway through the track that they had
been following in the snow went in the wrong direction, meaning that one of the groups
slightly went off course. On the other hand, the other two groups were warned and were
able to make their own tracks by joining the two groups and taking turns with who was
leading. Eventually, they caught up with the other group, and they all went together to lunch.
The view was beautiful and looked over several fields.
After a very nice lunch, the groups departed once more to go to the second cabin, where
they were going to stay that evening. Halfway through their walk, the guides decided to cut
out part of the route, due to the unmarked trail, meaning that they got to the cabin a bit
sooner than expected. The view was even nicer than the last one, as you could clearly see the
Mt Blanc is right in front. The Cabane Rochefort was its name, and it was much warmer than
the last since there had been some people there previously, meaning that they had kept the
heating going. This hut was very nice, even if it was smaller than the last, and the toilets were
rather primitive.
The rest of the afternoon was nice, we looked over the route plan for the last day, since it
had previously been done before the expedition by a member in each group. Several people
went outside to enjoy the sunshine, and everyone talked for a while before dinner. The,n
once it was time to eat, two people (not the same as the night before) prepared more pasta
for dinner. After the meal was cleaned up, everyone talked some more, and then it was time
for bed. The night was calm, though some people found it too hot, and by mornin,g some
people had slept better than others.
Everyone helped pack up and tidy the hut after breakfast, and all the groups were able to
leave quite fast. The hike was quite short, meaning that we arrived at the train station earlier
than expected. Everybody gave back the snowshoes and poles and all the other equipment
that had been given, and the guides did a quick debriefing. We once again took two trains, a
local one to Nyon and then to Eaux-Vives, but we were able to arrive an hour earlier.
Once we arrived, we said goodbye to the guides and all went our separate ways to go home
and/or get food.
The trip was extremely fun, and I believe everyone there really enjoyed it. Apart from a
few blisters, I think that everybody was able to create some good memories. Thank you to
the guides that accompanied us and to Mr. Vinatier and the whole Ecolint team responsible
for making it happen.
