A plan gone awry?

2021-10-21| Philippe Campeau

There are some days that are worth talking about. Yesterday was such a day. My friend Jérémie and I decided to go to Ala-Archa before the snow covers everything. Our objective: a small nameless peak, 3393m high, from which we hoped to get a glimpse of the Ala-Archa peak and the Golubina glacier. In principle, it is not so a hard one to climb, just a long day of walking in (still shallow) snow. We took a camera and binoculars with us (you never know), but the goal was different. The peak was waiting.

It's good that all plans are made to be changed. It started at the very beginning: Jérémie’s car did not want to start (you know, he has a Niva, and an old Niva at that). She argued, protested and only agreed after an hour. So we sat off late. Then we spent a long time crossing the infamous (and old) pylon-bridge.

But this was just the beginning. After the bridge, it became difficult to make even 100 steps forward. It started with the ermine. We saw this cutest of all animals for the first time and watched in awe as she ran and jumped all over the place. She already had her white winter fur, even though there is still little snow (that made her extra visible, for our greatest joy). After half an hour, as we were just starting to think about continuing the hike, white-browed tit-warblers appeared. And, going against their nature, they decided to pose for us. Feeling that luck was on our side, we decided to continue in silence, hoping for a snow leopard (one can always dream!) We didn’t see the big cat, but literally 15 minutes later… snowcocks appeared. And they also posed for us. I spent the whole summer looking for this bird, but only saw a few individuals from afar. And there they were, careful, but not shy. Once again, we just had to stop. After all this, is it worth saying that while we had lunch, a nice ibex also showed itself?

In the end, we didn't climb the peak. Didn’t have the time. But we felt wonderful anyway. There are days when you need to just take your time and enjoy.