Minimum altitude: 207 meters
Distance: 54.3 km
Slope Aspect: North-West
Vertical Climbed: 989 meters (3,245 feet)
Vertical Descended: 984 meters
Rating: 3
After a failed outing yesterday. Every time we gained a little altitude leaving Lyon, we ran into blizzards of snow, but today the weather was clear, sunny, and cold. Very cold, with a breeze. I thought it might be a little warmer in the afternoon, and I must admit that with enough clothes, winter gloves, and shoe covers, it was bearable.
My plan was to do a small loop via the Col du Ban, then the Col de la Luère. There was a bit of smog on the west side of the Col du Ban. This was due to an inversion layer coupled with wood stoves. In fact, I breathed better on the Lyon side of the mountain.
I arrived at the col du Ban at 3:50 p.m. The sun was beginning to set in the winter sky, but I had calculated 40 minutes to get to the Luère and half an hour to return to Lyon, as the return route is all downhill. Once in Lyon, the city lights helped me see more clearly, and at 5 p.m., it wasn't really dark yet. On Saturday, the city center was packed with people, shoppers taking advantage of Black Friday to do their shopping.
So, that was perhaps the last mountain outing of the year, even if it was a short one.
29m38 from the bottom of the Ban to the top of the Luère - over a minute faster than my previous PB and 48m24 from the start of the Ban to the top of the Luère, so around 38m between the two cols, roughly what I'd worked out in my head to avoid getting caught out after sunset.
-2°C at the passes, 2°C average. A little damp under the trees off the cols, had to take it easy as there may have been ice with the cold. A little snow on the western slope of the Luère pass.
