Czech Mole / Krteček

Today we had a very varied program. We hiked through a canyon, where we even had to climb a bit, and went to a 72m high waterfall, which can only reach by wading barefoot through the cold water.
It was a bit unusual for Krteček, but he had a lot of fun,
But he was especially happy about all the orchids growing everywhere.

Krteček  is on a camping trip in France, but this time not with my little camper van but with a real motorhome! Klytemneistra now has a Fiat Ducato and it is very comfortable!
We are south of Grenoble in the Vercors-Mountains.
A friend of mine recommended this area to us because the alpine flowers bloom everywhere here.
The mole saw lots of orchids on our first hike and today the meadows were full of blooming flowers.
Very pretty!

That was another real winter tour!
Krteček was surprised to see how much snow was still on the summit and I sank into the snow up to my knees again and again.
But then we were all alone on the summit for an hour.

I had discovered a summit (actually just a large rock) with two antennas on it in the Brauneck ski area some years ago, but I didn’t understand the purpose of the antennas at that time.
Now there is a cache nearby and I made a further attempt together with Krteček.
The cables from the antennas led to a locked metal box, but the key was hanging on the side of the box. Inside the box, we found a device called "ADL Vantage" from the American company Pacific Crest. Through investigation, we learned that this system is used for a Real Time Kinematic (RTK) function. A GPS receiver is set up at a precisely measured position and transmits the difference between the currently measured position and the correct position via radio. The information is then sent to snow groomers during slope preparation, allowing them to determine their position with centimeter accuracy and drive precisely even at night or during a snowstorm.
The metal box is labeled as a "SNOWsat Repeater Station," indicating that it forwards correction signals from a GPS receiver located elsewhere in the ski area.
Oh, that was a lot of technology for the little mole, but I'm sure he understood it.
After we had climbed „Mt. Antenna“ we climbed another real mountain.

With a height of 1135m above sea level Mt. Maiwand is really not particularly high, but the ascent is quite challenging.
For this reason, here even after about 6 weeks the STF was still possible.
And the descent into the valley was also abnormally.
It was not dangerous, but a huge mess. Heavy vehicles had driven here after forestry work and left a trail of devastation.
After the rain of the past few days, the path was very, very muddy.