Solid mass of the Vosges

The the Vosges ( Vogesen in German) are a Massif mountainous located at the North-eastern of the France marking the natural border between the Lorraine and the Alsace. Its name comes from the ancient god Vosegus, and it transmitted it to the Lorraine department the Vosges.

Its culminating point is the Grand Balloon (formerly Ballon of Guebwiller) which reaches 1  424  meters of Altitude. The term balloon is the usual name of the mountains of the Vosges, for reasons undoubtedly more mysterious than it does not appear to with it (cf will infra) .

The south of the solid mass belongs to the Regional natural park of the Balloons of the Vosges while the septentrional end constitutes the Regional natural park of the Vosges of North.

Orogenesis

The Vosges belonged before to a vaster unit which was divided into two during the creation of the Rhenish fault, with the tertiary sector, under the pressure of the alpine movements. This leads to the current location, with a valley of the the Rhine bordered on both sides by the solid mass of the Vosges and that of the Black Forest in Germany.

Composed of magmatic rocks (granite) and metamorphic (gneiss), the base hercynien - common to the Vosges and the Black Forest - date of the beginning of the primary era. During the secondary era, this base covered with a deposit of sandstone red due to the erosion of current the Paris basin. It was then a series of immersions and emergences of this base by more or less hot and deep seas, allowing various Sédimentation S. During all the tertiary sector, erosion exposed the old base hercynien in the south more raised of the solid mass, leaving traces of very old sandy sediments, more important towards north. The volcanic activity, proven with the Miocène, remained however minor.

The quaternary era and its Glaciation S will leave traces on the relief, digging broad U-shaped valleys, leaving number of Lac S (of which that of Gérardmer) and Tourbière S, and giving to the solid mass this form balloons rounded.

Today still, the ground can move on the level of old faults of the Earth's crust, in particular under the pressure of the increase of the African plate on Europe. The February 22nd 2003, a seism of magnitude 5,4 centered with the Saint-Dié-of-Vosges pointed out it.

Description

The solid mass of the Vosges offers a very dissymmetrical profile, opposing the crystalline south and sandy north, the soft inclined west and are broken.

The crystalline Vosges are composed of a principal peak in the shape of J reversed, to which come to be grafted several secondary chains separating the valleys from the affluents of the the Moselle Lorraine side and the It Alsatian side. In the north of the valley of the Beetle, the sandy Vosges form a succession of hills which is completed in Alsace in forest of Hardt.

The 14 Vosgean tops of more than 1.300 m are:

  • the Large Balloon (1 424 m)
  • the Storkenkopf (1 366 m)
  • the Hohneck (1 363 m)
  • the Kastelberg (1 350 m)
  • the Klintzkopf (1 330 m)
  • the Rothenbachkopf (1 316 m)
  • the Lauchenkopf (1 314 m)
  • the Batteriekopf (1 311 m)
  • the High of Falimont (1 306 m)
  • the Grass of Faing (1 306 m)
  • the Rainkopf (1 305 m)
  • the Grass of Ridge (1 303 m)
  • the Ringbuhl (1 302 m)
  • the Soultzereneck (1 302 m)

List to which other notable tops are added:

( kopf meaning head in German and Alsatian)

Etymology of “balloon”

The term balloon is the usual name of the mountains of the Vosges. The good sense allots readily this denomination to the form of these tops rounded by erosion. This version is however contradicted by the translation German E, Belchen , and two assumptions are considered:
  1. a reference to the Celtic worship of Belenos - god of the sun - which was celebrated formerly on the most released eminences of the solid mass;
  2. a bird, the Foulque - precisely named Belchen in German - whose small white cap on cranium can evoke the summit thatches covered with snow.

Collars and tunnels

The Vosgean collars are generally open in all seasons, with the exlusion of part of the Route of the Peaks, not déneigée until spring. The Tunnel Maurice-Lemaire, used initially for the rail-bound transport, was arranged for the road traffic but is currently closed while waiting for a setting to the standards in accordance with the current safety requirements, which involves for three years a deviation by the collar of Sainte-Marie. The project of tunnel between Bussang and Urbès was limited to half of boring and was abandoned in 1938 for lack of means.

The Vosgean collars can be classified in four categories:

  • Washburn risers between Lorraine and Alsace, north in the south
  • Washburn risers between Lorraine and Franche-Comté, of is in west
    • Ballon of Alsace (1171 m), Croix (758 m), Mount of Fork.
  • Collars located in Lorraine, of north in the south:
    • of the Chipotte, the High Jacques, Martimpré, Large Pierre.
  • Collars located in Alsace, of north in the south:
    • of the Coal-scuttle (960 m), Fouchy (608 m), Fréland (831 m), the Martyrdom (1144 m), the Linen, Platzerwasel (1182 m), Collar Amic, collar of the Large Balloon and the Hundsrück.

Fauna and flora

The vegetation of this solid mass is dominated by the Résineux, spruces, pines and fir trees, more frequent than the Hêtre S and the Chêne S.

The two emblems of the solid mass are the bilberry, commonly called brimbelle , whose famous tart is with the menu of all the restaurants of the area, and the celebrated Jonquille every spring with Gérardmer.

Traditional agriculture is food: potato, rye, orchards. It is supplemented ovine and bovine breeding, in particular - in the most mountainous pastures - the Vosgean race whose milk is at the base of the munster.

The forest shelters large animals, stag S, Chevreuil S and Sanglier S. the Chamois and the lynx were reintroduced, but the animal symbol of the Vosges remains large the Tétras, threatened today of extinction. Among the other birds, the raptors are numerous, Buse S, Chouette S, Hibou X… as well as the black peak, the Fauvette, the Faisan, etc

Winter sports

Some ski stations known as of medium mountains strew the solid mass, in particular in its southernmost part, where the relief is higher. Most important of these stations, in terms of extended from the skiable field and frequentation of the Bresse is that, known as the Bresse-Hohneck (900-1350 Mr.). Alsatian side, it can be in particular made state of the station of the Markstein, which accueilla cut of France of ski jump of 1955 and tests of the world cup of ski in 1983 and 1987.
The recurring rarefaction of the snowfalls gone up of the Limit rain/snow, during the last winters largely affects many stations of low altitude little or not equipped out of snow-blowers. This is why many Vosgean stations are today in on this side break-even point and périclitent.

The practice of the ski touring and since the rackets is in addition very widespread on the Vosgean peaks.

It should be noted that the practice of the winter Alpinisme is possible on the slopes north of the Hohneck, in the zone of the Spitzkopf and in a general way on the Alsatian slopes of massive Vosgean. One will also find pretty sectors for the Cascade of ice around the white Lac.

Remarkable snowing up

2006: Years 1969/1970 were regarded a long time as the years of the records as regards maximum thickness of the snowy coat. However, the multiplication of the active disturbances observed in February and March 2006, in masses of air at temperature very mainly negative, are at the origin of new absolute records identified (after war) with more than 3 m on the peaks. On the considered sites, the layer of snow approached, reached or exceeded the 3,50 Mr. Voir prone to the Ballon of Alsace or the Grand Balloon. This snowing up exceptional and allotted in particular and particularly to a disturbance known as " Xandra " having " stagné" on the Vosges during the days of the 3,4 and the morning of March 5th, 2006. Thus, on the tops of more than 1200 m, it fell up to 1,40 m of snow, a little less, low, with compressing and cast iron which had at one short period (afternoon) of rise in temperature pluvieux.
Winter 2005/2006 is characterized by a succession of more or less active disturbances, very seldom rainy on the highest peaks of more than 1300 m, of number limited above 1100 m, the limit rain/snow being often towards 900 to 1000, as testifies some the character to the snowy coat, significantly different, around above mentioned altitudes. Periods of temperature inversion synonymous with " douceur" (relative) on the peaks were limited in importance and duration. The sunning was also déficitiaire.

All these factors are with the origne of this remarkable and exceptional winter having affected the solid mass of the Vosges whose tops are snow-covered since November 16th, 2005. The last plate of snow disappeared under the Kastelberg about on July 20th, 2006.

Sports of summer

The Coasting flight is particularly developed in the Solid mass of the Vosges which lends itself very well to this activity. The World cup and the championship of France proceeded there in particular on the remarkable site of Trehkopf - Markstein, one of the most beautiful sites of Europe.

See too

List of the cascades of the Vosges

External bonds

  • Site on the spot and tourist activities in the solid mass of the Vosges
  • Site of the Departmental committee of Tourism of the Vosges
  • the Balloon of Alsace (SMIBA)
  • Sports of summer: Parapente and delta in the High-Vosges
  • Vosges.cc: The first search engine of the VOSGES
  • Article on tourism in the Vosgean solid mass
  • not-lucrative site on the freeride (out-track) in the Vosges, webcams on line, radar-weather
  • ''' the Vosges Saônoises ''' the Community of Communes of the High Valley of Ognon (''' CCHVO ''')
  • Tourist office of the ''' High Valley of Ognon '''

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