I came back and...

…it was frigging AMAZING!
4 days surrounded by nothing but peaks, snow, ice, a brilliant blue sky, the best looking mountains in Europe.
We could not ski the Haute Route for various reasons, but in the end it was so great we didn’t care!

We left on Wednesday morning, headed to a lake in Val d’Aosta and settled for the tour of the Matterhorn (le Cervin).
It was somehow a tough call, because both the Sponsor and I had (still have) bronchitis, and the peculiarity of the Matterhorn Tour is that every days is harder than the day before. Which, of course, makes it pretty rough after 4 days of skiing and climbing carrying a 12kg backpack (over 26 lbs).

On our first day, we had the best companion ever: a big, sweet dog climbed with us and then skied back to the hut (he belonged to people who work there): after a while we split, so I was climbing up on my own, and the dog kept my pace and never left me! Awwwwww! I even shared all my (little) food with him!
The second day was so and so because both the Sponsor and I were so sick, we could barely make it. But then on the third day, we had this super hard start, partly ski touring and partly ice-climbing, but then we were remunerated with this view:

Matterhorn (Cervin)

La Dent d'Herens

That night we stayed in Cervinia (Breuil), so we could finally take a shower and use decent toilets!
Since it was also the first time our phones got signal, I also found out something amazing:


KS got the job AND HE’S MOVING IN OVER SUMMER!!!!!!


But let’s go back to the Tour.
By the third night, I had bad blisters on my feet, and the cough wouldn’t leave me. I knew that the first part of the last day would be climbing this:

But I put together all my strengths, and gave all I could. And we did it!
When we finally got home, on Saturday night, I discovered my journey to Casablanca has been postponed to May, so now I am back to the city. KS is coming over for the weekend and he’ll spend here also Monday and Tuesday, and if we have enough time we’ll drive to Ikea to buy a drawer for when he moves in.
I still cannot stop coughing, but seriously, who cares?

So you thought this was a fairy tale

I feel like crying right now.

As most of you, my readers, know, I’ve been training VERY hard, over the last few months, with an objective: doing the Haute Route ski tour. From Chamonix to Zermatt and then to Saas Fee, from Mont Blanc to Cervin (Matterhorn) to Mont Rose, the best mountaineering ski tour of the world. Phisically challenging, I begged to obtain a week off from work, worked miracles to organize everything, trained until my legs would ache badly.

But that was great, you know? Because the Haute Route is always an amazing experience. Even more so because we had planned to do it together, the Sponsor, Bro and I, with a good friend of us who is also a guide.

Work almost fucked up everything, because just yesterday I found out on Sunday 18 I have to leave for 15 days to go to Morocco (and don't even try saying how cool that is because it's FUCKING UN-COOL. It will be 15 working days with no days off, in some stupid outskirt of Casablanca. I hate it already). I rearranged everything in order to be back from the Haute Route on Saturday 17 at latest.

Fighting with allergies that are really kicking me off, I spent the last couple days doing miracles at work in order to be able to leave tonight and be off next week. And the allergies, they’re bad. Yes, all the running helped with the Asthma, but my eyes are always so puffy and swollen, and of course I feel like I have the worst cold ever and have troubles sleeping. And I DON’T WANT to take cortisone this year, because it’s unhealthy, it gives me insomnia and makes me fat. But that doesn’t matter because a week in the snow will halp greatly you know? No allergies up there!
But then of course, today we realized the weather forecasts on that part of the Alps are so bad we cannot possibly leave before Wednesday, because it would be too fucking dangerous. And of course, since I have to be back by Sunday morning in any case, we won’t be able to ski the whole Haute Route.

Is this childish?

Maybe. But I really put so much effort into this, and I’m so tired, I can’t help feeling really sad.


Take me back,
to the rivers of believe,
my friend:
I'll look inside my heart
I'll look inside my soul
I promise you I will return.
(...)
we'll rest our knees, on my rivers of belief

...and again. Plus, something incredible

Now, in first place I want to tell you something amazing that happened on Sunday.

I saw three wolves. No, not in a zoo. Free wolves, hunting in the mountains. At no more than 500 meters from us.

I am used to see wild animals, just last Saturday I saw a fox in the woods not far from home, but wolves? I never thought I’d ever see wild wolves in my life.

It was an incredible experience, also because I was skiing and I kept seeing them for a couple of minutes (that’s why I’m so sure they were wolves).

Besides that, the weekend was incredibly exhausting, physically AND emotionally.

Last Saturday I helped the Panther for a tough job: a huge fountain we have in the woods had been, over the last two years, submerged by mud, so we had to dig until it was visible again, and then clean it. Last week I had trained VERY hard, and I was already pretty tired, so this job was pretty much exhausting by itself.
The in the afternoon I ran a couple errands with the Panther, and also bought myself a suit and shoes for the office. We had the grannies over for dinner, and I also stopped by at Bro’s place, so I ended up going to bed without having had a moment for myself, but that was fine because ski touring was planned on Sunday.

And so Sunday morning I woke at 5 (as usual), and went to ski, but the weather was awful and I was feelling sick.
We met the others, and I was relieved to see that B just said hello but did not approach me.
We started hiking, and soon I had to stop to throw up, but at least I managed to do it discreetly and not in front of anyone.

And then we saw the wolves, and that really made me feel better! I kept on hiking, also because we had decided that, given the awful weather, we would just get to the next hut and stop there.

When we got to the hut, I was feeling a bit dizzy, so I stepped right inside thinking I would change my wet clothes. B stepped in right after me, and started talking. He had opened a bottle of beer and (again) offered me some, but I said
“Thanks, but no thanks. Actually I was sick half an hour ago, so no beer for me”
“Sorry to hear that baby”
(Baby? BABY? Who the hell are you calling BABY?)
He went on with small talk, while I took off my sweater, then I realized both my T-shirt and my top were soaked, so I wore my jacket and pulled out my top from underneath (no nakedness in front of B, DDgirl!). I turned around and he was facing me holding a clean sweater
“Here, DDgirl, take my sweater, you’ll be more comfortable”.
“Oh thank-you, that’s not necessary. I’ll put mine next to the stove so it’ll be dry in no time”

(and seriously, B, do you think I’d drink your beer, and then wear your clothes? And then tell me, what would next step be?)

“I insist, wearing windstopper on bare skin cannot be comfortable and I have another clean T-shirt for myself”
“Really B, thank-you but it’s not necessary”

And then I managed to grab all my stuff and get to the other room (where the stove was).

From then on, things declined: I started feeling worse, and the Sopnsor and I soon made our goodbyes, and went home. I felt better for a while and then I plunged into stomach flu, so much that yesterday I called sick at work for the very first time in my life.

This morning I felt way better, so I came to work.

I logged into Facebook and I had two messages, one from an old friend. And one from B.

“How are you? Feeling better?”

Again

Yesterday I drove to the mountains for some good ski-touring with the Sponsor and the ski-touring school crew, as any given Sunday in this season.
We had a great day, sunny weather, a fantastic tour, great snow, and I had a lot of fun with an old friend of mine.

Of course, B was there as well.
When I stepped out of the car, early in the morning, my above mentioned old friend came to greet me and B came along with him, and he was all like:
“Hey DDgirl, how are you doing? You look like someone who’s slept in the car, wake up!”

(seriously? Why would you care?)

I just said “Hey guys, what’s up? Ready to start the hike?”
I mean, I don’t want to be the one who starts drama, so I kept it cool, but still…
Soon afterwards, we were all getting ready and I put on my wool hat, which is a cute warm white funny thing… with soft deer horns on its sides!

People LOVE my hat, and so did my friend, and we cracked a few jokes about how it would help in case of avalanche (with people only having to look for the horns, and so on).
And again B shouted at me across the parking “Oh COME ON DDgirl!!! What do you wanna mean with that hat??”

(In Italy they say that you’ve got horns when someone cheated on you)

I just laughed and said “The Sponsor gave it to me and I love it!”
“Well it is beautiful” he said.

As soon as the Sponsor was ready we left (B was going with another group, luckily), and let me tell you, I was ready waaayyy faster than usually, because this whole thing of B talking to me was so weird.

We had a GREAT day, as I said, plus the ski patrols all made such good comments on my style I may even start to hope to join the touring ski teachers again…. But I don’t want to build too much expectations, we’ll see how things go next year.
The Sponsor also had fun, even though he was a bit tired, and we really enjoyed our day together.

At the end of the tour, in the afternoon, we caught up with the other groups, near the cars, at a small bar with a big courtyard that was cleaned from the snow and really sunny and warm. Since we had gone for the longest hike, we were the last to get there, and I was happy and suntanned. As I was taking my skis off, B came to me and started asking me how the hike was, and then he gestured towards the beer he was holding and said “Want some?”
“eeeeerrrr no thanks, I’m gonna grab some for the Sponsor and I” I said, and I can only hope the tan I got hid my blushing cheeks.

I mean, what was all this fuzz about? He even took my arm in his hand a couple minutes later to catch my attention.
The worst thing was, we first kissed in that same place!

Next Sunday will probably be the last time I see B this year, and I’m fine with that. I don’t want him messing up with me.
I’m not a saint, and I must admit I’d still like some kind of revenge on him, but I know I’d end up being hurt, so I’m just fine with saying hello from a reasonable distance.
Like I said before, back OFF, B.

(In any case, I had an AMAZING day. AMAZING, people)

Announcement

I have an announcement to do.

(no, I’m not pregnant)

(and no, I’m not getting married. Stop guessing silly things!!!)

I am travelling to Nepal, next Autumn.
I’ll be trekking to the ice pyramid (Everest base camp), and up to camp 2, through the ice fall, if I’m really lucky.

I’ll be going there with the Sponsor and a friend whose name I don’t really want write, but let’s say he’s one of the living people who climbed all the fourteen 8k metres without oxygen.

OMG people I’m going to NEPAL I’m so FREAKING excited!!!! I already obtained vacation, and the Sponsor is buying the plane tickets next week (October is high season and the flight to Nepal is always a complicated one, so it’s better to get them in advance).

In the excitement, I resolved paying the 800 Euros fee for another year of gym. I need to train even harder!!



On other news, as usual this days, it’s 11PM and I’m gonna stay in the office for a couple more hours. Of course I came in at 9AM this morning. UGH.

One of these days

Most days, I feel fine. On my own. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad KS is part of my life, but I do fine on my own, I really do. I like living alone, I really enjoy it. I’m glad KS will be the on call I’ll make at night when I step home, but I also like I won’t have to cook dinner, and I like even more no one will complain when I’ll get up at 6 in the morning to hit the gym.

Some days, I’d rather be totally on my own. When KS complains too much about stuff concerning our relationship, especially when I’m so tired I can barely think about setting the alarm for the next morning. When he’s at my place on days off, and I’m working my fingers to the bone, and then I come home and find his mess at my place. Yes, there are days I’d rather be single.

And then there are days when, even for a couple of seconds, or maybe for the whole day, I feel such a deep connection, it pays for the days when we’re grumpy or one of us is a pain in the ass.

There are days when I believe in the two of us. Days when I know no fear. Days when I do love him. Those days may only happen once in a while, but that what keeps me with KS.

You’re still the one I love, baby.



Completely different subject: take a look at this pic I’ve taken on January on a touring ski day!! (Yes, it was awfully cold!!)

Back off and leave us alone

I saw B yesterday.
Well, I’ve seen him every Sunday over the last four weeks. Even said hello.
What made it different yesterday?
It should have been even easier, because KS had come over to spend the weekend, and it was great, even more so since I hadn’t seen him in over one month.
We went free-riding, like I did every Sunday over the last four weeks (and of course that’s the only reason I saw B, by the way). The real difference is Bro and Weird Wife had brought the kids along.

B and I were together when Little Princess (Bro’s eldest kid) was born, he actually drove me to see her. B loves kids. I don’t know why he still doesn’t have kids. (I actually really wondered why, but of course I never asked)

So yesterday the kids came with us. And trust me, these kids (especially Little Princess) LOVE me and pretty much consider me as the best and coolest person in the world.
Whatever.

Since their mom (Weird Wife) wasn’t able to bring them on the ski-lift (she’s not that confident on skis), I kept taking on with me either Princess or Lovely Kiddo (and trust me, it’s harder than hitting the gym!). Anyway, it seems that on a moment I was on the slope and not yet at the ski-lift, B offered Weird Wife to help her with the kids, and they all fell from the ski-lift (no injuries, the kids were still laughing when I found them).

(Since everyone was allright, I allowed myself to feel proud that the kids were safer with me than with B. Mainly because, although I am better than him at mountaineering ski, when it’s about alpine ski… well, he’s a living God).

So when we stopped for lunch, I was playing with the kids the whole time, and I kept catching B staring at the three of us. You know, by the end of our lunch-break, I was almost embarrassed.

So what’s up B?
You barely talk to me, we haven’t spoken in almost five years, and I don’t think you have regrets. I don’t even want to CONSIDER the possibility you might have regrets.

So once again, stay the hell away from my family. They’re MY family, and you’ve got your family, and I don’t want you to mess with them. They liked you a lot, and that made things even harder for me, so now just BACK OFF.


I'm so tired of being here
Suppressed by all my childish fears
And if you have to leave
I wish that you would just leave
'Cause your presence still lingers here
And it won't leave me alone

These wounds won't seem to heal
This pain is just too real
There's just too much that time cannot erase

When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears
When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears
And I held your hand through all of these years
But you still have all of me

(...)
I've tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone
But though you're still with me
I've been alone all along

Full moon hiking

I’m having my living room AND my boudoir both painted in this precise moment! YAY!
I finally put my shit together, called the painter, and even convinced my landlord about paying at least part of the bill. Not bad huh?

The only inconvenient, of course, is that today my neck aches, and, even more important, I sprained my wrist badly on Saturday. Not the best to move furniture around the house.
How did I get those? Here comes the DDgirl weekend…

After waking up every morning at 6AM last week, in order to train (I managed to run 35km last week, or over 20 miles if you prefer), on Saturday I had opted for a mountaineering ski tour with the Sponsor and Bro. Nobody, however, had mentioned that we were to wake up at 4.30AM. UGH.
We started hiking under a glorious full moon that promised us a beautiful day. We had 1500mt (over 4,900ft) to climb, so we were trying to keep a steady but fast pace. We are all quite trained these days, so we managed to keep the pace and chat at the same time: all in all, we were having a great time. The sun rose, and we took a couple of nice pics with the snowy mountains embraced in pink light. It was only when we had already climbed 900mt that we were suddenly hit by a stormy cold wind from the North. One hour later, we were at less than 100mt from the peak, but we were struggling so badly we decided to stop and start skiing down. However, while peeling off the sealskins (you stick them on your skis to climb up) I lost my balance due to the wind, and, struggling not to fall, I put my whole weight on a stick, and sprained my wrist. I didn’t realize immediately it was that bad, but when I got home, it was about twice the size of the other wrist.

Now since I’m a dork, instead of complaining, I cooked lunch (which involved cutting and cleaning a pumpkin…), because I wanted to go freeriding on Sunday!
And so I did. The alarm went off at 5.30AM on Sunday, and I went freeriding in Switzerland. Although I couldn’t use my right hand, I managed to ski quite well (I still have problems with my frost-bitten toes, so I don’t ski as well as I usually do, these days..). I also managed to respond nicely to the small talk initiated by B., which is more than I usually do. So where is the problem? The problem is, the thermometer never went above minus 20° (-4F) over the day (and it snowed all day long). Added on top of my lack of sleep, it means I was frozen to my ass.

So this morning I woke up at 5AM to get back to the city, and let’s say I have felt better on other days. And yet, the ridiculous thing is my skin is glowing, my hair looks nice and shiny, and all in all, I look way better than most days.
Whatever.

I really enjoyed my weekend though. And I don’t have much to do at work today, so I’ll go home by 5, pay the painter, re-organize a little all the furniture I moved to my bedroom, and go straight to bed.

My dreamy summer (part 2)

.. I got to the Parents’ place on Saturday at noon, and by Sunday morning I was back in the mountains.
I had a gala dinner on Saturday night, but by Saturday afternoon Lou had called me asking me if I was in for another canyoning trip on Sunday: I could not miss it!
This second time, Lou’s girlfriend and two other friends (a couple) joined, and it was way slower than when it was just the Vampires (Kissy and Lou) and me!
It was funny and not without awkward moments (but I’ll save details for an upcoming post about awkward summer moments), and by night I was exhausted! Furthermore, on Sunday evening I accidentally fell on the stairs and hurt my coccyges, so I ended up with a very bad backache (I’ve actually been on painkillers for three weeks after that).

The end of the mountain trip consisted in a 2 days hike I did with the Sponsor, which was seriously breathtaking (a little too much for my taste): it actually included some free climbing of fourth degree, and by free I mean no protections at all… The hike was great but I must admit I did freak out a little over the free climbing, and I also freaked because the Sponsor, whose health and age I already wrote about, should not be doing things like this!!!!

(look at this cute mate who was staring at us!)

And then I had to leave the mountains.
It has been one of the best times of my life. Thanks to my friends, who are great, to the mountains I love hiking, to everything.

Things with KS had been very very tense, and we almost broke up in the beginning of August, but then we had a long talk and I decided to give it another try.
We spent the weekend after I came back from the mountains in southern France attending KS annual family meeting, which DID not go as smoothly as I had hoped…
Then I worked for a week, and then we left for Gaia and Mark’s wedding in Sicily.
We spent a week together in Sicily, partying with people from 22 different countries, and we had an AMAZING time!!

To summarize the lose ends, KS and I are still together. I discovered that Green Eyes does not live in the same village, and I did not meet him (let’s say I did not seek him, I could have met him if I wanted to). Last but not least, we could not hike the Lyskamm, but I have already made agreements in order to do it next spring.

More important than everything else, I had lost lots of weight, but unfortunately have gained some more in Sicily… but things are under control on that side.

And now, dear readers, after spending only two days in the city, I have to leave for work and go back to the North East of Italy… and I’m already counting the days ‘till Xmas holidays…

My dreamy summer (part 1)

How hard can it be blogging about my summer vacay when I’ve only been working two days? Still, it already seems so long ago. Such a different, and therefore also distant time in my life.
The souvenir of this summer feels precious to me, so I shall treat it carefully. It’s not as anything incredibly special happened, but it still feels precious. Whatever, I know I’m not making any sense.

It all started off with a rainy, sticky day, and it really seemed like a bad, bad start. Furthermore, on the second day I went for a long hike with the parents, and the Panther hurt a little her knee, so they both went back to their place while I stayed in the mountains on my own (although there were plenty of friends staying in the village, so I wasn’t exactly alone).

Almost every day I took very long and hard hikes, climbing up a lot and training myself, losing weight (yay!), and getting a nice tan.
As I already wrote, my vampires / guardian angels Kissy and Lou came over and we went canyoning. They also helped me getting into the garage where I had my bike (I discovered I did not have the key, and since there is a small space between the garage door and the ceiling, they lifted me until I could slip in and open the door from the inside. I’m not even going to tell how DIRTY I got!!!). By the time they went home, we had had such a great time together, they were already making plans to come back.

By the next night they had made up their mind, and in less than 48 hours Lou ringed me
Lou “Hey DDgirl where are you?”
ME: “Hey Lou, whazzup? I’m at the river, sunbathing”
Lou “Ok we’re coming over, but I can’t see you”
ME “Well I’m kinda hidden under the bridge, if you look right down...”

I was a bit surprised however, since it was not Lou and Kissy: it was Lou and his girlfriend (hot girlfriend, I shall say). Kissy apparently had an argument with his parents and had to stay home. Still I didn’t expect Lou’s chick to come as well: he had made it pretty clear that he’s kind of over their relationship even though she’s nice and cute, and he wanted t be single and have fun with his male friends (which apparently include me… no comment).

Lou’s girl turned out to be cool, and there were two other friends with them. Lou, his chick and I went running (and I have to say all my training really paid off!), played beach volley and made plans for the next days. I had to go back to the Parent’s place for the next day (Saturday), but I would be back on Sunday morning in order to go canyoning all together.
That Friday night I did not have dinner (like most days) and when we met for drinks at the bar Lou immediately ordered a bucket of screw driver. Lou and I drank most of it, and then, ignoring my protests, he bought another one. I had to meet the Sponsor 40km down the valley on the next day at 10AM, but the only bus was leaving at 6AM so I did not want to get too drunk! Lou shut me up promising he would drive me to meet dad, and so we drank and drank…
Just as I started to fell more tired than tipsy (it was 2AM), Lou looked at me, touched my shoulder and said “Let me bring you home, DDgirl”.
It was a bit strange because my place was just 300 metres away, and I really was okay, just tired, but he insisted so he took me home, and the next morning he kept his promise and drove me to my meeting with the Sponsor.

(bonus) Summer story: my two vampires

6 years ago I was spending New Years Eve here in the mountains with the usual bunch of friends, when my neighbour announced that two other kids from his hometown would be coming over and staying at his place (I was naturally the most concerned since I was in charge of the cooking).
And so I met Kissy and Lou. What I did not know before they came was that Kissy (who is a bunch of years younger than me) was 15 at the time, and had his right arm casted. Somehow I was quickly given the role of keeping an eye on Kissy, and everything went nice and smooth for the evening, and alcohol flushed away lot of things for everyone. By 1am most of the guys were wasted and one guy started arguing with me over nothing. I wanted to duck out, but we were on a balcony and he was standing on my way, when suddenly he said he was going to throw me off the balcony and moved towards me. He was a big guy, and I was totally scared, when little Kissy appeared out of nowhere between the guy and me, and somehow (wrestling and convincing) changed his mind. I was so grateful I was almost speechless!
Later on we went home, and the boys had made Kissy drink too much, so I was almost carrying him and somehow I ended up sharing the couch with him because no one else wanted to take care of him. Eventually he was sick of course, and needed help because of his cast. We went back to sleep and when I woke again around 4am he was nowhere to be found. Only after a few minutes I thought about checking the balcony: outside it was snowing and around minus 15 celsius, and he was passed out there, wearing nothing but his underwear! Kissy was so tiny at the time I lifted him and carried him to the coach, where i piled covers on the two of us and hugged him for a while to warm him. He seemed a little, lost puppy!

After that night, Kissy "adopted" me as a kind of aunt, and we always met in the mountains for partying, until I left for France. We stayed in touch, with him and Lou, but I didn't see Kissy over three years.

A few days ago, Kissy and Lou called me and proposed to come to the mountains and have fun together. I said sure, gimme a call when you're here and wondered off on my favourite footpath. When we met, I had a hard time hiding my shock. My two boys have grown up, and somehow seem to have come out from the Twilight saga.
Lou (who is 23 but looks a bit more mature) has turned to this 1.90mt blond guy, with a perfect body and light blue eyes I have sofar only seen in cats.
Kissy (who is now 21) is over 1.80mt, he has exactly the same hair cut and colour as Edward Cullen. He is well trained too, but most of all, he is a charmer. Where was my puppy? Hell, I was speechless.

My two vampires immediately turned out to be helpful: somehow I dud not have the key to open my garage, so the two of them liftem me until I could slip through the small space between the door and the ceiling, get inside and open from the inside: I never would have managed to do it on my own!
And then the fun began: we spent a couple of days hiking, laying in sun, rafting and canyoning. And of course partying with the other friends at night!
Soon everybody else started c
Referring to Lou and Kissy as to my guardian angels, which is so true! First of all because, over the years, I had trained Kissy to behave with me (opening doors for me, helpin my was on steps and things like that: apparently this is also helping him in cahrming teenagers).
But there is more: we'd go canyoning and the boys would help me through the highest cliffs to jump (Kissy hugs me (he does that all the time) and then jump off to show me it was easy, while Lou would stay with me until I built enough bravado to go. This way I have managed to jump off 12 and even 14mt, when I usually don't jump over 10). They would insist walking me home at night. Whatever, they are the nicest guys and I adore my guardiana angels/vampires!!

Ps: I have typed this on my blackberry, so - did not proof read... Sorry!

The Lyskamm project

Since the first time I climbed on of Monte Rosa peaks, I’ve been wanting to climb the Lyskamm

(this pic is not very impressive, but I think it's classy!)

This peak has been kind of calling me for the past 7 years or so. For those who don’t know a thing about mountain hiking, climbing and so on, it’s a tough one. It’s difficult, and it’s slightly dangerous. Difficult, because you have to climb up on a path which is never larger than 60cm (2 feet) and often smaller, and on both sides there is a fall of over half a mile. Dangerous, because sometimes the snow form a kind of frame suspended in the void, so if you miscalculate the path, well, you fall.

Whatever, this peak has been HAUNTING my dreams people. Now I’ve finally convinced the Sponsor, and we’re going to give it a try in 10 days or so. His only condition was that, for once, we hire a guide, in order to avoid the risk of walking on snow-frames (we both feel we still lack experience in this field).
And, should I manage to do it, I’ll be a better person.
Well I know this sounds stupid, but somehow I will, because my self confidence will improve SIGNIFICANTLY.
and if you wanna see more, just type Lyskamm on google images and take a look…

PS yeah, I know, my feet are still so and so from the last time, but you know what? I DON’T GIVE A DAMN!!! (Girls just wanna have fun man…)

Frostbites

After getting back from the North East job, I had planned to climb one of Monte Rosa peaks with the Sponsor who had charged me to guide two of his colleagues.
We left on Saturday morning, and within an hour I started having serious issues about the women capacity to do the climb the next day. They were slow, not trained enough, overweight and prone to complain a lot. I tried to cheer them up by telling them stories about the mountain, took some weight off their backpacks, but I wasn’t optimistic about the next day. I realised quickly that the Sponsor only agreed to have the two of them with us because he owed them (they had recently performed some successful surgery someone in the family or something like that).
Mind you, it’s not like I didn’t like them or I was hostile or anything: it’s just that high mountain is a tough place. Whatever.
Struggling through the wind, we got to the first refuge, and although we should have climbed 30 more minutes to the second one, I knew already that the ladies were so afraid of the wind that they would have had serious trouble going on. So I got it and explained the situation to the keeper, a cute guy with impressive green eyes. He told me they were almost full but he knew me by name and would manage to find some place for us. I was a bit stunned that he knew me, but thanked him and added that if there was little place I could leave the ladies here and climb up and get them in the morning, just to let me know, but he told me he would find a solution.
So we stayed, and Green Eyes really pampered us even though he WAS busy (they were over the full capacity of the refuge). I made friends with a waitress which may or may not be Green Eyes sister (same eyes, same hair, same smile…), tried to give a hand where I thought I could help and so on. In the meanwhile the ladies and the Sponsor (who had brought along another man as well) kept saying GE was interested in me..
GE ended finding us a pretty room! And I’m sure that he put someone else on the floor in order to make room for us, but hey, I didn’t complain. During the evening, GE’s sister (assuming they are indeed siblings) asked me if I was training to be a guide! I was totally proud of this, but of course it isn’t so and I had to say no..

I got up at 4.30 and it took me almost half an hour to persuade the ladies that, if they wanted to do the climb, we were already late! We had breakfast, GE wished me luck for the day, I flashed him my best smile and out we were. During the night, however, I had a bad surprise: my period was early! And my period is the only thing that gives me problems in high altitude, ouch!
The day was pretty cold, the ladies were slow, and I was freezing. By the time we reached 4,000 mt altitude, I knew we wouldn’t make it, but I was hoping to climb a smaller peak in order to give them at least some satisfaction! 50 meters below the peak, however, I started hearing a weird noise. Since I know a bit about mountain sickness, I paid attention: one of the ladies made a strange noise when breathing. This could only mean she was going to have pulmonary oedema. I already knew the weather was too bad for helicopters, so we could only try to climb down as fast as we could and hope. It was bad, because my hands and feet were freezing, but I knew we couldn’t stop. I went real fast, trying to move my hands as much as possible and praying that my feet would carry me long enough. I almost run, slowing down only to pass crevasses, and we went down to 3700 mt so fast that the lady was fine. I explained her my concerns (I did not want her to panic before), and she said I was probably right and thanked me.
By this time, my hands were hurting badly and I took 5 minutes to warm them a bit. I was still concerned by my feet, but at least they did not hurt, so I thought it was better to get to the refuge and take my hiking boots of to heat them. And so we did.
But when we got there I knew my feet were not right, I heated them but had very little sensibility, and they hurt badly at the same time. At least I did not see much of GE. Later in the day we climbed the rest of our way down, and it was tough on my feet. In addiction, I also crossed paths with B. and his wife, but by the time I was so in pain I couldn’t care less. GE sister, by the way, asked if she could join us so she didn’t have to go the whole way on her own, so we chatted a little and agreed to go for drinks during my vacations.

When we finally got down I was in such pain I could barely talk. Both of my toes had experienced severe frostbites, and the other light frostbites.
It took me almost a week to walk again, and I still cannot wear anything but sneakers or flip flops….. but I still think of Green Eyes!

Freeride pics

Back from the Haute Route

I believed in it, I believed in myself, and in the end, I gave it all. And that’s why I proved to be strong, I proved to be more than able, without hesitating a single second.

Here’s how it went.

On Saturday morning, we started the Haute Route from Chamonix, on a perfect day: the sun was shining, there was very little wind, the weather was warm and the snow perfect. We hiked up the first length, and then we had to go down a vertical ditch: the first half we ensured us with a rope, while the second half was free climbing, with crampons and an ice axe, our skis attached to the backpack. I was leading, and it was so exciting, not to mention the incredible panorama!
We proceeded by climbing up another passage which was way more difficult than the first one, but then again I’m better when it’s a matter of skills than of strength.
When we finally got to the hut where we were spending the night, the weather had already started turning bad, a cold wind was blowing, and we were glad to go inside and give ourselves a rest. There were people from everywhere: USA, Canada, Spain, Switzerland (of course!), France, Sweden and the three of us. Although everyone was older than I, I still had a laugh with a lot of people, everyone was there for the same reason after all!

On the next morning, the wind was blowing up to 160kmh (almost 100 miles per hour), there was less than 5 metres of visibility, and lots of snow falling.
We started our trek, we had to ski down 1600 mt of altitude down the glacier, and it was tough, since the wind kept making us fall and so on, but we managed everything pretty well.
We continued the day by climbing up to the next refuge, and it was a mess because, although the wind had lessened, the visibility had gotten even worse, so we had a hard time in actually FINDING the hut.
On the next morning, snow was still falling, but we were way too motivated to surrender! So we climbed up to the next peak, but once up there we realized that we could not cross and go down on the other side without provoking an avalanche.
So we made our way back in order to find another passage, but we called the keeper of the hut were we were going to, to let him know we were going to be late. Only, he told us that due to the newly fallen snow, the way up to the refuge was way too risky, and that avalanches were sure fall during the afternoon.
So we had no choice but to renounce, since I didn’t have the whole week of vacation we could not afford to stop for a whole day (and the weather forecast were bad for the rest of the week either.

As I said, I am however proud of myself. Next year we’re giving it another chance, it’s sad we had to give up, but those who know the mountains know that this is part of the game, so even if we did not reach Zermatt, I’m glad of what we did, together dad and I.
At the same time, the emotions of the climbing, of the panorama, of the storms, were so great and deep, it was definitely worth it. And next week I’ll have some pics to post!!!