vol bivouac
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(written a couple weeks ago)
After a true water logging in Switzerland and Austria, we opted to jump down to the southern Alps. Thankfully, my parents were game for a big change of plans as they were meeting us in Austria and they had planned to hike there. They met us in Innsbruck in the pouring rain and we all ran together to Sudtirol, a region that was part of Austria until after WWI when it became part of Italy. From St. Ulrich, we took a cable car to the ridge where we began our first hike in the Dolomiti. The weather was still unstable, so our pace had to be swift, but we were all blown away by how dramatic the scenery was. We knew that the pass would be the crux of the hike, but Sati and I were not expecting to bring Joyce and Egils on a hike with cables! Heh heh. It’s one thing to lead friends on hiking or canyoneering or BC snowboarding routes. It’s another thing altogether to bring your 60-something and 70-something year old mother and step-father on a trail in a foreign land. And like the Italian families we see here climbing steep, rocky, muddy trails through these mountains, mom and Egils were champs! They smiled and laughed right through the hardest parts (even on our next, more difficult, climb). We arrived at Refugio Puez right at beer thirty and sat in awe of the landscape among sheep and rabbits, surrounded by people of all ages who just love to hike. Awesome.
(written a few days ago)
A couple days ago, we jumped on a train just to be in a warm, dry place for a while and make a bit of progress on the journey. As soon as we stepped out of the train station in Klosters, I could tell that our last town in Switzerland was going to wring us out for more Frankencents than we wanted to spend. After wandering around the pristine town in the drenching rain looking for a place to stay for the night, we were pointed to the Adventure Hostel. The room was 120 CHF (~ $145). Did I mention that this is a room at a hostel? But we took it. It was clearly going to be the cheapest option. Besides, the place was basically a place for guests of this mom and pop adventure company. The proprietor, Wim, is a super sweet paraglider pilot guy. I was so happy to find a friendly Swiss guy who was willing to chat with us. I think it was about three sentences into our conversation when he revealed that he is Belgian and he moved to Switzerland for the quiet. Well, he certainly got that! It’s the quietest place on Earth.
These sheep can´t be real. Whole flocks stand motionless near rocks. For hours.
(written sometime last week)
I have to admit that I often felt like a dirtbag hiking through France. The French people are stylish relaxed, sipping pastis or coffee and loving life in town, not on the trails. For a place that reveres its mountaineers, there were so few distance hikers… until we reached Chamonix. Suddenly, everyone walking around had an ice axe and a farmer tan. Returning to the campground loaded down with grocery bags, we noticed a steady stream of semi-rough-looking folks headed in the same direction also carrying grocery bags. At camp, everyone else was also cooking their pasta meal amid piles of gear. We were just two more adventurers in the crowd. Everyone else was climbing Mont Blanc, but for the first time in weeks, we blended in.
(Written 7/2/2011 as well)
The French have quant little towns down to a science.
The big valleys in the French alps get REALLY HOT.
Annecy, the paragliding mecca is really fancy.
Often trails don’t go or don’t go where you want them to.
The mountains are big.
(Written 7/2/2011 – Sorry for the delay, the keyboards here are really different!)
Bonjour,
First of all let me say that we both have fallen in love with France. Where else can you hike through alpine meadows in the morning, paraglide into a random village, enjoy a pastis in the afternoon and find a field to camp in before dark? The people are joyful and down to earth and can melt my heart with the way they sing their greetings and thank yous. We are learning a bit of French, but must rely on hand gestures and good humor to get information (few people in the places we are traveling speak English). This has proven to have quite lengthy and tiring consequences from time to time.
While we’re out wandering through the Alps this summer we wanted you to be able to follow us, see where we are and what we’re up to. So, we created the “Where are They” doohickey! By clicking on “Where are They” on the bottom navigation for this page (yep, right down there) you can view a map that will show you where we are (amazing!). The map is updated when we use our GPS. Every time we use our GPS to find out where we are, you’ll know too. What’s even better is if we have our GPS running while we’re hiking or flying the map will update and you’ll be able to watch our progress in almost real-time. That way, when we get that epic XC flight you can watch it unfold! On top of that, you can send us messages right from “Where are They.” How awesome is that?!
We are officially weighed in…Down to the gram!
We’re both super excited about how our pack weights for our trans-alps trip have turned out. Both our base pack weights are nice and light, our paragliding gear comes in at about half of a standard kit and our total pack weights are looking sweet. Melody’s pack weighs 31.5lbs with 3 days food and fuel and mine is 36.9lbs with the same. Now that we can carry across the Alps!
It amazes me how much gear we can make for a trip on which we are each only taking one backpack. But, oh, how much these backpacks can hold! Sati and I have been busy in our shop making and customizing gear for our trans-Alps trip. Here is a list of what we’ve made or modified so far: