every year i go to Switzerland for about 2 weeks of hiking/climbing, last year i was there with 4 of my buddies.
that year i had 2 real amazing experiences there...
one was when we had hike to the "cabane de bertol" cabin at about 3300m altitude, it was a beautiful super warm day and when we arrived there in the late afternoon, the cabin was filled, there was maybe room for 35ppl or something and there were 45 at least, so they had to open the winter quarter for the extra people ....
long story short, imagine 45 sweaty mountain people packed in a tiny wooden room on a super hot summer night, it was bad....
after about 30min in there, i decided to move, i packed my blanket and moved outside onto the heli platform, the cabin owner had a lawn-chair up there, so i took it, kicked back and enjoyed the most beautiful star lit sky i've ever seen or even imagined, during the night the temperature stayed around freezing point so definitely bearable....
on that one night i didn't sleep but just chilled and gazed up to the stars for the entire night...
no shit, in that one night i counted 37 falling stars ...
I have no pics of the stars because i had no camera, but this pic is one from said heli platform, some years earlier...
The second experience was some days later, we had spent the night in an abandoned refuge and woke up around 3h at night to start climbing (we had to reach the top of our destined peak before noon, otherwise the snow would become too soft)
so after we reached the top, we descended back towards the valley and decided to chill a bit at the foot of the glacier, my friends decided to snack a bit, listen to some music, make pictures, rehydrate, etc. just chilling :)
i was still quite fit and stoked about our climb, so i had to do something with my energy, so i decided to go climb a nearby rocky peak about an hour climbing.
i departed solo with only my camelback, after about 30minutes climbing up rough but not so steep terrain i reach the ridge that leads directly to the top.
imagine a granite peak with a ridge to the side, the ridge is a steep tilted slab so you cant even walk on it, its left and right a sheer drop, so you have to constantly switch sides depending on where you have the best footholds...
so while i go up the ridge i'm climbing/hanging on the north side, the footholds start to disappear so i decided to switch to the other side, and right as i peek over the ridge, i see a huge male capricorn about 6 ft below me, on the other side. my breathing stops from sheer respect for such a huge animal, i watch it walk gently along the ridge, on terrain where every sane human would poop there pants.
i proceed to climb higher and higher on my side in an attempt to follow it, i can follow the animal for maybe 5 minutes before it hears me dropping a rock and it just runs off, down an almost vertical face, i was so amazed...
about 10 minutes later i reached the top and i was sure about it, this little 1 hour climb was definitely the best climb of my life !
south side, last part of the climb
^^that little spot is me, picture was made by another group that saw me climbing it and decided to make pictures :)
ps: excuse my spelling/grammer, i'm Belgian ;)
