Mountains of Switzerland

Noelle writes:

As Simon put it when we reached the top of the mountain: "Thank f***! I`m alive!!!"

Today we are recovering after a 6.5 hour hike/climb up a Swiss mountain. In fact one we have skiied in the past.

Before we arrived in Switzerland I said there were two things I wanted to do while we were there: hike a mountain and have lunch and a beer at the restaurant on top and swim in a lake.

Jeanne (Simon`s cousin) has the week off of work and said she`d take us up a mountain. It turns out her new boyfriend Gilles has been climbing mountains since he was young and would be our guide. Now my visions of hiking the Swiss mountain did not include needing a guide (I was expecting it to be a relaxed affair). Anyhow we went along with plan and picked up a helmet and harness on the way to the mountain (this should have been my clue to what lay ahead).

We had a little over two hours of hiking straight up the mountain side which killed my calves and pretty much all of the muscles in my legs. Had a lovely lunch and then began our 3.5 hour via ferrata across and up the rock face of the mountain. Let`s just say I felt like I was Tom Cruise in that first scene of Mission Impossible, hanging from the rock with only an inch worth of steel cable between me and my death 100 feet below.

I was terrfied to begin with but gradually began to enjoy it and actually stopped thinking about the fact that there was nothing but air behind or below me.

The views were magnificent and by the time we got to the top of the mountain we felt great both because of what we had just achieved but also because we finally had something solid under our feet. We had just enough time to take some photos before the cloud and fog came in and enveloped us.

Thank you to Jeanne and Gilles for introducing us to a new and exciting sport. We highy recommend it to everyone but make sure you use the facilities before you set out!

More photos to follow shortly...