Oh, how sweet. I touched some of you with my love of a gorgeous sculpture. I don't care how many times you've seen that sculpture in an art book, postcard, or in replication.. I bet the same feelings will rush over each of you when you see him in all his true grandeur under a beautiful bright white dome, standing all alone in this huge open space at the intersection of two wings in the Instituto d'Academia. Wow!
Well, Florence is a great city! I love the history and the vivacity, the fashion, the food the tall buildings, the presence of so many young university types, the river with its fish and otters.. yes, I spotted an otter. Hilary, I thought it was a beaver, but its tail was narrow.. definitely an otter. I actually saw three. Nice to see them outside of the zoo, ya know. But, now I leave Florence. I arranged my tickets so that I leave today around 2pm and stop in Pisa for the day to see the leaning tower, have a quick cappaccino and then hang out in a bar or train station until my 2:40am! departure to Nice. From Nice I change quickly onto a train for Marseille and then directly on to Aix en Provence where I will hopefully be greeted by the family for which I am babysitting this week. Then, on the following Sunday or Monday, I will have them drop me off in Apt, which is the central location for climbers who are cragging in Boux. I'll be camped there for at least two weeks, hitting the Verdon Gorge and Ceuse at some point. I don't know when I'll find another computer, so hang in there. I will be back in touch! Oh, another new twist in my plan is that I will probably be going to Germany from France to climb with Swen Schultz in Eichenstein...or something like that in Eastern Germany.. Now, it's not set, but I would love to see Germany and this guy is a great guy, a friend of Tim and Susan Wolfe. And he is a bold leader, which you have to be to climb in this area... so I've been told. You tie knotts and shove them into cracks and things. It's very traditional and only the strictest of climbing ethics prevail. Anyway, have a wonderful few weeks if I don't write until Germany...though, come on. I really doubt that will be the case, don't you. Gawd, I'm gonna miss you guys!! Bye.
Monday, September 12, 2005
Utah - Italy 2001 (10)
Love at first sight... I always said I thought I believed in it, but now I know I definitely do! My heart is heavy as I leave Florence tomorrow with my first real "love at first sight" staying behind. It was such a simple encounter. I was just wandering through a museum, listening intently to the audio guide while the Britsh accent in my ears explained some of Michealangelo's earlier works. Then I turned one major corner in the museum and there he was, standing out above all the tourists, not looking at me, but I do think he knew I was there. His skin was soft and pale, untouched by the sun (or so I thought). His body was perfect as if it were sculpted. Every detail was proportionately correct! The splendid veins of life ran horizontally accross his right hand, dancing with the delicate bones ... continuing up his arm and standing out in that wonderful spot on a man's arm, up the center of his bicep, below the shoulder. His brow was furrowed, wrinkled in deep thought. I figured he must have been studying this painting of the Madonna that he was staring right at. He was so intent in his gaze that my stares went unoticed. I wasn't the only one looking. His hair was lying perfectly on his head in loads of individual locks of splendid curls, each owning its respective place above his demanding eyes. His legs were also strong and appeared perfect in every way. His ass was tight, had to notice, and again... Perfect! I imagine to the touch as well as to the eye. His torso and shoulders joined together in a slight tilt over his wonderful hips as he stared off into the distance. Over his left shoulder, he had slung something.. maybe his jacket and his left arm was bent gracefully while his left hand held the item confidently in place next to his neck. I got up the courage to walk closer. I circled around him like a shark and so oblivious was he that I could take in every detail without shame. I again noticed that I wasn't the only one. Others were walking around him, making comments similar to my thoughts. I became jealous. And then I learned his name. The name of the man with the perfect nose and subtly smiling lips. The man whose hands could hold me safely for the rest of my life. The man whose anatomy I knew as well as my own after staring for so long. The man that I would have to pull myself away from because my legs would not go willingly.... The man. The man who was never more than a boy.....................................................................................................
Utah - Italy 2001 (9)
-song-
The Hills don't exist in the sounds of Florence!! Such a terrible thing... mopeds every wheeeeerrrree!!
-endsong-
No, not that bad. Florence is very alive and gorgeous and for you History buffs...it's got lots of old shit too. Oh - I was gonna tone down the language a bit. Sorry. Well. We arrived safely and sadly from Cortina. The train ride sucked as it fell right during the nap of the kids and they were a cranky lot! But, when all was said and done and everyone was done being aggro on everyone else, we were happy to be inFlorence. In fact, we even went out after all that travelling. We threw down a couple of beers, a pizza, some pasta, some brushetta (without Mozzarella??) ThePub would be shocked! We didn't really even know where we were eating and it ended being right next to that Ufizi Museum. We're going there tomorrow. That's where the real David Sculpture is and a few other rad sculptures that have been plucked from the city and relocated there for preservation, leaving nothing but frauds around the city. It's amazing how many things they replicated and substituted within the city to save the art of the old ages.
Did I mention how old this city is? Today we went on a three hour walking tour of the city. Let's see if I can muster some memory of the historical journey and give you the highlights...Well, as you're walking around in Florence, all about you see this big metal rings on the walls of the buildings, most of which were palaces..these are all still in place from the days of tying your horse up outside while you went in for a beer with your bro's. Rumor has it, horse alarms weren't a big seller in those days. The architecture of the palaces is interesting. On the first floor they used cyclopse stones that are super buldgey (bul.jee) and act as a protection or fortress for the first floor of the palaces. I thought they would make for some great bouldering! The second floors are a little less obtrusive, though not yet super smooth and finally the refined smooth stones of the top floors, where the family spent their 'quality' time together. Also, in many of the palace walls there is a tiny door... like, tiny...about 3/4 foot high with bars around it. These little doors are for charity work. When the rich would have big feasts, they would always have much left over. A servant on the inside would open the door and ration out the left-overs to the peasants in the street. The other way that the rich could ease their conscience about their wretched lives would be to donate sculptures and money to the churches... but the first mode of donation was just more simple and still made them feel all warm and fuzzy all over.
A river runs through Florence and all but one bridge on the river is an original. All of the others were ruined in World War...uh oh...1?...yeah. WWI. On that one bridge that still stands, they used to slaughter animals for sale and throw the carcasses into the river... yeah, real nice... but then the Medicci family came in with all their grandeur ideas about the Rennaicance.. Rennasance.. Rebirth.. and they decided to make Firenze (Florence) a much betterplace, including more sanitary, so the butchering on the bridge was tossed out and instead, shops for selling gold lined the bridge from one end to the other.. Guess what. They still do. Yeah. I bought me a nugget on a rope chain.. uh, nope.
So, we checked out the Duomo.. The big church where the first dome was placed. That church actually sat without a top on it and the weather gods shat inside for years, until a dude whose name I forget, swore he was worthy of a shot at building a dome and did so. His dome was all rad and stuff and everyone was happy, but this guy was very into simplicity and forbade any artwork being placed on his dome... which for the times, I mean come on, dude! So, as soon as he died, they painted the hell out of it with mass frescos. Actually, funny thing about those frescos. One of the two artists who did the frescos has rarely been heard of when talking Rennaisance cause he did a silly thing. Let me tell you what he did. He painted this wonderful fresco filling the dome. It depicted all kinds of people being judged and half going to hell and the other half rejoicing in heaven. Well, this fresco dude chose people in town as his subjects. He put all of his friends in Heaven and all of his enemies in Hell. Someone in the hell scene sued him, however, that happened back then, I don't know.. He ended up not ever being comissioned to do any work again, which is a true shame cause he was really really talented! Shame I don't remember his name.. Something likeGenicci, Micheavelli, Donatelli, Davinci, none of which are right! So, in that dome, there are two huge cracks right down the sides. The dome builder was alive to see that happen and he was devastated, but later on.... much later... architects learned that without those cracks, that dome would no longer be, so thank god the dome cracked, right?
We also spotted a bunch of Mideivil towers that have since been wedged between more modern buildings. Story goes that the feuding families would build islands of towers to see who could go the highest. Friends living side by side in these towers had to lay planks from third story windows to go see their friends cause it was far too dangerous to just go to the front door. Man, times were tough back then.
Speaking of tough times, the life and times of sculptors was rough. The competition and the discoveries were at their highest point at this time. Like...Donatelli...I think, who was pioneering that whole perspective thing. No one was ever able to figure out how to make things look real in sculptures or in art. He also figured out that sculptures that would sit ten feet off the ground had to be done a little differently than those which would sit at eye level... such as bigger heads, hands, smaller torsos, etc.
OK!! Enough history! Damn, I can't believe I remembered as much as I did. Let's move ahead a millenium or two! Suddenly, it's not fashionable to walk about in BD Alpine pants with a frumpy downjacket. I feel like a pickle among roses. Everywhere I turn there is a woman clad in Armani, sequin bras with an open, short satin jacket, cheeks glossy like those in a Calvin Klein ad, hair straight as nails with jagged ends and hips that are not really there but trying to exist via hip huggin' tight leather pants decorated delicately with a chain belt and met at the bottom by sexy platform sandals. Tres Sheik. When you think of me here among the ex-runway walkers, just picture in your mind - red-headed orphan Annie standing next to Elle McPherson. That do it for ya? Ha Ha. That's ok. I know they'd be crushed under my backpack... now that's cool. Picture me, a small, white, blonde sherpa. Cause that's what I look like with my pack on! It's huge! It towers over my head and it weighs sooo much... 75 pounds at this point. I even sent a load of shit home with the Wolfes and I still have so much.. When you throw in a climbing rope, climbing shoes, stove, tent, sleeping bag, therma rest and down jacket... suddenly, your a walking Bulk Hogan. If I were only staying in hostels, not climbing and not cooking my own food.. I would have a book bag!
Maps are great things aren't they!? It never ceases to amaze me, how amazed I get at the realization that the street I thought I was on according to the map, actually does match the sign on the wall of the corner building.... I know. It's a little whacko. But there is just something wonderful about the confirmation you recieve when you finally see a sign on a building telling you where you are and low and behold, you are on the right street. I guess I've been let down before by my own inadequacies with following maps.. or those inadequacies of people into whose hands I placed my trust and my walking feet. Did I just shroom causeI don't know what I just wrote. I mean, I do, but it seems like you may have a hard time understanding it..?? I think maybe that all stems from following topos of routes I'm climbing which are often times a challenge to the imagination cause different symbols represent different features on the rock.. ya know, for a fake example.. /// this symbol on a topo may be a diagonalling crack system.. Well, I must say that we all definitely have our own notion of what a crack actually is. I think of Sasquatch in LCC or Exasperator in Squamish, while these Germans who made the guide to the Dolomites look at a slight weakness in the vertical system of limestone and say... By George.. I do believe we have Crack! Uh, nooouh.
So, ya know how in Latin America, India and Venice...you just don't trust the water. Not from the taps, not in restaurants, no way. You always buy bottled. It seems to be the case in many cities. But in Italy, in so many unexpected places they have public fountains that are constantly spewing water into drains or bird bath type wells. Everyone can wash their hands, wash their fruit, wash their faces, fillup their water bottles and even drink straight from it. Now that is a wonderful thing. I did all 5 of those on my way to this computer. I washed my grapes! I had to share the fountain with a pigeon but niether of us minded!
Animals in Italy. I've seen many. But here's a quick list. Chamois, Marmot, Red Fox, Viper, Squirrel, Cat, Dog, Fish, Tadpole, Minnow, Crow, Other birds, Cows (oh, the lovely cows!!), sheep (with their oh-so-cute baby lambs!), goats (with hair I swear!), elephant...oh, that was in Todd's little book that I've read twenty-five hundred times.. just kidding, bunnies, and maybe that's it!? Oh - I forgot to tell you about this..
We all went up to Cinque Torri, a group of 5 rock towers atop a mountain.. for a big celebration of the 100 year anniversary of the first ascent of Cinque Torre. There was singing and a BBQ... The singing was the Cortina Choir. We were there with some older Italian friends from the campsite and they were all singing. It was great! There were plates all over the place with little lambs' legs sitting on them, surrounded by left over mush of something... I had to have it all cleaned off our table before I could even sit down cause it was too reminicent of the Holocaust as it lives in my imagination.. I just don't need to look at the bones of my dead friends while I'm celebrating something so great as a 100 year old ascent of a tower with no gear like we have now.. Nothing close to the gear and shoes and ropes that we have now.. Amazing. We got to the event via chair lift, as it sits atop a ski mountain, but Italy law prevents use of lifts after dark, so the kids, Tim and Susan rode down on an access road in an old army truck with some seniors andI walked down with the Italian possee... In myJapanese shoes, as they called them..(flip flops) They all thought I was nuts, but I had no idea I would be walking down a mountain at 10pm in the freezing air with a meteor shower overhead.. I was glad I came the way I did, cause it made a memory! Caio.
The Hills don't exist in the sounds of Florence!! Such a terrible thing... mopeds every wheeeeerrrree!!
-endsong-
No, not that bad. Florence is very alive and gorgeous and for you History buffs...it's got lots of old shit too. Oh - I was gonna tone down the language a bit. Sorry. Well. We arrived safely and sadly from Cortina. The train ride sucked as it fell right during the nap of the kids and they were a cranky lot! But, when all was said and done and everyone was done being aggro on everyone else, we were happy to be inFlorence. In fact, we even went out after all that travelling. We threw down a couple of beers, a pizza, some pasta, some brushetta (without Mozzarella??) ThePub would be shocked! We didn't really even know where we were eating and it ended being right next to that Ufizi Museum. We're going there tomorrow. That's where the real David Sculpture is and a few other rad sculptures that have been plucked from the city and relocated there for preservation, leaving nothing but frauds around the city. It's amazing how many things they replicated and substituted within the city to save the art of the old ages.
Did I mention how old this city is? Today we went on a three hour walking tour of the city. Let's see if I can muster some memory of the historical journey and give you the highlights...Well, as you're walking around in Florence, all about you see this big metal rings on the walls of the buildings, most of which were palaces..these are all still in place from the days of tying your horse up outside while you went in for a beer with your bro's. Rumor has it, horse alarms weren't a big seller in those days. The architecture of the palaces is interesting. On the first floor they used cyclopse stones that are super buldgey (bul.jee) and act as a protection or fortress for the first floor of the palaces. I thought they would make for some great bouldering! The second floors are a little less obtrusive, though not yet super smooth and finally the refined smooth stones of the top floors, where the family spent their 'quality' time together. Also, in many of the palace walls there is a tiny door... like, tiny...about 3/4 foot high with bars around it. These little doors are for charity work. When the rich would have big feasts, they would always have much left over. A servant on the inside would open the door and ration out the left-overs to the peasants in the street. The other way that the rich could ease their conscience about their wretched lives would be to donate sculptures and money to the churches... but the first mode of donation was just more simple and still made them feel all warm and fuzzy all over.
A river runs through Florence and all but one bridge on the river is an original. All of the others were ruined in World War...uh oh...1?...yeah. WWI. On that one bridge that still stands, they used to slaughter animals for sale and throw the carcasses into the river... yeah, real nice... but then the Medicci family came in with all their grandeur ideas about the Rennaicance.. Rennasance.. Rebirth.. and they decided to make Firenze (Florence) a much betterplace, including more sanitary, so the butchering on the bridge was tossed out and instead, shops for selling gold lined the bridge from one end to the other.. Guess what. They still do. Yeah. I bought me a nugget on a rope chain.. uh, nope.
So, we checked out the Duomo.. The big church where the first dome was placed. That church actually sat without a top on it and the weather gods shat inside for years, until a dude whose name I forget, swore he was worthy of a shot at building a dome and did so. His dome was all rad and stuff and everyone was happy, but this guy was very into simplicity and forbade any artwork being placed on his dome... which for the times, I mean come on, dude! So, as soon as he died, they painted the hell out of it with mass frescos. Actually, funny thing about those frescos. One of the two artists who did the frescos has rarely been heard of when talking Rennaisance cause he did a silly thing. Let me tell you what he did. He painted this wonderful fresco filling the dome. It depicted all kinds of people being judged and half going to hell and the other half rejoicing in heaven. Well, this fresco dude chose people in town as his subjects. He put all of his friends in Heaven and all of his enemies in Hell. Someone in the hell scene sued him, however, that happened back then, I don't know.. He ended up not ever being comissioned to do any work again, which is a true shame cause he was really really talented! Shame I don't remember his name.. Something likeGenicci, Micheavelli, Donatelli, Davinci, none of which are right! So, in that dome, there are two huge cracks right down the sides. The dome builder was alive to see that happen and he was devastated, but later on.... much later... architects learned that without those cracks, that dome would no longer be, so thank god the dome cracked, right?
We also spotted a bunch of Mideivil towers that have since been wedged between more modern buildings. Story goes that the feuding families would build islands of towers to see who could go the highest. Friends living side by side in these towers had to lay planks from third story windows to go see their friends cause it was far too dangerous to just go to the front door. Man, times were tough back then.
Speaking of tough times, the life and times of sculptors was rough. The competition and the discoveries were at their highest point at this time. Like...Donatelli...I think, who was pioneering that whole perspective thing. No one was ever able to figure out how to make things look real in sculptures or in art. He also figured out that sculptures that would sit ten feet off the ground had to be done a little differently than those which would sit at eye level... such as bigger heads, hands, smaller torsos, etc.
OK!! Enough history! Damn, I can't believe I remembered as much as I did. Let's move ahead a millenium or two! Suddenly, it's not fashionable to walk about in BD Alpine pants with a frumpy downjacket. I feel like a pickle among roses. Everywhere I turn there is a woman clad in Armani, sequin bras with an open, short satin jacket, cheeks glossy like those in a Calvin Klein ad, hair straight as nails with jagged ends and hips that are not really there but trying to exist via hip huggin' tight leather pants decorated delicately with a chain belt and met at the bottom by sexy platform sandals. Tres Sheik. When you think of me here among the ex-runway walkers, just picture in your mind - red-headed orphan Annie standing next to Elle McPherson. That do it for ya? Ha Ha. That's ok. I know they'd be crushed under my backpack... now that's cool. Picture me, a small, white, blonde sherpa. Cause that's what I look like with my pack on! It's huge! It towers over my head and it weighs sooo much... 75 pounds at this point. I even sent a load of shit home with the Wolfes and I still have so much.. When you throw in a climbing rope, climbing shoes, stove, tent, sleeping bag, therma rest and down jacket... suddenly, your a walking Bulk Hogan. If I were only staying in hostels, not climbing and not cooking my own food.. I would have a book bag!
Maps are great things aren't they!? It never ceases to amaze me, how amazed I get at the realization that the street I thought I was on according to the map, actually does match the sign on the wall of the corner building.... I know. It's a little whacko. But there is just something wonderful about the confirmation you recieve when you finally see a sign on a building telling you where you are and low and behold, you are on the right street. I guess I've been let down before by my own inadequacies with following maps.. or those inadequacies of people into whose hands I placed my trust and my walking feet. Did I just shroom causeI don't know what I just wrote. I mean, I do, but it seems like you may have a hard time understanding it..?? I think maybe that all stems from following topos of routes I'm climbing which are often times a challenge to the imagination cause different symbols represent different features on the rock.. ya know, for a fake example.. /// this symbol on a topo may be a diagonalling crack system.. Well, I must say that we all definitely have our own notion of what a crack actually is. I think of Sasquatch in LCC or Exasperator in Squamish, while these Germans who made the guide to the Dolomites look at a slight weakness in the vertical system of limestone and say... By George.. I do believe we have Crack! Uh, nooouh.
So, ya know how in Latin America, India and Venice...you just don't trust the water. Not from the taps, not in restaurants, no way. You always buy bottled. It seems to be the case in many cities. But in Italy, in so many unexpected places they have public fountains that are constantly spewing water into drains or bird bath type wells. Everyone can wash their hands, wash their fruit, wash their faces, fillup their water bottles and even drink straight from it. Now that is a wonderful thing. I did all 5 of those on my way to this computer. I washed my grapes! I had to share the fountain with a pigeon but niether of us minded!
Animals in Italy. I've seen many. But here's a quick list. Chamois, Marmot, Red Fox, Viper, Squirrel, Cat, Dog, Fish, Tadpole, Minnow, Crow, Other birds, Cows (oh, the lovely cows!!), sheep (with their oh-so-cute baby lambs!), goats (with hair I swear!), elephant...oh, that was in Todd's little book that I've read twenty-five hundred times.. just kidding, bunnies, and maybe that's it!? Oh - I forgot to tell you about this..
We all went up to Cinque Torri, a group of 5 rock towers atop a mountain.. for a big celebration of the 100 year anniversary of the first ascent of Cinque Torre. There was singing and a BBQ... The singing was the Cortina Choir. We were there with some older Italian friends from the campsite and they were all singing. It was great! There were plates all over the place with little lambs' legs sitting on them, surrounded by left over mush of something... I had to have it all cleaned off our table before I could even sit down cause it was too reminicent of the Holocaust as it lives in my imagination.. I just don't need to look at the bones of my dead friends while I'm celebrating something so great as a 100 year old ascent of a tower with no gear like we have now.. Nothing close to the gear and shoes and ropes that we have now.. Amazing. We got to the event via chair lift, as it sits atop a ski mountain, but Italy law prevents use of lifts after dark, so the kids, Tim and Susan rode down on an access road in an old army truck with some seniors andI walked down with the Italian possee... In myJapanese shoes, as they called them..(flip flops) They all thought I was nuts, but I had no idea I would be walking down a mountain at 10pm in the freezing air with a meteor shower overhead.. I was glad I came the way I did, cause it made a memory! Caio.
Utah - Italy 2001 (8)
Well, today is Tuesday the 14th of August and tomorrow we depart Cortina and go to Florence for a few days of sight seeing. I am very sad to say Ciao to gli Dolomiti! They are so damn beautiful and special to me. I recommend all of you pay a visit.. and unlike was done to me, I will not shun Cortina. Even though it is more expensive and touristy, it is beautiful and the amenities are awesome! The access to the climbing is unbeatable and the camping is deluxe... maybe spendy, but deluxe and worth it. Well, I did get to sqeeze in one last day of climbing that really made the whole trip.
Susan and I set out yesterday morning around 8:30am to catch the lift to the top of Lagazuoi, a mountain pass. (We could have taken on an hour and a half approach, gotten up at 5:30 and been on the summit by noon, but why rush our last day??) So, we take the lift. The only other climbers on the lift with us (2 sets of 2) are sure enough, going to the same damn route as us. One group, well, it was a given that they would go before us as one of the two was a famous Italian mountain guide, Bruno, who is just a rocket. The other group assured us that they were fast... theyprobably felt like they could cause we were just a couple of girls...well, they LIED!!! majorly!! But, that's ok. We didn't want to rush anyway, right? Speaking of the female long route contigency....we only saw one other woman besides ourselves climbing on the long routes in the Dolomites.. it was that one tough chic that wiggled her invisible willy in my face and pinned me against the wall with her rope until I was singing country songs.. 'sometimes your the windsheild, sometimes your the bug...' I was the bug! So, Susan and I have decided we rock! ;)
Anyway, we get to the base and get rolling, third in line. The sky is blue and clear and we ditched our rain gear in the car to cut down on weight. This route is ONLY 9 pitches. A baby compared to the other big daddies we've climbed and a cynch! We should be at the top no later than 2pm! Right??? Well, thank god we weren't in any kind of HURRY!! Bruno did take off with client in tow. Twice on the route, his poor unknowing client pulled on the wrong rock and went for a sail through the skies. One time it was on a poorly protected traverse pitch and when he fell, it was way off sideways and down, flipping around in the air and colliding into the wall with his back.. luckily, he was wearing a back pack. They pulled the next little lip and we never saw them again. Meanwhile, grandpa was ahead of us leading his young friend up every pitch. This guy was really nice, in his 60's, and spoke a little English. Still, he should have let us pass! Unfortunately, everytime we got to the bealy, he was just leaving it and didn't leave us much of an option for passage. This route was great though! I ended up accidentally leading two of the hardest pitches! Susan accidentally went off route once and led a super hard straight in hand crack on bullet proof black rock! Super exposed and scary! We had to rap that pitch down and to the left to get back on route.. so we both had our wits about us on this one, cause we had to! I had to do these crazy ass face climbing moves on small orange flakes about 15 feet above a shitty piton on the 8th pitch.. it made my legs wobbley for the entirity of the pitch, which didn't ease up but rather took me into an overhanging dihedral with a fingers lieback! It was great and once at the belay, I was so proud of myself for not aiding the pitch on fixed gear like gramps did. Once at the top, and out of water, we still had two hours to get down which included an exposed ridge walk, scree skiiing and an uphill grunt followed by a knee jarring downhill trail.. I was soooooo thirsty, I thought I was going to keel over. I passed up four piles of dirty snow, wishing so bad that snow was always safe to eat... but in lieu of the fact that I watched a heard of Chamois walk all over it all day long... better not.. Until, the fifth patch of snow...I'm sorry! I was desperate! I scraped all the dirt off and dug deep into the three foot tall pile.. And man, did that snow taste like the freshest, best italian ice in the whole damn world. Suddenly the forlorn look on my face that resembles Yosemite Sam in the desert was replaced by a smile of great relief!! Once down, we bumped into gramps again, whose name is actually Colorado - no lie and no bad interpretation.. He and his partner bought us beers in the bar at the top of the pass and then we parted.. But one good thing did come out of that encounter.. Oh, he just happens to own a house in FINALE!! which is one of my up and coming destinations.. sea side climbing on cliffs in N. Italy, remember? So, we exchanged e-mail and turns out that he'll be there in Sept., same as me!
Now, let me just tell you all about this crazy turn of events!! My friend Dani, who lives in the Big Apple and works for a law firm hooked me up big time!! A partner in her firm and his wife are going to Provence, France from the 18th to the 25th of August and they desperately needed a babysitter for their 3-yr old and 6-mo. old! Well, she e-mailed me and it's gonna happen. Straight from Florence, I take a train to Provence and meet this family! They are basically going to be paying for my whole european trip with the wages they'll be giving me... Plus, no camping! I get my own bedroom and my days are free to me and the nights are spent with the kids! What in the world is my deal! How does this stuff happen to me!? What are the chances, I mean really? Well, I will miss out on yet another week of solo time, and a week of climbing, and I'll be looking at a mountain of diapers still, but...it is so worth it!! Thanks again Dani!! :) Well, I must be running along!! I don't know what it will be like, finding internets fast and easy from here on out, so keep in touch and don't be bummed if my messages take a hiatus! I don't know what to expect either!! Yikes... Sing it 'On my own, pretending he's besiiiide me, all alone, ..something, something, something... without him, I feel my something, something.... ' Les Mis, can't ya tell... Ciao.
Susan and I set out yesterday morning around 8:30am to catch the lift to the top of Lagazuoi, a mountain pass. (We could have taken on an hour and a half approach, gotten up at 5:30 and been on the summit by noon, but why rush our last day??) So, we take the lift. The only other climbers on the lift with us (2 sets of 2) are sure enough, going to the same damn route as us. One group, well, it was a given that they would go before us as one of the two was a famous Italian mountain guide, Bruno, who is just a rocket. The other group assured us that they were fast... theyprobably felt like they could cause we were just a couple of girls...well, they LIED!!! majorly!! But, that's ok. We didn't want to rush anyway, right? Speaking of the female long route contigency....we only saw one other woman besides ourselves climbing on the long routes in the Dolomites.. it was that one tough chic that wiggled her invisible willy in my face and pinned me against the wall with her rope until I was singing country songs.. 'sometimes your the windsheild, sometimes your the bug...' I was the bug! So, Susan and I have decided we rock! ;)
Anyway, we get to the base and get rolling, third in line. The sky is blue and clear and we ditched our rain gear in the car to cut down on weight. This route is ONLY 9 pitches. A baby compared to the other big daddies we've climbed and a cynch! We should be at the top no later than 2pm! Right??? Well, thank god we weren't in any kind of HURRY!! Bruno did take off with client in tow. Twice on the route, his poor unknowing client pulled on the wrong rock and went for a sail through the skies. One time it was on a poorly protected traverse pitch and when he fell, it was way off sideways and down, flipping around in the air and colliding into the wall with his back.. luckily, he was wearing a back pack. They pulled the next little lip and we never saw them again. Meanwhile, grandpa was ahead of us leading his young friend up every pitch. This guy was really nice, in his 60's, and spoke a little English. Still, he should have let us pass! Unfortunately, everytime we got to the bealy, he was just leaving it and didn't leave us much of an option for passage. This route was great though! I ended up accidentally leading two of the hardest pitches! Susan accidentally went off route once and led a super hard straight in hand crack on bullet proof black rock! Super exposed and scary! We had to rap that pitch down and to the left to get back on route.. so we both had our wits about us on this one, cause we had to! I had to do these crazy ass face climbing moves on small orange flakes about 15 feet above a shitty piton on the 8th pitch.. it made my legs wobbley for the entirity of the pitch, which didn't ease up but rather took me into an overhanging dihedral with a fingers lieback! It was great and once at the belay, I was so proud of myself for not aiding the pitch on fixed gear like gramps did. Once at the top, and out of water, we still had two hours to get down which included an exposed ridge walk, scree skiiing and an uphill grunt followed by a knee jarring downhill trail.. I was soooooo thirsty, I thought I was going to keel over. I passed up four piles of dirty snow, wishing so bad that snow was always safe to eat... but in lieu of the fact that I watched a heard of Chamois walk all over it all day long... better not.. Until, the fifth patch of snow...I'm sorry! I was desperate! I scraped all the dirt off and dug deep into the three foot tall pile.. And man, did that snow taste like the freshest, best italian ice in the whole damn world. Suddenly the forlorn look on my face that resembles Yosemite Sam in the desert was replaced by a smile of great relief!! Once down, we bumped into gramps again, whose name is actually Colorado - no lie and no bad interpretation.. He and his partner bought us beers in the bar at the top of the pass and then we parted.. But one good thing did come out of that encounter.. Oh, he just happens to own a house in FINALE!! which is one of my up and coming destinations.. sea side climbing on cliffs in N. Italy, remember? So, we exchanged e-mail and turns out that he'll be there in Sept., same as me!
Now, let me just tell you all about this crazy turn of events!! My friend Dani, who lives in the Big Apple and works for a law firm hooked me up big time!! A partner in her firm and his wife are going to Provence, France from the 18th to the 25th of August and they desperately needed a babysitter for their 3-yr old and 6-mo. old! Well, she e-mailed me and it's gonna happen. Straight from Florence, I take a train to Provence and meet this family! They are basically going to be paying for my whole european trip with the wages they'll be giving me... Plus, no camping! I get my own bedroom and my days are free to me and the nights are spent with the kids! What in the world is my deal! How does this stuff happen to me!? What are the chances, I mean really? Well, I will miss out on yet another week of solo time, and a week of climbing, and I'll be looking at a mountain of diapers still, but...it is so worth it!! Thanks again Dani!! :) Well, I must be running along!! I don't know what it will be like, finding internets fast and easy from here on out, so keep in touch and don't be bummed if my messages take a hiatus! I don't know what to expect either!! Yikes... Sing it 'On my own, pretending he's besiiiide me, all alone, ..something, something, something... without him, I feel my something, something.... ' Les Mis, can't ya tell... Ciao.
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