Hey everyone... Life goes on and so does Rai!
First let me recount my journey yesterday. Eric, SantaCruz, and I went on a great hike right on up to the Eiger. First we made our way across the valley and over the river, up the steep hill to Wengen (ven-gun) which brings to mind the day when an ex-beau told me that this is the town of his namesake... oh, how the memories can rush in so uninvitedly.. thank god the base jumpers across the valley gave me sufficient distraction... We met those base jumpers the night before, as they were staying in our hostel. One of the crew had a Nat'l Geographic jacket on and went out that day with a big camera on his head, so who knows... Anyway, in Wengen we had a cup of cafe aulait, caffe latte, cafe creme, cafe with milk... and took in the view of this cool little town nestled high above Lauterbrunnen. As we sat there, relishing the view, we realized that we were both on the same page, titled, LAZY SOB's so we decided to take a train to Wengernalp, one stop from the top... and what a great choice.
From there we rejoined the Eigerschlieterznickensldeutclat.... just kidding, theEiger trail and at a fork veered up and away from all others. It was a bit more burly, ahem.. toughsters comin' through.. Wanna know what happened next... Well, we stumbled upon, yes... cows! Of course I wanted my picture with them so I walked up to this one who just looked at me and then went back to grazing, for the moment. As soon as I put my arm around her, she turned aruond and busted out the sand paper cuffs... IOW she wrapped her big course tongue around my wrist and just licked away. Oh how great that was! Eric was even amused...and he eats meat. ;) So we kept trudging our way to the top, balancing atop a cute little ridge with snow on one side and none on the other....aspect. Then we spotted a herd of Chamois in the field below.. those goatalope things that are also like deer. At the top we had only about an hour to go to be meters from the base of the northface of the Eiger, but from our perch on the West Face we could see that the single track trail was laiden with snow and would pose trouble to the silly american gal with the runners on... I got that look all day. Little do they know I used to be a mean mountain machine. From there, we headed down to the saddle with the big town of Grindlewald way down the hill on our right.
At the saddle we wandered through some touristy shops and I bought myself a cowbell... a little one on an embroidered necklacey type thing.. It jingled as I walked and I felt like one of the bro's. I swear this one cow winked at me when I trotted past. We jaunted down the trail like kids, bustin' big air on the lip of every turn and biffin' once in awhile... there will be snow in SLC when I get back, cause now that I have the lingo down, I think I can wear my pants around my knees too... hee hee.
So, are you ready for the biggest part of the whole thing....well, the whole time we were hiking up we were looking at glaciers with amazing blue walls where recent breaks had taken place, so what did we see... Well, we're just walking along, being our ususal sarcastic selves when all of a sudden like a plane and thunder together right in our ear, the snow starts belting down this glacier's face, crashing for a few hundred feet onto the ledge below then gushing between two rock walls and down another drop, like a water fall...It was the most powerful thing! Luckily it was far from all people, though you would never think that with the noise it was making. We felt very lucky to witness that! From there it started to rain so we put a spring in our step and then my knees started to ache like hell.. I'm just too old for all this. If you're still under 22 do it now.. get out while you can.. ;)
Well, a couple of hours later and via a different route we are back in Wengen. We barely make it to the supermercado to buy some fixins to cook back at the casita... but we do. And we kick down for a beer at the same time so we have company for the last 40 minutes or so. Thank god for that beer cause my knees were shot at that point. So bad that Eric quickly came up with this game to keep my mind off it.. It was silly, you have to give a clue that leads the other person to guess what you're thinking, and it is always a two word ryhming pair of some sort... ex. chubby feline = fat cat. Or dude with braids and a horned hat who normally sails but is spending time in the mountain... hiking viking.. ha! It worked for a few seconds. :) At the bottom, we kicked the Brit's ass in Gin Rummy again.. or should I say, I did! I'll pick up from there so you can rest.. bye
First let me recount my journey yesterday. Eric, SantaCruz, and I went on a great hike right on up to the Eiger. First we made our way across the valley and over the river, up the steep hill to Wengen (ven-gun) which brings to mind the day when an ex-beau told me that this is the town of his namesake... oh, how the memories can rush in so uninvitedly.. thank god the base jumpers across the valley gave me sufficient distraction... We met those base jumpers the night before, as they were staying in our hostel. One of the crew had a Nat'l Geographic jacket on and went out that day with a big camera on his head, so who knows... Anyway, in Wengen we had a cup of cafe aulait, caffe latte, cafe creme, cafe with milk... and took in the view of this cool little town nestled high above Lauterbrunnen. As we sat there, relishing the view, we realized that we were both on the same page, titled, LAZY SOB's so we decided to take a train to Wengernalp, one stop from the top... and what a great choice.
From there we rejoined the Eigerschlieterznickensldeutclat.... just kidding, theEiger trail and at a fork veered up and away from all others. It was a bit more burly, ahem.. toughsters comin' through.. Wanna know what happened next... Well, we stumbled upon, yes... cows! Of course I wanted my picture with them so I walked up to this one who just looked at me and then went back to grazing, for the moment. As soon as I put my arm around her, she turned aruond and busted out the sand paper cuffs... IOW she wrapped her big course tongue around my wrist and just licked away. Oh how great that was! Eric was even amused...and he eats meat. ;) So we kept trudging our way to the top, balancing atop a cute little ridge with snow on one side and none on the other....aspect. Then we spotted a herd of Chamois in the field below.. those goatalope things that are also like deer. At the top we had only about an hour to go to be meters from the base of the northface of the Eiger, but from our perch on the West Face we could see that the single track trail was laiden with snow and would pose trouble to the silly american gal with the runners on... I got that look all day. Little do they know I used to be a mean mountain machine. From there, we headed down to the saddle with the big town of Grindlewald way down the hill on our right.
At the saddle we wandered through some touristy shops and I bought myself a cowbell... a little one on an embroidered necklacey type thing.. It jingled as I walked and I felt like one of the bro's. I swear this one cow winked at me when I trotted past. We jaunted down the trail like kids, bustin' big air on the lip of every turn and biffin' once in awhile... there will be snow in SLC when I get back, cause now that I have the lingo down, I think I can wear my pants around my knees too... hee hee.
So, are you ready for the biggest part of the whole thing....well, the whole time we were hiking up we were looking at glaciers with amazing blue walls where recent breaks had taken place, so what did we see... Well, we're just walking along, being our ususal sarcastic selves when all of a sudden like a plane and thunder together right in our ear, the snow starts belting down this glacier's face, crashing for a few hundred feet onto the ledge below then gushing between two rock walls and down another drop, like a water fall...It was the most powerful thing! Luckily it was far from all people, though you would never think that with the noise it was making. We felt very lucky to witness that! From there it started to rain so we put a spring in our step and then my knees started to ache like hell.. I'm just too old for all this. If you're still under 22 do it now.. get out while you can.. ;)
Well, a couple of hours later and via a different route we are back in Wengen. We barely make it to the supermercado to buy some fixins to cook back at the casita... but we do. And we kick down for a beer at the same time so we have company for the last 40 minutes or so. Thank god for that beer cause my knees were shot at that point. So bad that Eric quickly came up with this game to keep my mind off it.. It was silly, you have to give a clue that leads the other person to guess what you're thinking, and it is always a two word ryhming pair of some sort... ex. chubby feline = fat cat. Or dude with braids and a horned hat who normally sails but is spending time in the mountain... hiking viking.. ha! It worked for a few seconds. :) At the bottom, we kicked the Brit's ass in Gin Rummy again.. or should I say, I did! I'll pick up from there so you can rest.. bye
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