I'm hanging outside in Zinal, Switzerland listening to U2 typing this blog, looking at the mountains and thanking God that it's so beautiful out! We just finished a beautiful meal at the hotel and 2 glasses of wine. The glasses of wine are important here because.....well you just run out of things to talk about with people after a week, especially people who you don't really know...know what I'm saying? I did break down and told the story of me misrepresenting Noah...if you haven't heard that story ask me sometime after I've had a glass of wine. :)
Back to the subject at hand. The trip is going well. Did you know that every person on this trip has run a marathon and holds a masters or PhD in something...EXCEPT me. And then they ask what mountain we're looking at and I answer, "Let me check the map". Yeah, this trip is really building my self esteem, but hey - I can hold a conversation about all sorts of things, even if I have no idea what their talking about. Did I tell you about the conversation with the Oxford professor over dinner? It was about the separation of the Scottish church, English church and the government....yikes....and I asked woefully ignorant questions and tried with all my might to follow the conversation. Good thing it was just a dinner conversation and not a client on the tour or I would have clearly left all tips on the table.
I digress. The tour is going well - we're 7 passes into it with 2 more to go. We had an exciting afternoon crossing a pass with thunder and lightening. I got to use my "strong" voice and get my rather slow folks moving up that hill and down the otherside without being struck down by lightening. Whew! Kind of scary. It was raining so hard that we scurried up to the hut we were staying at in record time only to sit their for the next few hours in awkward conversation. Seriously, you can't talk for hours about nothing. :)
Tomorrow we're heading to Gruben and then finish the following day by going to Zermatt. I'm happy the most difficult is behind us and we've got only 5000' to climb tomorrow. Today Troy asked if anyone wanted to go another 3 hours up hills for a "side hike" and I said...no thanks, sorry boss. I know my limits and I'm getting close to them - I've been hiking almost every day for 4 weeks and I'm getting tired. So no, I don't want to add 6 miles onto a 10 mile day, thank you very much.
I best post this and get to bed so that I'm not so "sparky" on the trail tomorrow. Best to you all and I'll try to get some pictures added soon.
Back to the subject at hand. The trip is going well. Did you know that every person on this trip has run a marathon and holds a masters or PhD in something...EXCEPT me. And then they ask what mountain we're looking at and I answer, "Let me check the map". Yeah, this trip is really building my self esteem, but hey - I can hold a conversation about all sorts of things, even if I have no idea what their talking about. Did I tell you about the conversation with the Oxford professor over dinner? It was about the separation of the Scottish church, English church and the government....yikes....and I asked woefully ignorant questions and tried with all my might to follow the conversation. Good thing it was just a dinner conversation and not a client on the tour or I would have clearly left all tips on the table.
I digress. The tour is going well - we're 7 passes into it with 2 more to go. We had an exciting afternoon crossing a pass with thunder and lightening. I got to use my "strong" voice and get my rather slow folks moving up that hill and down the otherside without being struck down by lightening. Whew! Kind of scary. It was raining so hard that we scurried up to the hut we were staying at in record time only to sit their for the next few hours in awkward conversation. Seriously, you can't talk for hours about nothing. :)
Tomorrow we're heading to Gruben and then finish the following day by going to Zermatt. I'm happy the most difficult is behind us and we've got only 5000' to climb tomorrow. Today Troy asked if anyone wanted to go another 3 hours up hills for a "side hike" and I said...no thanks, sorry boss. I know my limits and I'm getting close to them - I've been hiking almost every day for 4 weeks and I'm getting tired. So no, I don't want to add 6 miles onto a 10 mile day, thank you very much.
I best post this and get to bed so that I'm not so "sparky" on the trail tomorrow. Best to you all and I'll try to get some pictures added soon.
The Louvie hut where we spent the first night.
Hiking down the pass.
A view from the top of the pass on August 4th, 2011
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