Tuesday, July 13, 2010

An inconvenient truth

After Rob's excursion over the ledge, we decided to take it easy for a few days. We had two more days before break day... The first day we hiked the early stage, cut out the middle part with a bus trip to the tongue of the glacier, and then put on the gaitors to cross the snow field ahead. It was melting snow on top of ice on top of rock. I went first, inhaled, exhaled, attempting to make myself as light as possible, and moved. That went well for the most part. There was a really hairy steep spot, but I managed over it, exhaling, putting the imaginary wings on -tip tap, tip tap - over the whole thing. I made it to the top, but wasn't able to see Rob due to a dip in the mountain. It took suspiciously long for him to appear... He had ventured on another excursion down the hill, causing two avalanches and I'm sure major glacial erosion - how inconvient. The poles came in handy again, helping him to stop, strike a pose, and work his way up again. Let me tell you, I was glad to see him in one piece with no major injuries - just a few cuts in his hands.

After a short downhill track, we arrived at our hut. We spent a leisurely afternoon, chatting with various other hikers, one looking and sounding like a white Morgan Freeman (coinciding nicely with our earlier march of the penguins).

We hit the mattress camp early, ear plugs way in for a good night sleep, as Morgan Freeman was warning us earlier that he'd be marching his penguins all night long.

Petra reporting from a train, about the hike to Braunschweiger Huette in between Oetztal and Pitztal. More to come shortly.

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