10giugno1

We didn't plan on
climbing a mountain...in
addition to the suprise
birthday party (which was
SO fun) I threw for Joe, I
bought Joe crampons
and reserved a night in
Rifugio Vittorio Emanuele
II for his birthday -
another surprise. We
thought we would just go
poke around on the Gran
Paradiso glacier a bit, so
we brought our
harnesses and a rope
and of course the
crampons.
Right: Day 1- departure
from parking lot in Pont ~
2000 meters - gearing up
Below - the hike up to Rif.
V. Emanuele 2735
meters - it took us 2.5
hours

Right: The rifugio - when we checked in
the man asked me to fill out a paper with
our names and destination for the next day
- I hesitated and he said, "Gran Paradiso"
and I said, "Si." Not thinking that meant we
were climbing to the summit.

We also realized upon arrival it was like a
Base Camp - Joe looked around and said,
"I feel ill equipped - like the kid whose
mom sends him out to play in the snow
with socks on his hands"

The joint was hopping with FRENCH
people ( out of 150 people - I think maybe
5 were Italian - Monday was a holiday in
France and every other EU country, except
Italy) - a French company had schlepped
about 50 of their executives up there for a
team building event - to climb to the
summit of Gran Paradiso - complete with
high flying custom parkas, but the boots
and gear were rented. Which made me
think if these out-of-shape dudes can do it,
then maybe we can. We had all the
equipment except an ice axe but we could
rent them from the rifugio. Below: Joe
choosing the ice axe -hmm which one.
Ummm THE LUCKY ONE the one that will
save our lives if necessary.

Another reason to do the climb was that there was an amazing
window of perfect weather for it. It had been snowing and nasty, but
for the next 24 hours - only sun and blue skies. The man at the
rifugio asked us what time we would be having breakfast. 3.00 AM,
3.30, 4.00? How about 5? It takes about 5-6 hours to reach the
summit and at dinner we sat with a really nice French climbing club -
not part of the massive team building event. They were planning on
getting up at 3.00 and leaving by 4.00 to 'beat the rush' and said we
could join them. But we thought we would just wait until after the rush
and so woke up at 4.30. But because we were sleeping dormitory
style - we actually woke up at 3.00 AM with a bunch of other people
and as they were rookie rifugio guests they were making all kinds of
noise, which made the others say, "SHHHH S'IL VOUS PLAIT!!!" But
it didn't work - in rifugios you are not suppose to wear your boots up
in the sleeping quarters - for dirt and noise purposes - but these
guys were forgetting gear and stomping up and down - harnesses
clanging - ugh. So we got about 6 hours of very poor sleep.
Day 2: We were officially on the trail at 5.45 AM - A VERY late start for
climbing a mountain - but it was magical watching the sun come up
over the Alps.

Right: The night before the ascent
Below: Starting out

We met one of the guides who was herding the French
executives up the mountain, in the bathroom, the night
before and he said he thought only 10% would
summit...not a very good team building event in my opion.
Maybe a WFR selection process? But he gave us some
excellent advice, with toothpaste in his mouth, "Take it
Easy. Have Fun." Amen brother!

Left: During the 6 hour trek. We put the crampons on and
fastened the rope on our harnesses between us not soon
after departing. You know when you swim in the ocean
and try not to think of Jaws, well this was a bit of the same,
'Keep moving don't think of the bottomless glacier
crevices littered with unretrievable bodies.'

We did really well time wise until about 3500 meters and
that is when the altitude 'sickness' started to hit. We live in
the flat lands of Lombardia, so are not at all accustomed
to altitude and are only at our vacation house of 680
meters about once a month - so we are total altitude
wimps. Joe was dizzy and his heart was pounding. I felt
like I wanted to vomit. We had a lot of water but it had
become a frozen slushy as the temperatures were well
below freezing. We had to keep moving to prevent our
hands from freezing as we didn't have the hard core
moutaineering gloves only our stupid fleece ones -
(remember we thought we would be doddling around on
the glacier - not REALLY climbing the mountain). Joe is
sure he has mild frost bite (he doesn't).

The entire time we were thinking, we don't have to
summit, but then we started seeing people coming down
and apparently many of the out of shape French people
slept off the wine from the night before and didn't even go
up because the people who made it were true mountain
climbers. Thinking about quitting is quickly washed away
when you can actually see the top and people up there! If
they can do it - WE can!

The last 100 meters before the summit - were the
hardest, we could only take about 4 shuffling steps and
then have to rest - every step was a painstaking effort - I
felt pathetic. Many prayers and thanks were said silently,
before, during and after.

I LOVE crampons, they are the best things ever -
transforming anyone into a moutain goat - which totally
helped me feel more confident and not like I was going to
be pulled backwards from the weight of the pack + being
dizzy and exhausted.

Below: THE SUMMIT - a tiny ledge being whipped by wind
and freezing - you don't want to stay up there too long - no
matter how amazing the views are.

The descent - was WAY fast - it took us about 2 hours vs. the 6 to
get up there. We even slid part of the way. Look the color has
come back - we noticed at the top we were looking (and feeling)
pale and weird ....the altitude. Even though we were starving - food
sounded gross. We were good and used 50 sun block - Joe still
looks radioactive from mountain sun burn, I was wearing a trekking
hat on the way down + layers of 50 and 30 sun block - I am still
white - Joe is sort of glowing.

Left: The best tasting warm tea ever - we made it back to the
rifugio and then had to hike 2 hours down to the car...which is
worse - going up with burning thigh & butt muscles or going down
and all that knee pounding, toes shoved forward in boots pain? Oh
and the shoulder pain from the back packs...not so bad on the way
up as we were wearing all our gear, on the way down - crampons,
harnesses, sweaty wet clothes - a bag - o - bricks.

Below: I may not look like I am dying, but I am wanting to cry with
every step. And this picture was when we were finally almost on flat
ground - thank God.

We made it! We hiked/climbed for 11 hours that day - we rolled
back to the car 11 hours after we started that morning. We have
NEVER been so exhausted!

Happy Birthday Joe - we did it!!!