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!!!