We thought the gondola took you down to the glacier. We found out that we had to walk down there. So we started down the path. We got to the end of the path and found that if we wanted to get down to the glacier, we had to climb down 3 sets of iron ladders that are set into steep rock walls. There were two sets of ladders side by side. One for the people going down and one for the people going up.
MaryAnn and Eva opted to watch us from the top. It was a little unnerving to start out, but wasn't too bad. The first set of ladders was 78 steps. It had a little break where we had to step over to the next set which was only 21 steps. The next set was only 34. I decided to stop there. I saw people climbing up and they looked completely out of breath. These were people who appeared to be in shape. Jack, Jim, and Laurie decided to go down all the way. Okay, so I wimped out. The stairs were longer and steeper. Laurie had counted them. There were two sets of 85.
The other reason I was concerned was because the sky looked threatening. I didn't want to be climbing on those ladders in the rain.
Jim and Jack walked in the glacier and Laurie headed up the ladder. Once I knew she was close, I started up to the others. I felt a few sprinkles. There was, also a large group coming and I didn't want to slow everyone down. The going up was much easier. I was up before I knew it. Now I wished I went all the way down. It was really a neat thing to do.
From here, we still had a long way to go to get back to town. My legs were feeling the days work already.
Out of nowhere there was a little beverage and ice cream stand. The place was filled with beautiful flowers. There was a little pond with birch trees and flower boxes around it. It was a nice little stop.
We could see the town, but still had quite a distance to go. The sky was still dark and we could now hear thunder. We moved along and the rain came shortly afterwards. By the time we got down it was about 4:30. The rain had stopped and it looked brighter.
We did our grocery shopping for dinner and then waited for the bus. Yesterday was packed with kids. We were hoping that wouldn't be the case this time. We were wrong. There wasn't a place to move. The aisle was packed. The bus driver yelled something back at the kids. They laughed and booed him. Then a passenger yelled at the kids. I thought there might be a riot. The bus finally got going. The only thing was, he never stopped at the bus stop. He just kept going. People were yelling to stop. He finally did, way beyond our stop. I have no clue as to what the bus driver was doing.
We walked back to the apartment. We snacked, showered, and relaxed. Everyone made their own dinner.
I wanted to mention that Mary Ann brought me a few things from people at work. One was a t-shirt that they made for their picnic. The other was a gift from Cathy. She has been reading my journal and read about my Dr. Bonner's episode in Nepal. She sent me a bottle. Thank you Cathy! I have used it already.
August 26, 2003
We slept in the morning. Only to about 8:00. We were taking the day off from hiking. Five of us walked into town. Eva stayed at the apartment because she wasn't feeling well. Some of us went to the tourist information place to get information on hiking. They told us to go across the street. So along we went. Laurie and I were trying to get information on a hike that we were thinking of doing. It is from Chamonix, France to Zermatt, Switzerland. It is suppose to take about 14 days. The only thing we have to figure out is where to put our stuff that we don't want to carry.
We also checked out paragliding. It looked so great the other day. I want to do it. So we are thinking of doing it on Friday. Maybe we can get everyone to go!
The rest of the day we walked around. The shops close for a couple of hours during lunch hour. We met everyone at 2:00. Eva felt better and walked down. It is about a 20 minute walk from the apartment.
Eva, MaryAnn, and I sat at a cafe and had lunch. The rest went there own ways. After lunch we walked around. I don't know where the time went. It was 5:30 by the time we got home.
Laurie and Eva took a bus to the next town to check out a concert. Jim made pasta for the rest of us. It was time for bed before we even knew it.
August 27, 2003
We were out of the apartment walking down to the Le Brevent Telepherique. This is the cable car that I talked about the other day where we had to hike up to. This was another two cable car system, but only went up to 8285. The cars only fit 6 people comfortably. It was a very smooth ride.
We got up to the top about 9:00. That is the easiest way to get to the top of the mountain. From there, we hiked down to Lac du Brevent, which is a lake. It was about 1200 feet down. We then had to hike almost all the way back up. It was a good climb back up, but it felt good.
We continued on the path to Planpraz. This was where the paragliders take off from. They were done for the day. We followed the path down into town. My feet were aching from all of the downhill, which is what we did most of the day. Once in town we went to go sign-up for paragliding. They told us tomorrow would be a better day because Friday was suppose to rain. We got everyone to sign up for the adventure. Three people are to go at 11:30 and the other three at 12:30. This is so cool. I am excited, but scared. Last night I had trouble sleeping because I was thinking I must be crazy. Well at least I am not alone. So hopefully there will be another entry after this one. You will just have to wait and see.
