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At the Base
This is the neighboring mountain of the one we climbed. We were all very optimistic at this point, and excited for our little hike. Happy Mother's Day!
We're now about to hear about Matthew's adventures hiking in the Alps!
My friend L'ubomír from Slovakia had some friends coming to town this weekend, so he asked a few of us if we wanted to go to Baerenshuetzklamm, a really cool place to hike about 40 minutes north of Graz. We all said yes, and so yesterday morning at about 11am, two cars pulled out of Graz and headed north to Mixnitz, a small village in the mountains. On the trip was: L'ubomír + 3 friends , me, Libor, Jana , Jevgenij , Ana , and Monika . We were all feelin' good and excited to go, all had lots of energy for our small hike.
About 45 minutes later, climbing a nearly vertical slope, having sweat out every single drop of fluid in all of our bodies, nobody was happy. We were literally climbing up the side of an Alp. We finally reached the place where the actual hiking began, called Baerenschutzklamm. This was an area that was full of waterfalls, and
First Waterfall
And so it began... you were able to walk in and around the waterfalls on a system of ladders and wooden stairs . It was an absolute blast, though tricky at times with the footing. We were sometimes walking horizontal, sometimes climbing vertically, basically in every direction you can think of on these ladders. It was very, very cool, and we got to see some amazing waterfalls. There's really not that much to describe, the pictures really just say it all.
After about 2 hours of climbing up the ladders and whatnot, we reached the "top," which was really just the midpoint. Most people only go to here, where there's a restaurant. We stopped, and in true Austrian fashion, had a beer to replenish our fluids. Sitting at the restaurant, we had to laugh because we were already higher up than the highest mountain in the Czech Republic, and weren't even at the top of the mountain we were aiming for. We then split into two groups, 5 and 5, one with the people who wanted to call it a day and go back to Graz, and the other 5 who wanted to
Waterfall
This is still near the bottom and really nothing special. keep going up to the peak. Seeing as I'm only going to live once, I of course decided to go up to the peak. The brave 5 set out: me, Libor, Jana, Ana, and Jevgenij.
We started on what looked like a regular road, and we were all quite optimistic . That road suddenly turned into rock climbing. We were by no means on the beaten path, but literally climbing up the side of the mountain. We had to stop often to take breaks just to catch our breath, it was so extreme. It took us nearly two hours to make it all the way. Along the way, we even saw snow, that's how high up we were! Finally, the ground level out, we could go a little slower, catch our breath, and we saw the cross that sits at the top of the peak. We all made the last climb up to the cross, where we all collapsed and enjoyed ourselves for a little while. The views were absolutely fantastic, we were literally sitting on top of a peak, something I'd never
Waterfall
They were everywhere. done before. On both sides were cliffs that just fell off into nothing. It was amazing. We stayed there for a little while, but it was already after 5pm at that point, and we wanted to make it all the way down before sunset, though that was still 3 hours away.
We set back out and, after a brief snowball fight in MAY, started the run back down. It took less time to make it back to the restaurant, but, as I said, it was a near vertical slope, so it was sort of a game of running and stopping, jumping from rock to rock, and trying not to kill ourselves on the way down. We made it back down to the restaurant in about 40 minutes, and then down to the very bottom where our car was in about an hour and 15 minutes. By this time, it was a little after 7 o'clock. After more than 7 hours of climbing, we all collapsed into the car, and drove back to Graz, where we got a kebap to replenish our sources. The five of us then split ways, and all went to our respective apartments to absolutely crash
First Bridge!
Jana on the first bridge we had to go over. and have the most rewarding sleep of our lives.
Anyways, there's really not that much to say, the pictures really just speak for themselves, so I hope you enjoy them!
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Hillary
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Falling
Glad you didn't fall! Anyway, much more exciting than all of our lives here..........