Hiking Mt. Berneuse ... And the Rescue Team

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Today was our last day of class. In the afternoon we decided to hike the 2,048 meters up to Mt. Berneuse. This was all fine until the "off roading" attempt. I LOVE rock climbing, but as I am the smallest and quickest I was up in front scaling rocks, plowing through vegetation, finding my "chi" as I was instructed to do by my friend Cassie. In fact, I thought I was in some "Climbing Mt. Everest" movie and kind of lost myself in the adrenaline rush. Next thing I know I am calling down to my friends and heard nothing back. I tried looking down and it seemed as if the path I took up the mountain was no where to be found! Marc's voice finally came in my direction and as I yelled down to him all I could hear was my own echo! In the meantime I manage to create just a tiny landslide by stepping on a loose rock. As I am trying to make my way back down, I can see over to the real path and there are about 30 or so people gathered around staring straight up at me waving their arms for me to go in the other direction. Yes, I evidently had a fan club ... all trying to safely get me back on solid ground. I can hear my friends way down below and somehow made my way to them quite a while later. At that point, the rescue team was already there and with us walking inbetween them we made it down to the bottom. I am pretty scratched up and we of course needed the pharmacy for whatever strange rashes we obtained from the vegetation. We decided to still take the path up to the top ... as we had come this far. When we got there the fog had settled and the damn view was completely gone! Since we are now the talk of the town, they allowed us to travel back down the 2,048 meters in the gondola free of charge.

Although I will NEVER rock climb without a guide again, I must say it was the most incredible feeling ... to accomplish such an enormous task. The near death experience of course will always stay in my mind and the next time I decide to hike an enormous mountain I will stay on the man made paths.

The other pictures are from our last day of class and our last dinner out. I head back to the states in the morning. Will see you all across the pond!

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