Gaming Hike Weekend

This was a weekend where I all went to Switzerland I decided to take advantage of the wonderful scenery available already in our home Kartause. On that Friday night, September 26, Justin and I and some international students (lead by Metod) went up on a hike to the cave. It was a longer hike than someone might think, but only because of all the switchbacks. Once we got to the cave we entered through the small hold and slid down the gravel which was kind of dangerous because I hit my head on the ceiling many times. It widened up the further down we got but then just ended. Looking down, there was an extremely small hole filled with some water which we were going to slide down through the mud. It looked like it lead nowhere and just a small spot in the wall. But after being completely encased in rock and not being able to move arms or anything we had to wiggle our bodies to bring us out down into the next room which was about 5 meters down of wiggling. Then we lit up a bunch of candles all across to see where we were going. Then we blew them out and experienced compete and entire darkeness. It was a new experience putting your finger right infront of your eye and not being able to see it. you could hear each other’s heart beats. We finally started heading back up and making it back out into the sun and earth was like experiencing coming back to earth and off the moon, everything was so….so…alive. We knew we were dirty and wet but when we saw ourselves in the light it was ridiculous, but triumphant coming back to the Kartause. That night we hung out around the bonfire that was happening at the Kartause and had a nice 2 liter  bottle of Kartausenbrau with some of their fine pizza. After the bonfire, actually this might have been a different time what I will tell the story now anyways, me, John Paul, Brendan, Philip, Rob and Paul all went to the Kartause to get what we called man snack. This was of course beer and pizza. I had already had pizza, so I just went with them to your. At the bar there was a drunk Austrian you are offering up to five beers. we each took him up on it and it was great. But then he saw how fast I drank mine and he said he would buy me as many as I wanted as long as I shotgunned/chugged each one. I drank two more doing that. I was feeling pretty good and then I went to hang out with John Feeley. Justin Sofio was going camping Saturday night so I went back for the next night.
Saturday was the big day. Metod told me that he wanted to go to Otcher to go hiking. I want to go also sent to be highest mountain in that region of Austria. I gathered a couple other people including Liz Conte, John Feeley and Nick and Jamie to come along. We all came outside at about 10 o’clock figures in the LCI students’ van which Metod was driving. We drove for about half an hour deeper into the Austrian mountains,finally arriving at the base of the mountain. There was a small In their and we found out that it was actually a skiing Hill when it was covered with snow. We started out at the base climbing a very very steep part which would probably be considered a double black diamond. Once we got to the top of that we took a little break and continue to the next part which was even steeper: even though it was just green grass like a field. once we got to the top of that there wasn’t excellent lookout point and a rock sticking out of the ground on top of which I climbed and got a good picture in front of the Alps. There was just patches of snow at this point and it was kind of exciting to throw snowballs when people were expecting it.
Nick Winter decided he was going to turn around and go back down to the car. We continued on passing the first rock face and then ending up at the top where there was a ski lodge and the end of the ski lifts. We stopped at the lodge for a break, hung out with the dog that was hanging around there, and watched the parasailers down in the distance. Then Metod said it was time to continue so we get a series of switchbacks through another steep yield that was beginning to get more snow. by the top of this steep yield there was about 6 inches of snow everywhere. When we reached the top of this there was another little cabin and lookout spot that people would commonly go to and it was magnificent to see the Alps growing in the background. The temperature had also dropped probably 40° since the bottom of the mountain. I was just wearing my Penn State sweatshirt. Now we were going to continue up the backbone of the mountain. What I mean by that is we were gaining altitude by climbing the top of the mountain so that I our left and on our right was downhill. On the left was the direction  where our car was parked and ski lifts were and gaming. On the right was the direction of the snow covered Alps in the distance and Mariazell. At this point there was no shrubbery or trees it was all little plants like grass and once in a while at Bush but all of this was covered under snow. There are many rocks and as we continued up the trail became more and more slippery since the snow also increased with. A little bit further up the trail our sight off to the left of the mountain became zero because a storm cloud had blown up the side of the mountain and was blowing over the top which we were trying to climb. It would have been extremely frightening if the wind was blowing about 10 miles an hour faster since we were trying to maintain stability on the backbone of the mountain and a slip to either side, though not immediately disastrous, but we do and I one and falling off the mountain. I was impressed with Jamie since she liked hiking and was keeping up really well and really thought nothing of the whole experience except enjoying it. She wasn’t complaining like some of the others. This whole time our group had been spreading out further and further. Me Jamie and John were furtherst up and then Liz and the others were behind. Metod was leading the way though. We continued on and were getting close to the top he said. I found an awesome spot to get a picture in the snow in front of the alps so I laid down in the snow in short sleeves and Jamie got a  picture. We had not been able to see down to the left for a long time but finally that cloud was beginning to clear as we approached the top. When we finally got to the top We saw a huge steel cross about 25 feet high with the Alpha and Omega on it. That was awesome. Then we explored the top which was about the size of our property in Dublin OH. We got some pictures. I stood up on the one rock sticking out of the ground and the LCI students began cracking open their Czech beers and shared some with us. They chugged the rest as the customarily like to do after conquering a mountain. I had loved climbing mountains the entire time in Austria and it had become a theme and now especially, everything comes with the symbol of it too. The view was spectacular and I felt like I was on top of the world. The view of the real Alps kind of killed that though. We made a pyramid before heading back down and got a few more pictures. I was freezing and wet so I was ready. The way back down was very slippery especially since I was trying to go fast, but this made it fun. We were all staying in pretty close formation so it was fun. At one point we all rolled over each other. Some one got a neat picture of the result of me running down and tripping/flipping. Technically we were coming down the same way that we had gone up since there was no other way down, unless you wanted to die.  So we explored a little bit more what we didn’t stop for on the way down. Feeley and I found what looked like a sinkhole and went down to explore it. There seemed to be a cave but because we didn’t have flashlights there was no point in going down and getting face first stuck in a place we had no idea where it lead. So instead we climbed up a huge cliff just for fun to get back on the trail the opposite way. Back on the trail we continued the descent. I began to feel blisters forming and they were pretty painful when we reached that second lookout point and the steep field leading to the top of the ski lift. There we took another little break and tried to get in the ski lodge. No luck. We met some other nice Austrians along the way and continued our descent this time me and Jamie and Feeley occasionally running. I began to like Jamie a little more because of her sense of fun in that way. The last steep fields were ridiculous to descend so Dominka and the other guy that came with us went down what they thought was a more direct route. It was very hard to control your descent at that steepness in the field so it was more of a controlled falling. Finally getting to the bottom we saw Nick Winter chillin out by himself drinkin a beer. We all recounted the great sights we saw to him and he was like “ok” i get it. That was a great hike and so we returned to the Kartause and scarfed down dinner faster than many times before. Took a nice dip in the creek with the guys after that. Then about an hour later it was already time to leave again to go on the next hike with Sofio. Got my boots back on and we got all our stuff, tents, sleeping bags, 2 kegs of beer and all the food essentials. It was me Zack Eckert, Jessica Pankus and a few others. We headed up book mountain..(.this was now my 4th time.)..and got to the mini steel cross. Got some good pictures and it was starting to get dark since it was about 20 uhr. We then continued up what I still call the backbone of the mountain (I dont know if thats the technical term or not, maybe its a ridge, but i think thats when its a negative indent in the ground). So we reach the electrical towers and climb up that briefly and then continued to the trail. We went up the trail and I recommended going off to the right since thats the way I had been to the book before but we checked to see where the trail went. The trail ended and we almost camped there but we realized that having a fire could easily been seen and accessed there by the authorities (its illegal to have fires and is a 1000 euro fine, which none of us could afford). So we decided to go back and go up that trail instead of booking it straight up the side of the mountain. We kept going up pretty far and closer to the top until we found a flat area (or enough so) to pitch our tents. After we got the tents up (one was mine and the other was a canopy), we tried to build a fire in the depression in the group near the trail on the backbone. Sadly it took about 30 minutes for 3 guys to get it started in the darkness with all the tools we needed, including the petzel headlight I brought out. Once we had that going, it was obviously broke open the keg and distributed the beer we were set and started grill hot dogs. Mine exploded and a picture was taken and after everyone had eaten and drank their fill we joked around about what if we americans got caught with the fire and some of them reminisced about things I was never around for Sofio and Pankus went to high school together. Then all of a sudden someone came out of nowhere like they were going attack us but it was just Chris Imms on a hike with some other guys to the top. They stopped for a while and then continued  on. It was about 1 am and so we went to bed and set our alarm to climb the tower at the top of the mountain in the morning. We woke up around 5:45 to have enough time to finish climbing the mountain (we didn’t know how much was left) and continued up. Sunrise was supposed to be around 6:30. We got to the top at 6, early. So we climbed the tower anyways because it looked exciting to do in the dark and all 5 of us were on. I was the second one down from the top and I could feel this 150 ft. high steel tower starting to sway. Then I could see it swaying in relation to the light below us. Immediately clutch on really tight and I should mention that it is about 30 degrees outside. The metal tower was freezing the 3 of us that didn’t have gloves and so the indecision began. We had 15 minutes left before the sun was supposed to rise. Is it worth it to climb back down? Some said yes some said no, but since no one agreed we just stayed there freezing and complaining. Finally 6:30 came and we weren’t satisfied with the little bit of light that was the sun in the sky, especially since it amounted to nothing in pictures we tried to take with our camera. It was amazing though to see the light slowly come, as painful as it was, since slowly the mountains behind us and all of gaming and Keinberg became visible. We soon recognized the mountains behind us as the snow covered Alps to the southwest. We stayed there until the sun was almost halfway up and the guy at the bottom said hes getting off right now even if the sun came all the way up. My camera died so I only got few shots. The tower began to sway again and we all got off as quickly as we could. Then we started the hike back down the mountain after a shot of baileys and it was very pleasant to do this in the morning hours even though we were cold and really tired. Arrival, as always, back to the Kartause we heavenly. I got a shour and took a nap and hung out somemore around the Kartuase and I think there was a party later that night was the frat. I’m glad  stayed back that weekend and explored the beautiful area in which we were living.