Bardon-epic Climb

For the past millions of years, the African continent has been moving towards Europe. The result of this gradual friction - the Alps, rising as high as 15,000 feet above sea level. One of the workers at our lab, Pietro, says he much prefers hiking in the mountains over going to the beach. We thought he was a little crazy at first, until we tried it out ourselves. While a day on the beach can be relaxing (though more often than not the crowds get uncomfortable), nothing, and I mean nothing beats a day in the mountains.

Our journey starts from the town of Bardonecchia, at 1300m above sea level, which is already high in itself. Right from the train station, you can see the mountain that Kristen and I climbed - the Punta Melmise. Do note that the "peak" you see here is just a trick, so don't get fooled like we did. The real peak is hidden behind that one, an additional couple hundred meters up.

Our climb took us up about an additional 1000m up to a final elevation of 2310m. Needless to say, this was tiring, but it was well worth it! The beginning of the climb was really steep, so it seemed like the mountain may have been trying to send us a message.

Still, we persevered, and it ended up that halfway up the mountain, the path changed from a straight one to a serpentine one that made the climb much less steep... and better for our tiring legs. It was at about this point where we entered the wooded area of the climb, which had its own good share of alpine flora.

Soon enough, though, we got above the tree line and were offered spectacular views of the city and surrounding mountains.

And keep in mind that we're only about halfway up at this point! But let's take a breather and enjoy a panorama.

Now this may not be the most famous mountains in the Alps (perhaps you have heard of Mont Blanc or the Matterhorn?), but this doesn't mean it's any worse a climb. We actually ran into a couple who happened to be looking for the same mountain. Along the way, an old man passed us and walked all the way to the top slowly but without taking any breaks whatsoever. Kristen and I were in great awe.

Towards the top, we encountered some mountain bikers (they must have tremendous legs), and two other guys who were joyriding on the mountains on their motocross bikes. Seems like lots of fun but lots of danger as well. Anyway, this high up, the trees are gone and are instead replaced by beautiful landscapes made of shale and quartz. There is also a small bit of flora here as well which is just as pretty.

These shale stones were interesting. They sounded hollow but were solid as any other stone. Parts of the stone were also really reflective - the sides that faced the sun. Maybe they tan kind of like we do...

The highlight photo of the trip, a 360º panorama from the peak! Sadly, I needed to reduce the image size so it could be uploaded to Blogger, but I think it should still do. Click on it!

Due to some technical difficulties, I don't have any pictures of myself standing gloriously atop the mountain. It's okay, though, because it's only a photo, which is nothing compared to the experience.

On the way down though, which is my less preferred segment, Kristen did get a handful of pictures of me struggling. Here, I am hanging for dear life (well, at least trying to avoid injury) while taking an unnecessary shortcut, which was probably both the craziest and dumbest thing I have done this summer. Looking at the thumbnail photo it doesn't seem so bad, but if you zoom in maybe you can see what I mean. You definitely do not want to slide down and land your butt on one of those rocks!

Anyway let's just say it was much more exciting from where I was and much funnier from where Kristen was. It seemed like a good idea to me at the time, until I realized that the descent was much longer than my depth perception had told me, and much more technical as well. I should say that I blame this adrenaline-filled experience on Kristen, as she had drifted off onto a different path from the one we came from and I needed to rejoin her.

I also should note that overall the descent was actually not dangerous. There are multiple marked pathways that go down the mountain that one can simply walk down. It's worth it to have one of those true climbing experiences though, I suppose...

Also, just because it is not always steep on the way down doesn't mean we can always stay on our feet. Let's just say my shoes are not the best for hiking - how was I supposed to expect before coming here that this was what I'd be doing on the weekends? Anyway, Kristen - who is much more adept at walking downhill than I am - had a feeling that I would hit the deck right about here.

And she was right. That dirt was slippery!

After we got down, we had some gelato. An old man was able to basically cut everyone in line by kind of drifting off in front of people and then politely asking "sorry, did you get here before I did?" It's hard not to let him ahead after that, and that's basically what everyone did! Still, over here in Italy, we should be thankful that there was a line for gelato in the first place - the concept of the queue has not really worked its way into common use here.

Anyway, it was easy falling asleep on the train ride home, and it was easy falling asleep early that night. The trip was exhausting but well worth it!