A bottle of prosecco, surrounded by some of the snacks that had been carried up a mountain earlier and down a mountain later. Call it a workout.
Hello!
I am back, with dozens of beautiful photos and good memories. Right not I feel like opening this bottle, to celebrate the success. Mr Paula was very excited to hear from me. Looking back I can say "Why would I not want to do this?".
As you can see at the photo, we had much more snow than the picture in Friday's postings shows (which was already a lot):
On the photo from friday's posting, you could count 9 shingles below the observation window, this weekend you could count only 2 shingles.The observation window was the best, we watched the mountaineers walking by:
I am survior! I survived a night under this roof, without any kind of headache etc. 
My toes could touch the roof and did touch it. You could only sit upright, no chance to stand upright, not even at the highest point of the roof. Nr of people who slept here: 5
Nr of people snoring among the people who slept here: unidentified.
where to change my clothes (we were all in the same room).
The spontaneous adventure (one week ago I had no idea I would spend 2 days in a mountain hut with out any sanitary fittings) came quite handy, because having mastered all of the challenges during the past two days, I can laught at this picture on tonight's news:
See the skis at the backbags of the two guys approaching Mt.Etna! Mountaineers, just like me this weekend, plus some lava as add-on.Etna - right, that's the mountain not far away from the airport where I am supposed to land this Friday. From today's perspective it is absolutely unsure, if the airport will be open, if the flight will be changed to Palermo instead of Catania. I have to admit, actually do enjoy the uncertainty. Adventure! More adventures for me, please! Change in booking to Palermo at short notice, no problem for me! Just tell me were to go, I will be there.
Salute 2012!
Congratulations! It must have been amazing waking up to that landscape (assuming you don't hit your head while rising up!)
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised that Mt Etna is still snowy. Is it snow-capped year round? Those skiers are crazy.
I am raising my water glass to you (the better take my vitamins, don't hold my boringness against me now that you're an Xtreme Adventurer)!
ReplyDeleteThe photos are glorious and I hope the raw interview answers edit down to a great piece. Glad you enjoyed yourself.
Tracy, you are right about the head-hitting: in the middle of the night someone shouted "outchhhh!".
ReplyDeleteMt. Etna is quite high, more than 3300m. Glaciers in middle Europe (which keep their ice and snow all year round) start about 2500m above sealevel. So snow on top of Mt Etna is not unusual. Espacially after a cold winter in the Mediterranean like this winter.
Vix, "hütting extreme" is what Mr Paula calls my weekend. At some moments it did not feel like work at all. I feel quite grateful for the experience. The team was actually the creme-de-la-creme of mountaineers of Vienna's largest alpine association. I felt privileged have them as my escort up to the hut and back down to the foot of the mountain the next day.