Two Best Friends... and a place called Europe: The Alps

So we started off the early morning with a croissant on our way to the train. (I am really going to miss the croissants here...) We headed to the train that would take us to Sion where we would catch a bus up to Des Dixence. We looked like tourists as we squeezed onto the train with out backpacks, hiking boots, and walking poles. But we were about to go spend two days in the Alps, so who really cares right? :) On the bus ride up, we were the only passengers so we sat in the front and watched as we climbed higher and higher. Try to imagine riding in a bus on teeny tiny roads that had no guard rail and that had insanely sharp curves. Our bus driver looked like he didn't even know he was about to hit that car or drop over the edge. He just drove very calmly as Sarah and I held each other tightly and dug our nails into each other at each turn. I could have sworn I saw the back wheel leave the edge at a couple points. Let's just say Sarah and I kissed the ground when we finally got to our destination. We wished we knew what "very good driving" was in French, but all we knew was thank you and we really meant it. We were dropped off just below the largest dam in Europe and took a small cable car up to the top of it. This is where the real adventure begins. :) At this point we were 2,365 meters (7,759 ft) up in the air. The first two hours of the hike were quite pleasant - all flat ground surrounded by meadows of mountain flowers and shaded by the mountains on each side. Sarah and I sang musicals (Sound of Music, Phantom of the Opera, Oklahoma) and quoted movies and shows (the list is too long to state here..but it did include a lot of the episode of Gilmore Girls where they back packed across Europe). :) Then we got to the end of the lake that we made by the dam and we started going upwards. That is when the going got tough(er). Because of the altitude, it was harder to get oxygen to your lungs so we had to make many stops. That and the fact that the sun was a lot closer so we had to take many water breaks as well. Thankfully it was not scorching hot and there was a nice breeze which made the going easier. I kept looking up and gasping at each change in scene.... it was too spectacular for words. No scene was the same and at each point I thought it could not get better...but it never failed me. :) We kept climbing higher (at some points it seemed impossible to get any higher) and the moved slowly on. Near the point where we would reach our destination, we had to climb this steep hill which was halfway covered in snow. (Yes, we climbed in snow...in July... :)) It was easy, but scary all at once. All through out the day, we passed points where is dropped off on either end, but it was mostly rock so you wouldn't have gone far. Here it was slippery ice and snow so one wrong step and you would have gone completely down the hill... Happy thought indeed. :) So we safely get to the top of that hill and we can see our destination way down below: the hut where we will stay the night. After a downhill trek, we headed upwards to our resting place. It was a small hut on a hill surrounded completely by mountains. It was the only hut in that area, so there were many hikers also staying there. We set down our stuff, took off our boots (they had free crocs for everyone... Sarah and I think it will be the only time we will ever wear them), and rested while we waited for dinner. They showed us to our room (a smallish room with two bunk beds that fit four per floor, so 8 total) and then we freshened up for dinner. We truly felt like hikers as we rinsed our faces off in the freezing cold sink water where the was no soap and no towels. (Side note - thank you Mrs. Benson for the small cleaning supplies for traveling... we were so grateful to use them in this hut! :)) Dinner was served at 6:30 and everyone ate everything that was put in front of them (the set up reminded us of Youth Camp). We sat with this sweet british couple and they shared their hiking stories as we ate hot soup, bread, and ham and rice. Then, fully refreshed with food, we all headed up to bed around 8:30pm. (Once again, we felt very hikerish going to bed that early...but we were really tired.) Since we shared a room with many people, we all crammed into the bottom floor of one of the bunks and immediately fell asleep. :) And so ends the first day in the Alps...

A few pics from the first day (our of hundreds):

^ Our bus and the dam

^ Andy on top of the dam (can you see that curvy road below...those were the roads we were on with the big blue bus...chah..eek!)

^ Kelsey and Sarah at a rest stop...

^ Kelsey and Sarah as we made our way up the lake from the dam

^ The Alps :)

^ At the other side of the lake..we walked from the tip in the way back where the dam is to here...and that was actually the easy part.. :)

^ Starting to make our way up the steep mountain sides...

^ If you can see way behind in the back is the lake...and we weren't even half way done.. :)

^ The white slope is where we had to hike up the snow to get to the top...as you can see, quite a slide down if you made one wrong step...

^ The teeny little speck on the hill is the hut (Cabane de Dix) we were spending the night in...at this point we had just climbed up the snowy slope...