Rode the gondola up to the roundhouse station at the base of the final ascent to the top of the mountain. The girls loved riding in the gondola, but Elena didn't feel safe enough to get out of her backpack.... we watched the downhill mountain bike riders airing huge drops and jumps on their way down the mountain as we floated along above.
We got off the gondola and Lori saw the chairlift that takes you straight up a cliff to the top of the mountain and wasn't really excited about taking the kids on it. Plus it wasn't going to open for another hour, so, we all started walking up the trail towards the backside and top of the mountain. Steep. Pretty soon I had both kids on my back, Elena in the pack and Marina on my shoulders. Mule time. After 30 minutes of that, and turning around to see how far we had come up the climb, we decided to keep pushing on for the top. Lori and Janet went back down to ride the chair, since Lori's back was acting up and it was a tough climb. A very sweaty, mindbendingly hard hike later, with my own back compressing under the weight of 70 pounds of kid, we arrived at the summit. Family photo!
Had a great picnic on top of the mountain with the view 100% clear for 360 degrees. Beautiful. The kids and I built the family cairn to mark our passing there.
After playing in the glacier snow and whatnot for awhile, we headed back towards the chairlift for the ride down. (I wasn't about to pack the kids back down...). And man, what a chairlift ride that was. Literally the thing drops down a series of cliffs. We held the kids, very, very, very tight. Worth the price of admission though. I would have ridden the chair again just for that!
Mountains are cool.
No comments:
Post a Comment