Today we walked on a glacier

Tuesday, July 20, 2010 Day 20
Plans for the day were to leave at 9:00 for a drive to Pitztal where we would take a lift to a glacier park and ski area. From there we would join a group for a 2.5 hour excursion to see some ice caves in the glacier.

We got started off right on time. Jane drove, and our path took us along the valley floor on a narrow, winding road. We passed picturesque villages, waterfalls tumbling from great heights, soaring mountains, brisk-walking Tyroleans, clear blue skies – all breathtakingly beautiful. We arrived at the lift around 10:00, and the next train was scheduled to leave some half hour later. We bought our tickets and wandered or sat around, then the gates opened and we entered the car for the trip up the mountain. It was not at all what we expected – it was entirely underground – or under the glacier, to be exact. It was very cold. It is called the Pitz Express, and boasts that it is the fastest underground mountain train in the world. It took us to an elevation of 2,480 meters. The ice cave tour was scheduled to begin at 11:00, so we had 15-20 minutes to enjoy the spectacular view of the mountains, the glaciers, and the valleys.

We met the guide and about 40 other hikers at 11:00. He suggested to begin with that we take off our jackets and sweaters because the beginning of the hike would be quite warm. He spoke for 3-4 minutes in German, then turned to us and said, “In English – nice.” Every time he paused on the hike he would rattle off his spiel in German, then turn to us and say something similar “In English – joke” or “In English, very old” (glacial age). It was clear that his English was limited to “tourist” English, and was actually rather funny, and suited the five of us well. We didn’t mind in the least that we were not getting the history of the area. We hiked first to a granite chapel, over lots of glacial rocks and rather up-hill, and when we reached that point, he suggested that if we were too winded from this hike, we probably could not make the hike and we should turn back. We agreed to continue with the group. It was hard – quite hard. Really hard. Strenuous. Taxing. More than we expected, although I don’t really know why – the brochure said it would be a 2.5 hour hike. The brochure did not specify the difficulty level; if it had, we might not have gone. It was almost more than we could handle, but after it was over, we were glad we went, or at least most of us were. After we had been hiking about an hour, we came to a road. The guide suggested that we five and another couple take the road around to the glacier, and the rest of the group would meet us on the glacier. On the one hand, we were glad we did – the hike became much less strenuous. On the other hand, we did not get to see the main glacier caverns. Disappointing on the one hand, but on the other hand, I don’t think we could have handled the rest of the hike. We did see a couple of sink-holes that would one day likely be caverns. It was still amazing to be walking on a glacier, to see the blue below us and know we were walking on tens or even hundreds of feet of ice. It was amazing to see the glacier melting away and trickling into rushing, roaring rivers which ripped down the mountainside. Our return to the lodge, while not across glacial rock, was seriously uphill and we had to stop numerous times to catch our breath, and a couple of times to sit. By the time we reached the restaurant, it was about 1:40 and we were exhausted and hungry.

We had spaghetti with meat sauce and bread, which served to revive us considerably. Earlier on the hike, we had debated whether we would be up to the next leg of the trip, but lunch and rest refreshed us and we decided to forge on. This leg was much easier – we had to walk to a lift some 100 yards from the restaurant and board the Pitz-Panoramabahn, Austria’s highest cable car. Once on the car, we rose to an elevation of 3,440 meters to a stunning view. Actually, the view in the way up was pretty spectacular, but it was nothing compared to getting to the top. Once we disembarked from the car, we climbed another 20 meters or so to an observation platform which was so striking and dramatic that there are no words to adequately describe it. We had a 360-degree view of mountains and valleys, glaciers and rivers, glacial lakes and more glaciers. Truly breathtaking in more ways than one. The view was magnificent enough to take one’s breath away. Further, the thin mountain air made it difficult to breathe. The observation platform was small and crowded, so we enjoyed the view for a bit and headed back down to take the next car down. Absolutely amazing!

Here’s an interesting side note. A few years, Wanda gave each of us sisters a silver pin which depicts five women, which we refer to as our Sisters Pins. We wear the pins when we know we will be getting together, particularly at our Sisters Reunions. Today when we were almost through with our glacier hike, Charlotte announced that she was “no longer a member of the family” because she had lost her Sisters Pin. She wasn’t really sure where, but somewhere on our hike, either in the rocks or on the glacier. Unfortunate, but none of us was volunteering to go back and look! An hour or so later, when we were about to board the Pitz-Panoramabahn, a man approached us, excused himself, held out the pin and said he suspected that it belonged to one of us! How amazing! Amazing, first, that it fell in a place where someone found it soon afterward. Amazing as well that he and his family could determine to whom it likely belonged, although they had been among the 40 or so hikers in our group. Even more amazing that we had not left the area, as we had thought about just going back down to the car after lunch rather than heading on up.

We returned to the apartment around 5:00 and rested and relaxed a bit. We prepared a supper of pasta with pesto, bread, cheese, cantaloupe, salad and mango. Roger and I had made an appointment to Google chat at 7:00. At 6:45, we were just about to sit down to supper, so I sent him an email and a chat suggesting that we postpone the chat to 7:15, and logged on shortly after that. In relating his experiences today, he said that, at the market today he bought ham, and they didn't have any problem understanding what it was he wanted but they couldn't understand how much. A woman next to him asked him in English what he wanted and relayed the order. He said that what she said sounded to him just what he had been saying! He also said that he must have looked pretty French today, as someone asked him for directions. He said he panicked and said “You’re asking the wrong person,” instead of saying “je ne sais pas.”

The rest of the evening was filled, as usual, with games and chatter and lots of laughter, with the added bonus of yoga on the lawn led by yours truly. I really wanted to stretch after having put some of my muscles through a workout like they had not had in years.