Baggin' Peaks (almost) and Lunch in Italy

Today we rolled out of bed early in order to catch the 0700h train to Zurmatt.

Our plan was to attempt a summit called Breithorn (4164m). It was a wild morning as we took a giant gondola then regular sized lift to the highest point which was 3853m. Note sign at the top of the "Matterhorn Glacier Paradise Lift".

So we were prepared for our day of 'mountaineering light'.
Equipment we had:
2 sets of crampons
2 axes
our transceivers
rope
harnesses
extra clothes
water
skins
shovels
probes
food
compass
swiss army knife
helmet
ice screws
slings
beaners
maps

Equipment we used:
visa
Above is a shot of the peak we had hoped to do. However, when we got off the lift it was complete white out conditions and lovely winds whipping along. Quite desolate, barely anyone around, and only a narrow piste ahead. We had no idea where the cat track went, nor could we even see which direction the peak was. I was having palpitations at this point (from either too much coffee, fear, or from the 3000+ altitude gain I am not sure). John pointed out a 7 year old girl skiing by. I watched her hot pink poles disappear into the swirling snow. I was still unconvinced of our likelihood of survival if we went any further.
It was then that a 60 year old man with a neon green and pink one-piece whizzed by. I decided he was to be our beacon of safety. The guy's only gear was his pair of circa 1984 Ray Bans and his rear entry boots. He didn't look intent on bagging any peaks so we followed.
A short ride over the crest of the hill and we arrived here, the restaurant on the Italian side of the range.

"I love the Italian backcountry."
There I am enjoying a brie and proscuitto melt at 3700m. I had to resist the urge to splurge on a bottle of Veuve Clicquot. Europeans are so civilized!
What, I ask you, is at the top of Sir Donald?
Well, I haven't been there but I doubt there is a hot Italian woman making delicious espresso at the summit.

It was interesting to note the physiological changes that occur at that elevation. John had had a few minutes of disorientation, and I noticed that even just sitting there drinking my espresso, I had to keep taking these large gulps of air. Crazy! I've never been up that high before. So we got within 300m of our intended summit. Lets not do the math at where the lift went to...

Voici John in front of the Matterhorn. Or as he puts it "doing the Matterhorn". Just after saying "I feel kind of lightheaded and dizzy but I don't think it is the altitude".

Here's your's truly, excited to see the Italian restaurant below. Enjoying the amazing vistas too!

The top of the line where we unloaded. Note hole in the mountain.

All in all we had a great day. Fun spring skiing, delicious food, and no death or dismemberment involved. More to follow tomorrow.

008-License To Poonce

We decided to take a break from skiing today and headed to the craggs for our first day of climbing this season. Basically it was a pooncey day all around. We all ended up having our asses handed to us by the rock. But as John says, even a bad day of climbing is a good day. And in that regard I have to agree with him.

How can you tell we're in Europe?

Here is a 5 year old girl climbing routes we were too poncey to try ourselves.

My first climb. I realized partway up that running is not how you get ready for climbing season...

It was a great spot, very family oriented. Almost all the other climbers had tots with them in various stages of development. Most of the kids were on the rocks too.

John's still got it...

Here is John and Henkka having a rock skipping contest. Still trying to determine who the alpha male is among the two of them.

Here's Hennka doing his first lead of the season. He rocked it.

To our delight, we discovered that we do have talent in one area. Eating lunch. Hennka packed a gourmet picnic which we enjoyed on the banks of the Rhone. Included were three kinds of cheese, two choices of mustard, two varieties of mayo, two types of meat, a baguette, pickled chanterelles, avocado, arugula, blood oranges, three kinds of chocolate, and of course, a bottle of wine.

Chamonix Me

Happy to be alive after the scary wind whipped decent.

Today several of us went to Chamonix, France to ski the Vallee Blanche and part of the Mer de Glace. The ascent was pretty easy as we took the large gondola which carries upwards of 40 people to the top, at 3800m. From there it is a sketchy descent to the area where we dropped in, so steep that I was hanging on to the ropes with all my might, hoping my skis wouldn't go flying down the backside of the mountain (or worse yet, I go backside down the backside of the mountain).
Henkka, Paive, Ilkka, and John

The area where everyone gets their gear on...note how harnesses, ropes, axes, helmets, are de rigeur.

If you enlarge this one you can see the floating gondolas which are in operation only in the summer. This is to keep the tourists to a minimum in the winter when the conditions are more dangerous and variable due to the hidden crevasses all along the glacier.

This peak reminded me a bit of Black Tusk in Whistler.

John and I were both pretty paranoid about the crevasses so we roped up for one section. It certainly was a new challenge skiing along towing John behind me. Our other party did have an incident with a crevasse but all turned out ok, Miku fell in but was able to get himself out with his crampons and ax.

This was were we stopped for lunch part one.

The vistas were spectacular but I have to say that being crammed in gondolas and trains at each section was tedious. Though I suppose that it affords some altitudes which would be challenging to achieve on one's own steam.

Miku and Henkka enjoying a well earned beer. John and I enjoying a beer our lazy-gondola -riding-no-couloir-skiing-asses didn't earn.

My first Swiss Fondue. Mmmmmm....yes that is a giant pot of cheese.

Jet Lag is Awesome

So it is 4am here. I have been awake for over an hour, because for me it is 1900h, yesterday. And I wasn't tired at 1900h yesterday! We are getting picked up for skiing in 2.5 hours and if it weren't for the loft factor (Hennke's head is just above the kitchen since he so graciously gave us his room) I would just start drinking coffee and reading my book now. I think my clicking key's may wake Hank up, come to think of it...so maybe I'll just read the news or listen to a podcast 'til the sun comes up...damn you sleep thieves! Stealing from me no matter what city I'm in...

Decompression Day 1

Leading up to D-day (the chem final) mostly involved me sleeping (3-4h a night) in my clothes, eating in a study carol, and trying to do as many practice questions as possible--there was little time to pack in Kelowna or get ready for my Swiss adventure.

Chem came and went. It was a tough final. I had to fight the urge to have an anxiety attack when I got to the question which asked us to derive a fourth order equation half life. Also during the exam I almost fell into the the downward spiral of self doubt and fear which usually goes like this:

-I am going to fail this exam...

-I am going to have to take this class over again...

-What was I thinking taking a year off and trying to do science classes...

-I am an idiot...

-I have no more savings...

-I am never getting into med school...

-Clearly I am not smart enough to compete against all the brainiacks that are getting in...

-I should be wearing a dunce cap...

-What am I going to to with my life now that I am in debt and never going to med school...

-I should have studied longer/harder/better...

-I should just hand it in and leave now...save the marker the time...

STOP! This is dangerous for me because the self doubt downward spiral only leads to bad things and rash decisions. It's like the event horizon of negative self talk which I seem to precariously tread near these days.

So my time ran out and I handed it in, feeling like the year could not have ended on more of a down note. Down. Way down.

At least it is over I suppose.

Then it was mad packing at Casa Del Sullivan in K-town. Having forgotten my suitcases in Revy I was grabbing random articles (oranges, underwear, toothbrushes, cue cards, espresso machines, soy milk) and tossing them in plastic bags then jamming it in my car. Raced home to meet up with Erin and John (friends from the USA who were staying at our pad), had a glass of wine with Verena, Rob, and Sylvia, lamented the no go on the French immersion program, started unpacking the chaos de Kelowna and then started packing for Edmonton and Switzerland 'til 0130h.

I woke Wednesday at 0600h. Finished packing. Hit the road. Thought that I was ahead of the game then realized somewhere around Golden that there is a time change and I am actually an hour behind schedule.

Drove 130 km/hr the rest of the way and got there in ok time.

Flights, unremarkable. All luggage arrived with me (better than when we went to Morocco and it took a week for my gear to show up). So I was grateful for that.

Since I had no Swiss francs or change I had to schlepp my skis and luggage by hand to the train station. By this point, even though I am fluent in French I was struggling to communicate due to the lack of sleep for over 24 hours. My brain was definitely on delay.

Arrived at Hennke's around 1700h. Enjoyed my first raclette grill. Wow. Who knew one could eat so many calories in one meal??

Some of you may recall Henkke and John's penchant for white wine and club soda last year during the heat wave? Well, they have assured me that now they have moved onto a much more manly beverage...beer mixed with sparkling grapefruit juice...

Obviously there is nothing homo erotic going on here hey Henkke??


Mmmm...cheese...pickles...bread...meat...happy place...and not a textbook in sight!

Two Down...

One to go...

Physics final was today. Hard to gauge how I did exactly since it was mostly long answer, but I think I did pretty well.

I was expecting myself to run out of the gymnasium doing cartwheels and kissing strangers over the fact that I am DONE with PHYSICS! Well..to a certain degree...I still have to study it for the MCAT but in terms of course work...that chapter is closed. DONE!

But there were no cartwheels, no whoops of joy, no sexual harassment of strangers. Just the grim realization that I have the chem final looming. And that one freaks me out. I gotta say.

The thing that gets me is the math. It is so irritating. I understand the concepts, heck, I even enjoy most of it, find it interesting. But with inorganic there is so much picky math and it is there that I lose sooooo many marks. Too many decimals, missing a zero, getting a sign backwards, small stupid stuff. ARgh! It frustrates me to no end. Because there is nothing worse than putting so much effort and time into something and getting mediocre (read: non-med school achieving) grades.

Plus the fact that I nearly have a panic attack now every time I sit down to write a chem exam for the above reasons.

Okay, enough blathering, I must study.

Wish me luck! Tuesday at 0900h the guillotine falls...

One Down...

Today was my bio final.

That means one down, 2 to go for UBC-O.

I think it is pretty cool how I actually feel physically lighter after each final! Really, when one of the metaphorical weights is lifted it is perceptible.

I would love to stay and listen to the riveting conversation about how many calories are in a HALLS but it's time to retire to the quiet study hall and write a practice physics final.

Thanks for all the great blog-versations.

Are You There God? It's me, Erin.

"...[Then there is the] origin of life. There is a vast gulf between the most complex non-living compound such as a crystal and the simplest form of life such as a bacterium. The gap is much larger than the gap between a bacterium and a human being. Science, despite expending enormous amounts of time, is actually further away from an explanation as to how non-living chemicals can accidentally and spontaneously come alive than it has ever been. All the evidence on hand, both in nature and in the laboratory, points to the fact that life only ever comes from life. The Bible credits the origin of life to the power and design of a 'living' creator God."

I know...a little different from the usual fodder on this blog. I thought this quote would be a good segue into explaining where I am at right now. Feeling spiritually defunct has led me on a quest to find some answers about faith, God, Jesus, the origin of life, the universe (and everything after). Now my faith is on my terms, it is not what anyone else has chosen for me. I am allowed (and even encouraged) to ask questions, look for proof, use scientific reasoning . I never thought that science could ever exist in the realm of Christianity. Being of the scientific camp I thought that immediately excluded me from any hopes of having a spiritual side (especially one that might include Jesus). But as I am learning there are countless respected men and women of science that have found the balance between their belief in God and their belief in science. Which means there is hope for me yet!

The above quote is from Dr. Roy Spencer who is a leading scientist at the Marshall Space Flight Center and a head scientist for NASA. It is taken from this website.
On that website you can find interesting essays highlighting scientists who reluctantly discovered Christianity. Also, Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the Human Genome Project was recently quoted on CNN saying,

"I have found there is a wonderful harmony in the complementary truths of science and faith. The God of the Bible is also the God of the genome. God can be found in the cathedral or in the laboratory. By investigating God's majestic and awesome creation, science can actually be a means of worship."

Some food for thought, if nothing else. More to follow, I am sure, on this topic. Of course, comments or questions are always welcome. I am looking for as much input as I can on the matter....

Another Friday Night in Paradise

Even though John and I have been dating for over a year and a half the home fires are still burning. We still like to get crazy on Friday nights when we haven't seen each other in days....as seen here...John is deriving Snell's Law and I am tracing some optic rays. Sigh. Cuddling and refractive indexes, we're so romantic! If that isn't love, I don't know what is...

Isn't he cute when he concentrates??