Yeah, so I'm a little loopy. I decided to get up at 5h30 and run up the path to the top of the Saleve
by moonlight to catch the sunrise. But at least I planned well. Flashlight in one hand, ice axe in the other, gore-texed out, and powerbars, water, and gatorade tucked away in my backpack, I slipped out into early morning darkness and struck out along the familiar path.
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The moon was full and the skies unusually clear and full of stars. The forecasts had looked good and I hoped for clear skies all the way to the Alps. Visions of Mt. Blanc and the rest in sunrise splendor spurred me on as I tromped up the mountain path.
My ice axe doubled as a staff on steep, snow-covered slopes along the ascent, and
frequent layers of ice on the stone steps helped me to more fully
grasp the importance of
handrails along the way.
I beat the sun in my race to the top and took a few moments to catch my breath and drink some water. Luckily, it wasn't windy, but nonetheless pretty darn cold for a kid who's lived in Louisiana and Madagascar--around -16 C. So I really shouldn't have been as surprised as I was when I took off my outer layer to find that much of that liquid formerly known as gatorade had
frozen on my fleece jacket. And even after taking a few pictures of the sunrise, my camera hand was feeling quite numb and didn't get warmed back up until I ran a good 15 minutes back down the mountainside, with my gloves on, of course.
Unfortunately, the Alps were blocked from my view by a cloud, but here is a series of dawn to sunrise photos anyway.
Snowfield at early dawnSun has risen, but behind the clouds
Sun rise from atop the Saleve
Morning has broken!
A shot of
Veyrier in the cool morning mountain's shadow. I hurried back down the mountain, but stopped to look out over
Monnetier and the Petit Saleve. A bit further down, I could already see the
light at the end of the frozen tunnel, and was soon back home and enjoying a hot shower at about the same time I usually get up.