Gross Glockner
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The highest mountain of Austria... An impressive peak
on the viding line in between Osttirol and Carinthia...3798 meters high... I saw
this mountain for the first time when I was still in a little kid. I don't
remember when the first time was, but I do know that when I was about 5 years
old, I told my whole family that I was going to be on top of that mountain one day. July the
18th 2003 was that day, I made it to the top! I think wanting to climb that
mountain had a lot to do with the fact that my grandfather and my mother were on
top of it about 30 years ago (I recently saw some pictures of that expedition,
to see them click here). That together with my love for the mountains and
my need to get on top of everything made it happen. Since I was just a small kid
I climbed about everything, during lunchbreaks I always sat on top of one of the
largest pieces of rock you could find in the area. I loved those 'difficult'
passages you find on your way to some cabines. And those you find there are just
the easy ones...for adults...for small kids it's a lot more difficult. I guess
at that time I was quite fearless... I don't know why I didn't start rock
climbing then. Okay, there aren't much outdoor areas near where I live, but you
can always climb indoor. It probably has got to do with the fact that nobody in
my family did such a thing,
so I didn't think about it until I grew older. Right
now it is something that caught my interest, but I should have started earlier.
I do believe I got to old to start with it now, plus the fact that the
fearlessness that I had when I was young is gone. I know it's just a step you've
got to take once and after that you ask yourself what you were so scared about.
But I don't think I would have enough courage to take that step. If I learn how
to do it at one time, it would take someone I completely trust to teach me.
Right now I'll stay with the level I'm on now, which isn't much... I started indoor
climbing in August 2004, mostly to better my techniques and to get more
confident. But who knows, maybe that'll bring me further to rock climbing?
As I told before, on July 18th 2003 my 16-year old dream
became reality. With the organisation of 'te voet' I went on a week long journey
through the mountains of the area I love so much. The target was the Gross
Glockner... The weather was terrific all week long, also on the most critical
day. The weather had to be good enough to go up, 'cause otherwise it would be to
dangerous.
The day started at 4.55 am, it was meant to start at
4.30 am, but somehow we overslept a bit and the one guy awake forgot to wake us
up when we didn't hear the alarm going off....:-) . I was really tensed that
morning, at once I didn't really believe I was gonna make it anymore. That was
my lack of selfconfidence that showed again. I don't know if anybody noticed it
... Maybe they didn't, maybe they did. But anyway, this was a pretty big day for
me, a day I lived forward to for the past 16 years. But then we started walking, and the
nerves faded away a bit. But then when the snow was gone, this passage begun...
Pretty scary... a passage just a couple of meters wide and not just an easy path
to the top. I have to admit there were certain moments I was pretty scared,
although I knew nothing really could go wrong. And nothing did go wrong, the
further we got to more my selfconfidence grow and I started to believe I could
do it. And I did do it, I did get to the top ... But my first thought wasn't
that I made it, but more 'how the hell am I going to get back down here'. But
since I'm writing this, I did get down... And now I only want to go back there,
maybe following a different path (Stüdlgrat) this time, but I'm not sure I'm
good enough to do that. We'll see.
I want to thank our guides for taking us up there and
for bringing us back down in one piece. Thanks Loïs, Martin, Franz and
Gerard.
And I guess I may do that in the name of our whole group up there!
The highest mountain of Austria... An impressive peak
on the viding line in between Osttirol and Carinthia...3798 meters high... I saw
this mountain for the first time when I was still in a little kid. I don't
remember when the first time was, but I do know that when I was about 5 years
old, I told my whole family that I was going to be on top of that mountain one day. July the
18th 2003 was that day, I made it to the top! I think wanting to climb that
mountain had a lot to do with the fact that my grandfather and my mother were on
top of it about 30 years ago (I recently saw some pictures of that expedition,
to see them click here). That together with my love for the mountains and
my need to get on top of everything made it happen. Since I was just a small kid
I climbed about everything, during lunchbreaks I always sat on top of one of the
largest pieces of rock you could find in the area. I loved those 'difficult'
passages you find on your way to some cabines. And those you find there are just
the easy ones...for adults...for small kids it's a lot more difficult. I guess
at that time I was quite fearless... I don't know why I didn't start rock
climbing then. Okay, there aren't much outdoor areas near where I live, but you
can always climb indoor. It probably has got to do with the fact that nobody in
my family did such a thing,
so I didn't think about it until I grew older. Right
now it is something that caught my interest, but I should have started earlier.
I do believe I got to old to start with it now, plus the fact that the
fearlessness that I had when I was young is gone. I know it's just a step you've
got to take once and after that you ask yourself what you were so scared about.
But I don't think I would have enough courage to take that step. If I learn how
to do it at one time, it would take someone I completely trust to teach me.
Right now I'll stay with the level I'm on now, which isn't much... I started indoor
climbing in August 2004, mostly to better my techniques and to get more
confident. But who knows, maybe that'll bring me further to rock climbing?
