COVID-19 My Coronavirus Mount Everest Climbing and Fundraising Challenge

I am putting my feet up tonight in Grindelwald, the village at the foot of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau mountain area in a different fork of the same valley to the big waterfall at Lauterbrunnen; just to give you a bit of an ongoing reference as I am slowly working my way up the Alps in the coming weeks - looking all up right now and hopefully eventually more and more down.
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Posyrose said:
Wow that looks spectacular.

You'll be looking down at the valleys in no time😊
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It can be very frightening for people from wide open spaces having such a sheer rockface looming over them.
A thunderstorm in the Alps can be quite an experience when you count in all the echoes!
 
Today, I'm in Hong Kong where I spent my early childhood. I've climbed Lantau Peak, the highest point on Lantau Island, which is the largest island in Hong Kong, Even now it is very rural, although the airport and Disney Land are located there. 50 years ago, it was very sparsely populated and cut off from the rest of HK by all but boats/ferries. Where there was high rise living elsewhere in Hong Kong, we lived in a bungalow with a garden and swimming pool - it was the 'back of beyond'. My parents even gave my brother the middle name of Lantau; he was born in Hong Kong.

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I do like my views, and this is a sea view

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You may have noticed the Buddha. It's relatively new (1990s); only the monastery existed back then. It is the largest seated Buddha in the world and it's on top of the Peak and attracts throngs of tourists. We never had any tourists in my day!

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Tomorrow I should reach Scafell Pike, which was my original objective!
 
Posyrose said:
Today, I'm in Hong Kong where I spent my early childhood. I've climbed Lantau Peak, the highest point on Lantau Island, which is the largest island in Hong Kong, Even now it is very rural, although the airport and Disney Land are located there. 50 years ago, it was very sparsely populated and cut off from the rest of HK by all but boats/ferries. Where there was high rise living elsewhere in Hong Kong, we lived in a bungalow with a garden and swimming pool - it was the 'back of beyond'. My parents even gave my brother the middle name of Lantau; he was born in Hong Kong.

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I do like my views, and this is a sea view

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You may have noticed the Buddha. It's relatively new (1990s); only the monastery existed back then. It is the largest seated Buddha in the world and it's on top of the Peak and attracts throngs of tourists. We never had any tourists in my day!

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Tomorrow I should reach Scafell Pike, which was my original objective!
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It looks gorgeous and so unexpected! :love:

I guess you may now want to set your sights on Ben Nevis and the Highland peaks next, as long as you can do them the way that works best around your limitations...
 
Wiebke said:
It looks gorgeous and so unexpected! :love:

I guess you may now want to set your sights on Ben Nevis and the Highland peaks next, as long as you can do them the way that works best around your limitations...
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Yes, I'm enjoying this and by pacing myself I'm hoping to do Snowdon and Ben Nevis. Maybe even further!
 
Posyrose said:
Yes, I'm enjoying this and by pacing myself I'm hoping to do Snowdon and Ben Nevis. Maybe even further!
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I am sure that you can get to the top of the UK - and after that the world is your oyster!
The good thing about this is that you can explore any country or any place that you have always wanted to visit...
 
Wiebke said:
I am putting my feet up tonight in Grindelwald, the village at the foot of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau mountain area in a different fork of the same valley to the big waterfall at Lauterbrunnen; just to give you a bit of an ongoing reference as I am slowly working my way up the Alps in the coming weeks - looking all up right now and hopefully eventually more and more down.
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Aw, I'm so jealous ! I remember the wonderful skiing holidays I had in the area (back in the mid 90s).We stayed at a big 'chalet' near Lauterbrunnen and took the rack and pinion train up to Kleine Scheidegg every morning, and went to Grindelwald a couple of times. I went there walking too subsequently with my OH before we married. Took the train all the way up to the top of the Eiger and had a look out of the accidental window in the side of the mountain - scary!
I'm having definite feelings of "hiraeth" - if you can have that about places not just people ...
 
Posyrose said:
I'm nearing the top of Scafell Pike, but haven't been able to do much stair climbing over the last few days, but thanks for asking @Bill & Ted you've given me the nudge I needed to get to the summit today.

I hope @Wiebke is still walking through Alpine meadows somewhere!
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Hi, @Posyrose !
Well done for keeping going!

Unfortunately I had to take time off the forum due to a serious medical family emergency (not Covid-19 related) and haven't got much sleep this week. Thankfully the worst has not come to pass.

I have tried to keep stair climbing despite very heavy and stiff legs on some days but am lagging a day or so behind my own schedule; but I have to still tot it all up. I am currently catching up with the cage clean but will post where I am tonight.
 
Wiebke said:
Hi, @Posyrose !
Well done for keeping going!

Unfortunately I had to take time off the forum due to a serious medical family emergency (not Covid-19 related) and haven't got much sleep this week. Thankfully the worst has not come to pass.

I have tried to keep stair climbing despite very heavy and stiff legs on some days but am lagging a day or so behind my own schedule; but I have to still tot it all up. I am currently catching up with the cage clean but will post where I am tonight.
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Well done to you too for continuing to do the stairs with everything else that is going on. Take care; as you've said to me, it's ok to miss a day of two if you don't have the physical or emotional energy to do it.
 
Wiebke said:
Hi, @Posyrose !
Well done for keeping going!

Unfortunately I had to take time off the forum due to a serious medical family emergency (not Covid-19 related) and haven't got much sleep this week. Thankfully the worst has not come to pass.

I have tried to keep stair climbing despite very heavy and stiff legs on some days but am lagging a day or so behind my own schedule; but I have to still tot it all up. I am currently catching up with the cage clean but will post where I am tonight.
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So sorry to hear this @Wiebke .
Hope things are improving.
Will be holding you and your family in my heart
 
Anyway, despite running a day behind, I have yesterday virtually climbed the top of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the Scottish Cairngorms and the whole of the UK! It's not far from Loch Ness, as you can see from the picture below.

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Well, on the day that @Wiebke reached the highest mountain in the UK, I made it to the top of Scafell Pike, the highest peak in England and my original target.

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This is the view from the top to Wasdale and Wast Water

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This is the view North to Derwent Water. Blencathra which I did two summits ago, is on the horizon on the right hand side.
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I should make it over the 1,000 metre mark tomorrow!
 
I had my lunchbreak at the top of the Belchen in the Black Forest; it is one of the highest peaks (1414 m).
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If there is snow in winter, it doubles up as a local ski resort with an Alps view thrown in on clear days!
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The Black Forest Belchen is part of a perfect natural Pythagorean triangle of mountains with the same Celtic name in solar alignment with the main Celtic settlement in the Rhine valley. There is another Belchen (now Ballon d'Alsace) straight West in the Vosges and a third one (now Bölchen) straight South in Swiss Jura.
A similarly aligned smaller triangle with three minor peaks callen 'Blauen' in all three mountain ranges is doing for another nearby Celtic settlement that has been a major manufacturing and trading centre in the Basel area where the ware coming up the Rhone valley gets loaded onto boats going down the Rhine or vice versa.
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Bill & Ted said:
Amazing scenery, I think once this pandemic is over we are going to have to visit this area, it looks so beautiful x
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The Black Forest is excellent hiking country, and so are the Swiss Jura and the Vosges which are much less touristy if you want to stay off the beaten track. You've got some interesting cities in the upper Rhine Valley - Basel (Switzerland), Freiburg i. Breisgau (Germany) and Colmar (France), with Basel/Mulhouse airport just outside Basel and a tri-national local metro train service via Basel right up to Zell in the Black Forest and Mulhouse in France. And boat tours on the Rhine...
Snowfall can be somewhat iffy and unpredictable, especially with climate change, but you are more likely to get snow in February than in December. But I have done a fair deal of cross country skiing in the Black Forest.
 
Wiebke said:
The Black Forest is excellent hiking country, and so are the Swiss Jura and the Vosges which are much less touristy if you want to stay off the beaten track. You've got some interesting cities in the upper Rhine Valley - Basel (Switzerland), Freiburg i. Breisgau (Germany) and Colmar (France), with Basel/Mulhouse airport just outside Basel and a tri-national local metro train service via Basel right up to Zell in the Black Forest and Mulhouse in France. And boat tours on the Rhine...
Snowfall can be somewhat iffy and unpredictable, especially with climate change, but you are more likely to get snow in February than in December. But I have done a fair deal of cross country skiing in the Black Forest.
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I went to the Black Forest area 40 years ago on the back of a motorbike! Would love to see it at a slower pace and take more in x
 
eileen said:
well done to both of you.i love all the views,
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Wiebke said:
I had my lunchbreak at the top of the Belchen in the Black Forest; it is one of the highest peaks (1414 m).
View attachment 142610

If there is snow in winter, it doubles up as a local ski resort with an Alps view thrown in on clear days!
View attachment 142611 View attachment 142613

The Black Forest Belchen is part of a perfect natural Pythagorean triangle of mountains with the same Celtic name in solar alignment with the main Celtic settlement in the Rhine valley. There is another Belchen (now Ballon d'Alsace) straight West in the Vosges and a third one (now Bölchen) straight South in Swiss Jura.
A similarly aligned smaller triangle with three minor peaks callen 'Blauen' in all three mountain ranges is doing for another nearby Celtic settlement that has been a major manufacturing and trading centre in the Basel area where the ware coming up the Rhone valley gets loaded onto boats going down the Rhine or vice versa.
View attachment 142616 View attachment 142617
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Well done @Wiebke ! It looks glorious up there.
 
I am resting up on the summit of the highest Black Forest Mountain, the Feldberg (it translates as 'Field Mountain') at 1493 m tonight.

Admittedly it is not the most imposing of elevations (the Belchen is more impressive), but it is a busy resort, especially in winter, and where we as a family learned skiing with very outdated second-hand skis predating the Second World War. You had to tie in your shoes manually and everything was wood and leather! Of course in those years there was only a single lift up there once we graduated to it instead of trying to carve our two or three bends and then climb up the gentle slope again... Today, there is quite a bit more on offer!

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The views from up there are great!
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Some of my most magical memories are cross country skiing (which I took up as an adult and actually enjoy more) are stomping through a pine forest in the falling snow. Hardly anyone is out there. The fresh snow is great for climbing up uphill, but not for gliding down because it is very sticky and as not compacted down so it is more of an effort to get round. The falling snow is muffling any noise and it is as silent as you hardly ever experience.

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You expect to meet Santa with his black clad servant Ruprecht and his donkey at any moment. Because - as we all knew where I grew up - Santa actually lives in the Back Forest, together with many of the characters in the Grimm fairy tales! :D
 
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