On one knee in the Dolomites

I'll get it out right away, I proposed to Lisa in the Dolomites on top of a mountain!  Here's how:

Lisa's ring at the location of the proposal

The distance from Zurich to Cortina, the town nearist where we were to climb in the Dolomites, is not that far, travelling through the mountains is slow going so we split the trip into two days.  We spent one night in the town of Bresoneone before making the journy into the heart of the Dolomites.  After a train and two busses we just had a simple 2 hour hike with 2000ft of elevation gain to get to the refugio we were staying at.  We were, of course, carrying all of our gear for the entire trip, as well as food and water for our stay!  The refugio was perched on a huge slab with a 200ft drop off on three sides.  When we arrived we found out that the weather was supposed to turn to rain so we hurried back down to get some climbing in.  We got a couple of routes in before it started to rain.  When we returned to the refugio the owner looked worried and insisted we hurry into the dinning room for dinner.  We explaned that we hauled 30lbs of food with us and were not planning on eating there.  She responed that she could not force us to eat there but it was not good.  After this she kept tight tabs on us.  She was sure were were going to start a fire in our room to cook or steal somthing.

The view from the first refugio

We had planned on staying there for 3 nights but becasue of her less than friendly attitude we headed for our second refugio a day early.  The second refugio was amazing.  It included breakfast and a three course dinner, and was only a five minute stroll from the climbing.  Unfortionatlly it had not stopped raining since our first day so we decided to do a via ferrata to the top of a mountain rather than a climb.  A via ferrata is a route with fixed steel cabels for protection and ladders over any technical terrain.  While the climbing is really easy, it is fun how fast you can move.

The Cinque Terre where we did all our climbing

I had the ring in my bag that I had bought before we even left home and was waiting for the right time to ask Lisa the big question.  I had hoped to do it on top of one of the spires we were climbing but the weather was not coroperating.  I decided that if the weather was good on top of the mountain that would be the spot.  The entire climb was in a cloud.  As soon as we steeped on the summit however, we were above the clouds in the sun.  This was my sign.  While Lisa signed the summit registry I snuck the ring out of my bag.  When whe came back over I got down on my knee and asked her to marry me!  Not even trying to fight back the tears she said "Yes, of course!" 

Lisa just after the big question

The rest of the day it poured but we didn't care, we were happy no matter what.  We went climbing that afternoon finding some overhanging routes that stayed dry.  We then celebrated with our amazing three course dinner in the refugio.

Me on top of one of the knife edge summits

The next day the weather was better but still freezing.  We were however able to get a bunch of routes in and exhausted ourselves climbing all day!  The next morning we got up early to get a few routes in before leaving (in perfect blue skys!)

Lisa with her ring on the porch of our refugio

The Eiger, the Matterhorn and Barb

We woke up bright and early to catch the train from Tincino to Zurich to meet Lisa´s mom, Barb who had just flown in from Detroit.  When we met her Barb was shaking with excitement to see us (Lisa).  We had reserved a rental car and had planned on me being the driver.  Unfortionatly since I am not yet 25 they wanted to charge us an extra 20 dollars a day.  We decided to save the money and let Barb drive.  Within half and hour I was haveing dejavu.  Crash! The mirror was broken by a reflector that must have just jumped out at us.  I drove the rest of the day.  Other than the minor mirror incident (which I am getting a lot of practice handeling) we had a really nice drive to Zermatt over some beautiful mountain passes.

There was some confusion in finding our hotel becasue we had google directions telling us how to drive there, but you cannot drive in Zermatt.  I would have expected more out of google.  Eventually we figured it out and took the train up to Zermatt.  Zermatt is pretty much like Aspen or Vail with one difference: The Matterhorn!  Just looking at it made me want to climb it right there, gear or not.  I felt completely inadequite just hiking and wandering around town below it.  I think I took around 150 pictures of it, most are probablly the same, but I couldn´t help it.  I just kept snapping.

We did take some really nice hikes though.  One was up a huge glaciar valley through the tiny village of Zmatt.  We hiked up a couple of miles and Lisa and Barb decided to turn around.  I turned it into a loop adding a couple thousand feet of elevation gain.  At the top I realized that I was running late to meet the girls so I decided to run down.  It felt ok while I was doing it but after I could hardley walk.  I guess 3000ft elevation loss is not the way to ease back into running. 

The next day it was raining so we just "bopped" around town, Barb buying hankercheifs for what seemed like everyone she knew!  The next day we took a train to the top of another mountain where there was supposed to be some sport climbing.  We did not find any sport routes but the view was well worth it.  We spent the rest of the day hiking down.

After Zermatt we headed to Grimmenwald, home the Eiger Nor Wand.  We went over one of the same passes as on the way to Zermatt where we had planned on doing some climbing the second time through.  This time, however, it was snowing so hard there was only a few hundred feet of visability.  It was 50 degrees F colder than it had been four days eariler!  We did not climb.  At least Barbs driving had improved in time for the storm!

Grimmenwald was really nice.  Still touristy but much quieter than Zermatt.  Barb, being the slave driver she is, had us hiking every day we were there!  We also had a chance to do a little climbing.  The Eiger, covered in fresh snow, inspired more of a "I´m glad I´m down here" feeling than one of insperation to climb it.  Someday. (maybe.)  While we were there we also explored the neighboring valley, properly named the valley of water falls.  There was waterfall after waterfall all at leat 200ft high!  We took a short hike behind one, and then a long hike to the top of it.  When given the option of hiking a nice flat trail in the valley or straight up, Barb chose up!

While we were there we did 50/50 cooking and eating out.  It was fun to have another person to cook for but also really nice to have some great meals out!  On the last day there, Barb and Lisa treated themselves to a well deserved spa day while I just wandered around town.

We spent the last day in Zurich shopping (Barb bought more hankeys for all her snotty firends), going into chocolate shops and eating.  Before we knew it Barb was on her way to the airport and we were heading back to Italy to climb!