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
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