A unique journey, part 1

It was a Friday night, i was passing by the neighborhood riding my motorcycle, and i saw some friends of mine, and wanted to say hi before hitting the road back, i stopped and joined their discussion.

They were planning a trip into the mountains and i was asked if i am interested to join them, Truly I wasn’t sure about what to answer, since it’s the first time for me to go for such a thing, and had no time to think about it, i just thought it would be a good idea to try and see the outcome, and i said “Why not, i’m in guys”.

Together with the friends, we set an appointment for the next day at 3 am, i literally had not that much time to do my bags, so i picked up everything i could find, and ended up with a bag for over 15 kg, i had no idea why, maybe i was afraid not to make it in a cold weather without my warming clothes.

So the next day we met at the specified time and place, i was sleepy and barely could stand up, i didn’t sleep well last night, back home at 11 PM and slept for about 3 hours, i got into the car and took some rest till the next station.

We drove off at nearly 4 am straight to the highway, in the mean time, i couldn’t really get into a deep sleep, we reached the first station after 1 hour, and stopped at a coffee to take some (especially for the driver so he can stay sharp along the way).

After 3 hours, the sun started to raise up, we could definitely see the white peak of the mountains covered with snow, this gave us a first impression about what was waiting for us.

We ended up making it at the small village in the mountain base, at maybe 10 am, we’ve parked the cars and took the breakfast in a restaurant, people were really so welcoming. After a great local soup and a hot cup of tea, it was time to rent some climbing materials, we weren’t fully equipped especially the spikes to attach under shoes so we could stand up in an icy ground, I picked up all the stuff i needed and took some chocolate to feed me with energy, I am not a fan of energetic drinks, I prefer the classic way.

Thus far, everything seemed to be fine, the atmosphere was great, and the friends were just too excited, like i was, with an encouraging and an adventure spirit, we started our ascension with a confident foot steps, and we walked for about 15 min, I literally started to feel exhausted, like if something was holding me back, besides the 25 kg bag i was carrying, I was no longer able to step ahead and I just stopped.

Surprisingly, I didn’t expected it to be like this, man it’s only 15 min !! how I am going to do for the next 5 hours way ? someone who was quite used to this, noticed me and came to see if everything was alright, he told me that I made a mistake by going too fast and trying to take some quick shortcuts, obviously i was going straight ahead with big footsteps, while the team was walking in a zigzagging way and quite slowly.

3 hours of hiking with so many breaks, the team was really exhausted and we started to split into small teams, I fed myself with all what I could grab from my bag, including chocolate, bananas, and some water. the bottle was actually frozen, I shook it for a couple of minute so I can drink from it.

Things got even worst, I teamed up with a friend, and we were ahead of other team members for about 10 minutes, we reached a dangerous area where we were stacked in an awful snow storm, my face was instantly smashed violently and I couldn’t see anything, we looked around for a place to hide, till the storm passes by, we hid behind some rocks where I started to feel cold, my hands were shaking because we were no longer moving, I was really scared that the storm won’t stop and we we’ll have to passe the night in that deserted place.

to be continued …