Chamonix…more than a visit

~4th July 2019~
OK…it’s Thursday, D-Day for my Climbing Wall Instructor course. Yes, it’s assessment day!

A few days prior to that, I decided to fit in a trip to Chamonix to see a wonderful and dear friend, Michael. It was about making the effort to go and see him since I missed my visit to Virginia after my Latin America trip plus of course, getting out of the city before I start my day job.

The first thing I gotta do was to focus on passing the assessment before rushing to the airport (my bad on getting all the timing mixed up, it’ll be a close one to catch). Martina, the instructor/assessor, as always was kind enough to put in place a plan to make sure that I complete all the tasks first before the others just in case I gotta run. Praying and keeping my fingers’ crossed that everything goes well.

The assessment finished earlier than expected and I passed (woohoo!!!), rushed off to the underground to Heathrow and all was well for a brilliant start to a mini getaway. Flight to Geneva then Alpy bus to Chamonix. It was nearly 2am by the time I reached the hotel. It was the view in the morning that took my breath away and I felt at home again, even though I was in a hotel room.

Mountains are the only place that I felt like I was being drawn to, as if there’s an invisible force roping me in. When I’m there, it stripped every morsel of unnecessary necessities that plague my spirit and soul bringing me back to a state of equilibrium with life and the world around me. Looking out the window, just me and the mountain…we know what the scores are and it will all be laid bare. I took a moment to register where I was, be in the moment and that sets the tone for the rest of the time I was there. Time to get ready to meet Michael and have an adventure!

It was the weekend of Arc’teryx Alpine Academy as well and I was expecting a big event, turns out pretty small and underwhelming. Perhaps it’s more for all the participants signed up for the event courses rather than passerby. Anyways, the first day was just chilling out and catching up with Michael whom I missed so much since the first and last time we met, nearly a year ago.

While I was there we went climbing up in Brévent twice, one day of crazy single pitch climbing belaying from tricky snow covered base and one day of multi-pitch climb encountering a-hole climbers rushing through us in the middle of a pitch. Michael is one of the best climbing partners I’ve had the pleasure to climb with. Patient with my cautious climbing pace, caring with his approach and a great teacher of life. There’s just too little time to learn about him and from him.

In between those climbing days, I went up to the Aiguille du Midi on my own and it felt great being at altitude again. I do miss the days in Peru and Bolivia when I was constantly moving between 2000m and over 4000m above sea level. The view from the peak was breathtaking and watching the mountaineers heading in different directions to their objective on the mountain was inspiring. Watching them made me want to learn all the disciplines in climbing and mountaineering, so that I could be closer to the heart of the mountain.

After spending a long while up at nearly 4000m, I head back half way down the mountain to take a walk on the Gran Balcon Nord from Plan de l’Aiguille to Montenvers, where Mer de Glace glacier is. It was one of the most picturesque walks that I’ve done so far. While I was walking, I was already scheming and thinking how I could make it work to spend a season in this heavenly place. Too many real life eye candy places to experience, too little time!

Leaving Chamonix was hard…actually it was leaving the mountain that was hard. In addition to that, starting a day job after being away from an office for 14 months is going to be interesting to say the least. On the journey back I kept telling myself, adventures are just round the corner!

So, let’s live!