Woken from a terribly restless afternoon with a...
... "Do you want to go on a helicopter ride?"...
... How much?...
... "... I'll check... ... ... free... totally free... ... ... but I have to know right now"...
... free!? hmmm... wow... kay wait... Danelle, you wann - 'YES... I mean yes... I mean... ok... /smile/'
... we're in... What time?...
... And that is how I found myself 5 feet from a rockface... going straight up the side... (my heart is somewhere around the sole of my foot)... landing on top of the summit... 3140 m high... with a panoramic view all the way to Austria... It's is how I find myself a cross between sheer panic and sheer wonder... how I find out this pilot is the guy that does every rescue mission in the valley... right now my heart has caused a sort of tunnel vision... it could very easily be a dream... a dream where I'm squeezing very tightly to the back of the seat...
... And suddenly it becomes real... I am here in this moment... When he opens the door to see if Danelle... (she's sitting shotgun)... didn't want to get out, just for fun, on the 5 foot wide pillar of a rock... 1000 feet straight down... No longer in the shelter of our cockpit bubble... ... ... fresh, cold, thin air rushes in to snap me awake...
... Then hovering just above the mountain... inch... forward... forward... and drop... ... ... ... ...
... And I remembered before we got on the helicopter one of the guys said that it's like a rollercoaster... and he goes on rollercoasters all the time in North America... and it would be a breeze... ... ... and in my mind I agreed... ... ... ... ...
... How completely and utterly mistaken that was... because a 300 meter drop on a rollercoaster... tops... 100 miles an hour... is laughable compared to 200 mph, 10 feet above the ground, up the side of the mountain... over the top... then drop off ...iiilll... 2000 feet... iii lll iii ... straight down... free... .... ... fa...ha.. llll... ing... ... floating... held in by your seatbelt... 4, 5, 6, 7- 8... thump thump... 9... thump thump... ... 10 lll iii ... ... ... like a cliff jumper with a parachute and times that by about 1000...
... And I saw the mountain you can climb... The mountain that's in the background of all our pretty pictures... 3000+ meters to the summit... but this time I saw it... not hugging a rockface or looking up from afar... but around... and under... and on top... and above... still makes me a little woozy just thinking... ... ... how unbelievable... totally unbelievable... ... ... and thing is... it's climb-able the one side drops to the base... but the other... the other... Is fairly gradual... I really think I could do it... a 72 year old man did it... and I saw a middle-aged couple at the top from the helicopter...
... They waved at us...
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