Switzerland HERE I COME!

(Overlooking Grindelwald)


So the adventure begins. On the 14 of Janurary, I will be on my way to embark on a new journey. To a place I've never been with people I have never even seen, much less met, all thanks to Gore-Tex.

The official annoucement took place today, just a few moments ago via Facebook. Click here to check it out. Read all about the contest, here.

It turns out we are 4 finalist. Two of the finalist want to summit the Matterhorn (one in a winter ascent) and the other two, including me, want to summit in the Ecrins Range. One of my fellow finalist wants to summit the Barre Des Ecrins and I want to attack the Dome de Neige via the Mayer/Dabona and consider a descent on splitboard. Those are our objectives. But first, we must be cool enough for school and show it off in Switzerland. I guess that means, whoever is the favorite of Robert Jasper (see link) and the people at Gore-Tex will go on to the next stage in the contest and actually do the proposed project.

You see, we signed up to be a part of this project on Facebook and we had to propose a mountain climbing project in the Alps. Then we had to get friends to vote for us on Facebook. Those that were chosen we done so by the Gore-Tex people in concert with the votes earned. Now, we're on our way to Switzerland to do a two-day casting in Grindelwald. A wild guess - probably close to where Robert Jasper lives and trains. At this point I'm just guessing and while I'm at it, I bet we'll ascend something close by. Lots of big mountains surrounding this little town in Switzerland like Jungfrau, Eiger, and the Monch. It's also curious to mention that there is a famous rail that goes up most of the altitude of these mountains and ends at Jungfraujoch, 3454mts between Jungfrau and Monch.....

Robert will be the man leading this whole project. An accomplished mountaineer well into his career with many credentials. Mostly in the Alps, of course, but with many other ascents around the world including the Himalayas, Andes, and recently he marked a supposed first ascent on Mt. Sarmiento in a weather window hard to get lucky by. It made for an excellent story in Desnivel. OOh, did you know that Robert Jasper stared in the IMAX film, The Alps?? Check it out on youtube.

So, that's about all I know right now. Meanwhile, STAY TUNED for more information. This will be my main news feed as this story develops. It will everything worth telling including news from Gore-Tex, the journey to Switzerland and everything we do there, and preparations leading up to the trip with training articles, etc.

That reminds me, I should bump up my training and get with it!!

Cheers to all and Merry Christmas!!