Birthday Invitations Wording For 18th Birthday

UP TO THE WHITE BALL

E 'for so long that I do not go up the ice!

I try to make room for the mind trying to remember when was the last time, perhaps up to the Barre des Ecrins with Mauro, Claudio and Fabio, a few years ago ... .. Graziella

This time offers us the stimulus: it is a few months we intend to get on the ball White, a mountain unknown to us and that is never part of our objectives, perhaps because of the distance. We accept the proposal that, if it were not for the insistence Graziella, highly motivated, it might fall into the "back burner".
finally managed to reach agreement Saturday, Sept. 4 and depart for the Val Venosta taking the road less fast, but definitely shorter and more scenic, one that crosses the Stelvio Pass.

The road up to Passo

of time and then we can afford to blame comfortable.

Glieshof reach the end of the Val Mazia, shortly after noon, where we parked the car. We review our materials and Graziella, with dismay, you realize you have left at home crampons. We try to convince her that surely will find refuge and a pair loaded our heavy backpacks on their shoulders begin our ascent.

we go!

The path climbs gently at first Oberettes refuge in the woods and reached the valley station of the cable car gets steeper, gaining altitude rapidly.

The weather is not great and sometimes falls a few drops of rain.

the shelter under the roof of the cable car station

In view of the Refuge

As always the eve of a tough climb are torn between the desire to reach the goal and the fear of not succeeding, and so, again, I find myself thinking "I hope that it will rain" so you have a good excuse to quit.
But, damn, I do not ever goes well .....!!!!

At Refuge we are greeted by the manager who assigns us a room to ourselves and we immediately recover not one, but two pairs of crampons, to the satisfaction of Graziella can even choose one that best suits your needs.

So, between tea and a short siesta, we take evening!

There are few visitors, but fortunately we are not alone in wanting to deal with The White Ball, there is another group that will start the morning with us. We have dinner

plenty of talking about this and that and then go to bed, knowing that you have a few hours of sleep available. In fact, the alarm rings at 4:45 and at 5:30, after breakfast, we take the path still in the dark and rough ice which leads to a saddle at about 3,000 m. level. Even here in terms of steepness and do not mess around while I go, back to the surface a concern not to do it because I seem to be in trouble already. Fortunately (or unfortunately if I think back), not just after the pass the trail descends to at least 150 m. dimension on the front of Glacier Mazia and this allows me to catch up on some 'forces. After the first steep snowy slope and then we stop to harness and tie.

crampons do not fit because a layer of snow about thirty cm. fell in the days before the glacier covers candidly making slow our pace and forcing us to pay attention to small but treacherous crevasses, scattered 'over the entire surface, which were covered by the recent snowfall. We roped in front of the other tracks and that makes this helps, but not enough, the effort is still so much! The rising sun illuminates the peaks of the first peaks of the mountains and then gradually spreads its light on everything around us making the landscape "magic".

course, the wild and imposing inspires a kind of awe and one feels really small and only in the face of such greatness.

I follow my team leader trying to keep up with him and I think this is the thing that bothers me most during a climb of ice: the need to maintain the pace of those in front of me, without having the opportunity to stop and look around , take a picture, take a sip of water, rest a moment. I am unable to keep pace for much of the route, but at some point, my hand gets heavy and I have to continually ask to slow down.

alllora adopt the system of counting the steps: 40 steps and then a short break, another 40 steps and stop again. So we arrive on the plateau at the base end of the ramp, where you connect to the route that goes from Rifugio Bellavista and crossed by numerous teams. I realize that they can not stop my friends and intimate them to proceed without me. They have some hesitation to leave me alone, but I insist and after I assured share towards the top. They too are tired, I understand from their slow gait, but probably have some reserves of energy in more than me or maybe it's just more determination, I do not know ......

The final ramp

them look long, but there seemed to be the top, trimmed in hand .... After two hours of waiting I start to worry, it's cold and takes a chill wind and the expanse of ice that surrounds me only increases my sense of loneliness.

But here come the three who preceded us on the glacier, I recognize them by the laughter that accompany their speech, and I confirm that Mauro and Graziella reached the top and are falling. I scan carefully the snowy slope that is in front of me and here improvvisameente see them get off and head towards me.

Our group comes together and tell me to what has been busy along the final ridge and had to wait several ropes to descend to be able to go back. Their customer service is great and I can not help but be happy for their success.

then go down the glacier with crampons, but the snow quality favors the formation of a thick base, so we take our "tools" and proceed safer and determined, as well as faster. At the end of the glacier is waiting for us, alas, a steep climb to get to the pass.






Resigned, we face the latter slope that seems to never end and then down quickly to the hut, his feet are now aching to read it and also because of blisters. Our physical
claim a break, but we can not stop long, it's almost 5:00 in the afternoon and we go down to begin the journey of ritono home, where we arrived it is now midnight.

'm happy with my small business, although not quite up to the summit, but after this I think I'll climb as Graziella, hang my spikes to nail, even if the reasons that lead me to this decision are probably different from yours.

just think it's time for me to go to the mountain in another way ....