leaving the Alps & bagging a summit

I'm writing this post from Switzerland. 

I don't know exactly when I entered it. Becky told me because she saw me on the map. I think a lot of these psychopaths (cycle paths lol) Don't get the same signage as roads as far as "welcome to wherever".

I was in Liechtenstein for a while. Becky was also the one to inform me of this. 

Yesterday was kind of cool in some ways, and kind of bad in others. I did a huge climb of a mountain pass to exit the high Austrian Alps. I only really did two really big climbs: one buy-in and one cash out. Now there was a lot of really bad hills but I'm talking like climbs that take you half a day..

I feel bad I didn't blog during the ~600 km I was crossing the width of Austria, but it was just hard to keep up. 

The Alps are beautiful. I don't think 30 seconds went by over the course of the week when I couldn't take a breathtaking picture. 

The whole time I was in The mountains I was thinking I needed to do at least one hike or summit something. But it was always hard to want to fit it in cycling so much. 

But the last day when I climbed that pass to bomb out this would be yesterday, it had been raining for 2 days, And it was going to be cloudy and rainy for the next three. But that morning when I crested the pass there was about 6 hours of sunshine and  I see this mountain with a big cross on it (Great viewpoints often have crosses here).

I made a decision to do it. I barely slept the night before because night time fell when I was halfway up the climb to the pass and I had to stay in the most upscale ski village I've ever seen. It was so much colder at this higher elevation and I was crashing on the porch of some chalet that was empty. The concrete wasn't on the ground and so it was super cold and my sleep system was barely good enough for this. I almost froze on this breezy patio. 

I made the mistake of also drinking a beer that night (there was some five-star hotel next to the chalet I was crashing and I met the bartender outside when he was smoking and so I had a beer and he hooked me up with the free dessert ) and I had to get up in pee several times so I kept getting cold again. I probably got several hours sleep tops. I haven't been drinking alcohol on this tour and that's why it's just not worth it: having to pee in the night.

Anyways, I knew this was my last chance so I ditched my bike, put on my little collapsible backpack and took off up this mountain for what turned into about a 5-hour round-trip hike. It was really hard so sleep deprived to keep the pace up on the hike but I knew the clouds were going to roll in.

It was really cool because there was times I had to follow cairnes and use my hands to scramble. I really don't like hikes where you're just walking. I like to have to use all 4s. 

It was super gratifying because from the road I had no idea looking at the peak if I was biting off more then I could chew. But I made it up and there was one of those little books you signed and a schnapps dispenser!

Within 20 minutes of me being at the summit, the clouds came rolling through the valley at break neck speed and the temperature started dropping.

Gorgeous views. 

When I got back down I descended out of the mountains 1,500 m in one go! It would have been super fun going downhill that fast and that long except all my gear (shoes/gloves) wete soaked from the previous rains and I used up the sunny weather on the hike  and I was freezing all the way down the mountains. 

Anyways, the hike was amazing and here are some pictures.