Climb every mountain

I was originally planning to go over to Melk abbey for the afternoon, just an hour train ride away, with Liz Conte. But at the last second, as we were headed out the door, Metod asked us if we wanted to climb the Ostcher. The highest mountain in Lower Austria. Melk is an abbey. It can wait for a rainy day. And so, about twenty minutes later we (Metod, Tomash, and Dominique, three LCI students from Eastern Europe, and two IHI guys, John and Nick, Jon Haines, Liz Conte and I) climbed in Metod's old nine passenger and headed for the base of the mountain, about half an hour's drive away. Liz after the first ascent.

This part of the hike was pretty hard. It was really really steep. See those little people down there?
IHI John on the rock.

moi en ze mountainz

The view from the Ski Lodge view, still a ways from the top, but quite nice.
That guy was making me jealous. He came so close to us we could hear him shouting to us. I am in the process of designing a parachute from my bed linens. I found a nice piece of rope. Shh, don't tell, we aren't supposed to take them out of our rooms.
dangling feet over cliffs is awful fun.
The mountains proclaim the glory of God.
A kind of random awkward photo. Liz taking a picture, Metod leaning against the cabin, Nick I think, taking off his sweater, IHI John, and Dominique.

Taking in the view. This was about halfway up, perhaps a little more. You can't tell from the picture but there was about a hundred foot drop below me. You proably can's see the really really big snow-covered Alps in the distance, either, because well, they were white like the clouds. But it was gorgeous.
Our path we trudged across to the summit. Pictures don't tell depth very well, but trust me it was no walk in the park. Going back down was so much fun. It was like skiing/sliding/rolling/falling/sinking/head-over-heels/start-and-you-can't-stop through drifts of snow that were up to my thigh. I was completely soaked in snow and muddy by the time I reached the bottom, and feeling like I could eat an entire hindquarter of beef alone. And now I need a massage.

At the very summit, the only picture I got before my camera decided to go on strike. It works when it wants to, and then turns off. And it isn't even of the view. It is of people taking pictures of the view! But I will get pictures from Liz and Jon later. You sould see the twin spires of Mariazell way down in the valley. You could see mountains bordering Switzerland. It was pretty sweet.

We got a picuture of us all in a pyramid, when a group of Hungarians came by and asked us to take a group picture. We took one of them with their beer and Milka at the summit, and then they reciprocated and did the same for us.
The whole mountain took about 5 hours, 4 up and one down. It was the perfect way to spend a Sunday! But oh, I am going to feel it tomorrow!

Vince, our RD's door this morning. A brilliant prank. Someone put name tags all over it with everything from things like sleeping beauty to Peter Pan to Santa Claus to Pete Parker to Bourne: saints and superheros. And he has earned every one of his titles.