The Pradarena Adventure revisited!

Patrick, my brother-in-law, has a rather adventurous nature. And even though he thoroughly enjoyed staying at our house and just being in the middle of nature and its overwhelming silence, he was looking forward to a bit of a challenge after a couple of days. So I proposed that we'd drive all the way up the Pradarena pass and see how high we could get from thereon. The ladies were terribly busy doing "ladies' stuff" (of which I will report more later on) so there was nothing that could stop us. We jumped into his car and drove off, hungry for the ultimate thrill.

The road towards the pass was perfectly clear and the sun was shining as brightly as always so we didn't encounter any real problems getting up there. But the higher we got, the more we couldn't stop noticing the enormous pile of snow on either side of the road. Like white, concrete walls that became at times higher than the car itself. Perhaps they provided the ideal surface for a fanatic skier, but as we hadn't brought any skis with us, or not even a pair of snow shoes, the thrill suddenly appeared a bit bigger than we had anticipated. There, high above us, I saw the "Monte dell'Asino" ("the Donkey's mountain") where I had hoped we could climb onto, like I already did last September. But with this enormous pile of snow, this began to appear impossible. Anyway, we're two strong lads and not easily intimidated. We would at least give it our best shot!

Once we arrived on top of the pass, we saw a group of other adventurers like us. But at least, they had been smart enough to bring their snow shoes with them and they easily marched off into the woods that lead in the direction of the mountain top. We were just standing there with ordinary hiking shoes. Hmmm... let's give it a try anyway. We've driven all this way up here, it would be a pity not at least having tried.

Surprisingly, the snow was that thick that it supported us quite well. Every now and then we sank into it up to our knees, but on average we managed quite well to walk on it. There, in the far distance, two hundred metres higher than where we were standing, we could see the top. We just had to do it! The trees suddenly stopped and we were all alone from thereon, with just this big white carpet stretching out in front of and above us. It was heavy work because ploughing through the snow is still something else than just walking uphill. Then again, it wasn't too hard either because the snow provided us with solid steps to climb on. Halfway between the tree line and the top we arrived at the weird pile of stones (see previous Pradarena post) and we took a brief rest. Already there we felt like being the kings of the world and although the sky was a bit less transparent than last time I was here, the view was still spectacular. And you could hear... absolutely nothing. Not a bird, not the slightest breeze... absolute silence.

After five minutes or so we continued. We could see the top and we were going to make it. We just had to. Still fifty metres left to climb... forty... thirty... We rushed forward, powered by adrenaline and the promise of the ultimate sensation that lay ahead. So close you could almost grasp it. And finally... we got there. You can see how proud we were, can't you?

The amazing panorama immediately took our breath away. Click on the following link for a 360° view, from northeast to northeast...

https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Pradarena/Panorama%20%28small%29.jpg?w=b4e4a516

Unfortunately, the wind was freezing up there, so we didn't stand there for long. A pity we hadn't brought any big plastic bags or something to slide all the way downhill. We had already done this in our field and it was great fun. But this would have been one hell of a ride! :-) Anyway, we leapt and stumbled down through the snow as if we were still kids. Boys will be boys or something... Well, at least we felt pretty much alive. Yes, you only live once and that day we truly took everything out of it that we could.

One last picture before we would disappear into the trees again...