Visiting the expedition camping site beforehand

On April 6th three members of our expedition flew to Geneva and drove down to La Grave, in order to visit the expedition camping site and the Via Ferrata beforehand.

This was a very exciting trip to say the least, as our task was to organise a meeting with the local mayor and owner of the camping site, as well as try out our technical equipment and find out what available resources there are in the area.

Driving through the Alps was breath taking, and arriving to the Via Ferrata was no exception. We were happy to be welcomed by the mayor on arrival, and he proposed that we have a meeting the next day. We took this opportunity to walk around the area in order to visualize how the camping site could best function. Facilitating the communication between our climbers and our base camp is priority.

However, great importance lies also in planning the “smaller” details surrounding our expedition. A significant amount of effort goes into organising sanitary facilities, garbage disposal, not to mention means to prepare food for the expedition. They are equally important in contributing to the success of our expedition.

I should also mention the importance of teamwork, which played a key role during our trip. I was unlucky to catch a rather aggressive stomach flue just in time for our meeting with the mayor. This was rather unfortunate, as I was the only who knew how to speak French. Merde would be the appropriate French term at this point. But my colleagues Max and William were extremely helpful and visited the local pharmacy in order to get me some medicine. They then found out that they knew how to improvise speaking French when presented no other choice! And so I got my medicine. Tres bien!

In the end the trip was a great success and we were able to gather a lot of critical information that will help us make our final preparations for the actual expedition May 7-15th.

I know we are all very happy and excited to be a part of this project, and we hope you will share our experience by continuing to follow our activities on our blog and on our other social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram).

 

Until next time,

 

Sebastian

Communications Coordinator