Croix du Nivolet

Today was, really awesome. Myself and mon camarade americain, set off to conquer the Croix du Nivolet. Basically we hiked from Chambery, les elephants, all the way up the mountain nearby. It took a little while to f ind the railhead but once we found it the journey was afoot. We passed by everything from donkeys to men with rifles. We endured everything : rain, snow, fog, mud.

At one point we ran into a waterfall that was very cool. Yet the coolest part (one of them) was right before the summit we had to run the gauntlet of a metal set of cables and stairs that brought us up the super-slippery cliff. If we slipped it would have been sure death, but don't worry there was no reason to slip so we decided that wasn't option. Basically imagine that you are hiking in the rain/snow and then have to climb a metal latter. Exciting! It was pretty awesome but unfortunately not awesomely pretty. The fog left the affect where you could not see more than 40 feet ahead of you. The good part is that you could not tell how far the cliff was because you could only see the first 40 feet of it.

Just before we reached the summit we ran into a French dude who was quite friendly. He offered that we descend the mountain together in a different direction than we came up. It sounded fun enough. He lead us though the snow and fog down a different direction of the mountain. We half descended half slid our way down the mountain; I wished that I had skies at points. There was discussion of everything from politics to learning somethings about nature. It was surprising how much or little time went by during the hike.

Afterwards we returned to his place and had some hot chocolate. We sat around and talked and his Senegalese roommate joined in and talked with us as well. One thing I think that is always neat is how the people I meet in France are always really friendly. People just have a nice vibe to them. What's cool about some of the apartments in Chambery is that they are old and have a kind of castle feel to them. They are different from a lot of things that you find in the states.

After I returned chez-moi I bombarded myself with more Chinese and struggled to learn more, eventually fatiguing myself to sleepiness. My roommate and I discussed all sorts of weird things in chinese and French and Chinese. I eventually just needed to go to sleep, I decided to write in my blog first ;)

Well good night. The sleepiness is quite strong now.

p.s. I added some more photos but would also highly recommend seeing some my friend Brian's newly added photos. His pictures have a professional touch and can be seen at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bcrigby/