Last weekend, I satisfied a recent obsession to hike the highest mountain in Austria, the Grossglockner, or the "high Bell" mountain. I hiked with Alumnus, Fr. Avram Brown, Theology professor, Robert Cassidy, and the female RD, Katie Hess.
It was a spectacular trip with perfect weather: blue skies, moderate temps, a dusting of snow on the hilltops and rugged conditions.
The Grossglockner summit is right about at 14,000 feet or about half the height of the world's highest mountain, Mount Everest.
We departed Gaming at 4:55 Am and it took us roughly 5 hours to arrive at the base of the mountain. From here we began our trek up. About hiking up another 5 hours we spent the night in the highest hut in Austria where we had to acclimatize due to the altitude. We all felt dizzy and sick and found it hard to sleep. Lucky for us, with Fr. Avram, we celebrated Mass in the hut overlooking the most stunning view of the mountains.
Even without sleeping much in the hut, we departed again in the morning at 6:15 to begin our hike to the summit. After climbing (literally) another 1.5 hours, we summited to our great relief! From here we could see into Italy and it felt like we were on top of the world.
After pictures and rejoicing at the summit, we headed back to our car where we celebrated Sunday liturgy in the woods before departing back to Gaming.
All in all, it was a trip which we all will remember for a lifetime and probably one of my most memorable weekends of my life!
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