Participants: Phil, Mario, and Mel
Location: Engelberg (canton Obwalden, for all of you who -like me- think it lies in the canton of Lucerne…)
Event: Swiss Snow Walk, 18.5km Crazy Walk, longest of all routes, 600m in altitude difference
Weather: really, really, really bad… Yet we made it to the end in just under four hours, coming in last but happy to have crossed the finish line!
I had seen a flyer for the event while waiting for the train, and had convinced Phil and Mario to join, since I thought that it would be the typical marathon-all-these-sporty-people-together feeling. Early morning we spent three hours on the train, only to be welcomed by horrendous weather, and no snow beyond little ugly patches, in Engelberg. The town may look nice when all the houses are covered with a white sheet of snow, but it is certainly nothing to write home about when this is not the case. One day spent in Engelberg is just enough for a lifetime-
Anyhow, our group started first, and we soon realized, that we were a) the only people walking without those annoying sticks that disturb nature and get in ones way all the time, b) the youngest three people there, and c) the only people determined to enjoy our walk as opposed to hurrying through it determined to win. These three points resulted in our being the last three people to cross the finish line, just before the cut-off time, while they were already packing up. Memorable moments: Getting up to the highest point of our walk and being welcomed by staff with Gatorade-like drinks and chocolate cereal, almost being blown away by the wind on our way down, having hail blown into our faces, Phil and Mario’s practicing their beat-boxing skills (“If your mother only knew…”), and Phil’s wind and weather-defying gas! Memorable experience, and one I will never repeat.
And worst of all: we’ve waited for nearly 40min for the f*ing pasta which wasn’t even good! But after all I felt great (except for my weather-defying gas 😉