Besseggen, Preikestolen and the Fimmvörðuháls with a fear of heights
Aug 28th, 2013, 07:59 AM
#24
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Sassy Cat you really called the wet rock problem. Thanks for reading along Marija.
Ms Go I wish I had your ability to take pictures and produce trip reports. This will be the official report of our trip and there are no pictures of our own. SM – a guy in Iceland proudly proclaimed that there were no McDonald’s in Iceland. What a fool.
The next day – Tuesday - had been left as an insurance day in case of bad hiking weather on Monday. But since we had hiked on Monday we had a free day. I had previously contacted a rafting company that ran the Sjoa river about 90 kilometers from where we were staying. Daughter and two sons came with me while the other five remained in the cottage and relived the previous day.
By the time we started rafting it had been raining for 20 hours. That had swollen the river but our guide seemed to have little problem keeping us upright. Until, that is, he reached a section where the entire point was to paddle back upstream into a torrent of water and FLIP the raft. Yes he wanted the raft to flip. My daughter and I were not afraid of ending up in the water, just of ending up in the water under the raft. So we stepped aside and let the two boys go. We now have a great picture of youngest son being hurled right over oldest son and into the water. Fortunately there were two guides in the raft and one of them quickly fished our son out. All in all a good idea though a bit expensive.
I only told my wife after we returned that I had read two reports of people dying while rafting on the river. It turns out, according to our guide, that several Ukrainians drowned while on an unguided trip on a section of the river that was not to be rafted. That is what he told us anyway.
Wednesday was departure day. The stable couple had long expressed an interest in visiting Bergen on the trip. We had always wanted to see Bergen as well, but as we needed to be in Stavanger (also on the west coast but further south) on the Friday, our family had decided not to drive six hours to Bergen on the Wednesday and then take the ferry to Stavanger (four hours) the very next day. That was too much rushing around. We would drive in a straighter line from Beitostolen to Stavanger over a two day period.
Meanwhile the divorcing couple had agreed to share the BMW with the stable couple, so they had no choice but to visit Bergen as well. They headed off at 8:30 on Wednesday morning for what should have been a six hour drive to Bergen. At 6:30 that evening we received an email saying they had still not reached Bergen.
A week earlier there had been an accident in one of the E-16 tunnels. Traffic was rerouted. Despite knowing about this our friends had driven to the tunnel only to be detoured. For some reason they kept listening to the nice English lady on the GPS who, in her defense, had not been informed of the detour. They then ran into another detour. By now the poor English lady was terribly confused and led our friends in a northerly and then easterly direction – exactly the wrong way. Finally our friends pulled into a tourist office and asked how to get to Bergen. “Bergen?” the nice lady said. Bergen was six hours in the other direction. It took our friends 12 hours to drive what should have taken six hours.
Meanwhile we had settled in Kinsarvik, about half way between Beitostolen and Stavanger. We had a gorgeous view over the Hardangerfjord off of our cottage balcony. And we had arrived in plenty of time to buy some beer.
http://www.booking.com/hotel/no/kins...amping.en.html
Ms Go I wish I had your ability to take pictures and produce trip reports. This will be the official report of our trip and there are no pictures of our own. SM – a guy in Iceland proudly proclaimed that there were no McDonald’s in Iceland. What a fool.
The next day – Tuesday - had been left as an insurance day in case of bad hiking weather on Monday. But since we had hiked on Monday we had a free day. I had previously contacted a rafting company that ran the Sjoa river about 90 kilometers from where we were staying. Daughter and two sons came with me while the other five remained in the cottage and relived the previous day.
By the time we started rafting it had been raining for 20 hours. That had swollen the river but our guide seemed to have little problem keeping us upright. Until, that is, he reached a section where the entire point was to paddle back upstream into a torrent of water and FLIP the raft. Yes he wanted the raft to flip. My daughter and I were not afraid of ending up in the water, just of ending up in the water under the raft. So we stepped aside and let the two boys go. We now have a great picture of youngest son being hurled right over oldest son and into the water. Fortunately there were two guides in the raft and one of them quickly fished our son out. All in all a good idea though a bit expensive.
I only told my wife after we returned that I had read two reports of people dying while rafting on the river. It turns out, according to our guide, that several Ukrainians drowned while on an unguided trip on a section of the river that was not to be rafted. That is what he told us anyway.
Wednesday was departure day. The stable couple had long expressed an interest in visiting Bergen on the trip. We had always wanted to see Bergen as well, but as we needed to be in Stavanger (also on the west coast but further south) on the Friday, our family had decided not to drive six hours to Bergen on the Wednesday and then take the ferry to Stavanger (four hours) the very next day. That was too much rushing around. We would drive in a straighter line from Beitostolen to Stavanger over a two day period.
Meanwhile the divorcing couple had agreed to share the BMW with the stable couple, so they had no choice but to visit Bergen as well. They headed off at 8:30 on Wednesday morning for what should have been a six hour drive to Bergen. At 6:30 that evening we received an email saying they had still not reached Bergen.
A week earlier there had been an accident in one of the E-16 tunnels. Traffic was rerouted. Despite knowing about this our friends had driven to the tunnel only to be detoured. For some reason they kept listening to the nice English lady on the GPS who, in her defense, had not been informed of the detour. They then ran into another detour. By now the poor English lady was terribly confused and led our friends in a northerly and then easterly direction – exactly the wrong way. Finally our friends pulled into a tourist office and asked how to get to Bergen. “Bergen?” the nice lady said. Bergen was six hours in the other direction. It took our friends 12 hours to drive what should have taken six hours.
Meanwhile we had settled in Kinsarvik, about half way between Beitostolen and Stavanger. We had a gorgeous view over the Hardangerfjord off of our cottage balcony. And we had arrived in plenty of time to buy some beer.
http://www.booking.com/hotel/no/kins...amping.en.html
Aug 28th, 2013, 08:37 AM
#25
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loving to hear about it!
I think the rafting sounds like a blast - yes, expensive, but you will have those "remember when we went rafting in Norway" stories in years to come...
thanks also for cataloguing your adventures... there are so few people that get to visit Scandinavia that there just isn't a ton of information. These are the types of trip reports that give me fun ideas. I can't wait until ours are old enough to go back to Norway and do the fun hiking and kayaking and rafting ...
I think the rafting sounds like a blast - yes, expensive, but you will have those "remember when we went rafting in Norway" stories in years to come...
thanks also for cataloguing your adventures... there are so few people that get to visit Scandinavia that there just isn't a ton of information. These are the types of trip reports that give me fun ideas. I can't wait until ours are old enough to go back to Norway and do the fun hiking and kayaking and rafting ...
Aug 28th, 2013, 09:48 AM
#26
" followed by some choice words from me. Apparently Oslo residents understand colourful English."
for crying out loud cold will you please cuss in French when you are in foreign countries. Us Americans can ruin our reputations without help from our northern neighbors.
You are an excellent planner. Congrats on facing your fears and making it to the top.
for crying out loud cold will you please cuss in French when you are in foreign countries. Us Americans can ruin our reputations without help from our northern neighbors.
You are an excellent planner. Congrats on facing your fears and making it to the top.
Aug 28th, 2013, 10:49 AM
#27
Glad you got your beer, cold, sounds like you needed it.
not in any way wishing to diminish your bravery in tackling what i would never have done in a month of sundays, have you see some of the paths on you tube?
i was looking for a different one, but in my searches found this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJjelhDdwVM
[go to about 53 minutes and prepare to feel quite ill]
mind you, i think I'd rather have been on the walk than in the car with those 2 couples!
not in any way wishing to diminish your bravery in tackling what i would never have done in a month of sundays, have you see some of the paths on you tube?
i was looking for a different one, but in my searches found this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJjelhDdwVM
[go to about 53 minutes and prepare to feel quite ill]
mind you, i think I'd rather have been on the walk than in the car with those 2 couples!
Aug 28th, 2013, 11:37 AM
#28
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I haven't watched the videos yet but from the description I already know this hike is not for me. Even though I could probably handle the scary height I'd be exactly like that crazy woman you spotted; trying to rush ahead to avoid watching my daughter climb! What the eye doesn't see the heart doesn't grieve over.
Beer at last and a beautiful view. When the planner gets it right it's all good!
We need a lounge thread for all the details you've left out regarding the 'unstable' couple.
Beer at last and a beautiful view. When the planner gets it right it's all good!
We need a lounge thread for all the details you've left out regarding the 'unstable' couple.
Aug 29th, 2013, 01:18 AM
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Felt anxious just reading your description of the hike. I really have a hard time with heights and climbing is not my forte but the view looked stunning at the top and could see there would be reason to celebrate once the goal was met.
Two things surprised me: I was surprised that no one in your group bailed out on you when they saw what they were in for?! And what about those hikers ahead that carried no backpacks with food and drink provisions or rain gear? What were they thinking? I mean, in Scandinavia it rains at the drop of a hat! Doesn't one need a little pick me up during an hours long hike?
Aside from the hikes, where did your group/family dine? Did you do grocery store runs and cook at your cottages or dine out in Norway?
Two things surprised me: I was surprised that no one in your group bailed out on you when they saw what they were in for?! And what about those hikers ahead that carried no backpacks with food and drink provisions or rain gear? What were they thinking? I mean, in Scandinavia it rains at the drop of a hat! Doesn't one need a little pick me up during an hours long hike?
Aside from the hikes, where did your group/family dine? Did you do grocery store runs and cook at your cottages or dine out in Norway?
Aug 29th, 2013, 04:31 AM
#33
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Hi LG and Fra_Diavolo. It’s a long way from Jordan. Padraig try Iceland. It can be so foggy and rainy there you don't realize how scary it is.
A fear of heights can extend to driving along cliff sides as well. The last few miles into Kinsarvik were along the Hardangerfjord. Nothing awful but the roads were also narrow and twisting with lots of truck traffic. I made a note to pick a route next time where we would be driving on the side of the road away from the water.
In the tourist office in Kinsarvik I mentioned to the woman that I would not want to drive on some of these roads during the winter. There is absolutely no room for slippage. I thought it was a sympathetic comment but the woman laughed at said “We don’t worry about winter, we worry about tourists driving. They go around corners in the middle of the road. Don’t do that please.”
At our cottage in town we had the fjord in front of us and somewhere just behind us was the Hardangervidda, the largest plateau in Europe with much of the area protected as a national park:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardanger_Plateau
There was a hiking trail leading uphill out of town that connected the fjord with the plateau. The trail passes four waterfalls. We were assuming these would be relatively minor falls despite there being quite an elevation difference between the fjord and the plateau. Well we were wrong. We only got to the third waterfall but we’re talking large and incredibly gorgeous waterfalls. We have been in a few countries where advertised waterfalls were 50-100 feet in height. Pretty but not spectacular. In both Norway and Iceland waterfalls mean WATERFALLS. It’s too bad they are somewhat inaccessible for many people.
I’ll answer Finecheapboxofwine’s question now about food. We ate in both nights in Kinsarvik as we had a small kitchen. Other nights we ate in a variety of restaurants but nothing fancy and nothing particularly regional. We were spending too much money as it was and a restaurant meal for five could easily cost $300. I think two of the kids tried shark in Oslo, or it might have been whale. Two of the best meals I have ever had were in Iceland. Salman and trout, the later cooked by our guide in a cabin. As for people bailing on the hikes, I thought of it twice myself. But there was really nowhere to bail to. Both times it would have meant spending the night away from the group before somehow connecting at the other end of the hike. We either all to bail or all continue forward.
We left early on Friday August 16 for the drive to Stavanger – a four hour drive. We had set aside Friday and Saturday for our climb of the Preikestolen, which is very close to Stavanger. As with the Besseggen, we had to reserve a couple of days for the hike as the weather on any given day could be terrible. As the weather forecast for Friday was awful we agreed by email with our friends in Bergen that Saturday would be the day to climb. As such we took a leisurely Friday drive in a torrential rainstorm to Stavanger. More narrow roads, especially at the start of the drive.
Saturday morning we headed out early for the Preikestolen. Ann your comment about videos made me recall how the Preikestolen first came on to our radar. YouTube is full of such videos. With three kids in the house I think I have seen most of them. There is a famous cliff walk in China. The Bolivian death road. I had not seen the one you posted and would rather not see it again.
So the children had always been enthusiastic about visiting Norway and staring out over the edge of the Preikestolen, which by the way has been highlighted as one of the top ten viewing sites in the world:
http://www.regionstavanger.com/en/Ar...ck-on-the-top/
I’ll take a guess and say that the combination of YouTube and articles like the above have turned sites like the Preikestolen into small scale carnivals. Notches in the tourist’s belt, as they were somewhat for us. What used to be hiking routes are now playgrounds, as I will detail in a minute.
But first we had to get there. The Preikestolen is about 60 kilometers from Stavanger. We had agreed to meet our friends there at 10:15. They had returned their BMW and were taking a ferry/bus combination to the site. Our route involved one ferry ride, which we thought we had left plenty of time for. It turns out that a good weather Saturday had convinced a lot of people that this was the day to climb the Preikestolen. We were the last car on to the ferry and managed to find one of the last parking spots at the site. The place was absolutely packed.
I had read that while Norwegian authorities had decided against putting up a railing of any type up on the rock itself, they had improved the trail somewhat given the hordes of people that were now making the climb – some of them totally unprepared. If they had improved the trail, it wasn’t terribly noticeable. We started the climb at about 10:30 with about 500 other people. Really a bit of a zoo.
A fear of heights can extend to driving along cliff sides as well. The last few miles into Kinsarvik were along the Hardangerfjord. Nothing awful but the roads were also narrow and twisting with lots of truck traffic. I made a note to pick a route next time where we would be driving on the side of the road away from the water.
In the tourist office in Kinsarvik I mentioned to the woman that I would not want to drive on some of these roads during the winter. There is absolutely no room for slippage. I thought it was a sympathetic comment but the woman laughed at said “We don’t worry about winter, we worry about tourists driving. They go around corners in the middle of the road. Don’t do that please.”
At our cottage in town we had the fjord in front of us and somewhere just behind us was the Hardangervidda, the largest plateau in Europe with much of the area protected as a national park:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardanger_Plateau
There was a hiking trail leading uphill out of town that connected the fjord with the plateau. The trail passes four waterfalls. We were assuming these would be relatively minor falls despite there being quite an elevation difference between the fjord and the plateau. Well we were wrong. We only got to the third waterfall but we’re talking large and incredibly gorgeous waterfalls. We have been in a few countries where advertised waterfalls were 50-100 feet in height. Pretty but not spectacular. In both Norway and Iceland waterfalls mean WATERFALLS. It’s too bad they are somewhat inaccessible for many people.
I’ll answer Finecheapboxofwine’s question now about food. We ate in both nights in Kinsarvik as we had a small kitchen. Other nights we ate in a variety of restaurants but nothing fancy and nothing particularly regional. We were spending too much money as it was and a restaurant meal for five could easily cost $300. I think two of the kids tried shark in Oslo, or it might have been whale. Two of the best meals I have ever had were in Iceland. Salman and trout, the later cooked by our guide in a cabin. As for people bailing on the hikes, I thought of it twice myself. But there was really nowhere to bail to. Both times it would have meant spending the night away from the group before somehow connecting at the other end of the hike. We either all to bail or all continue forward.
We left early on Friday August 16 for the drive to Stavanger – a four hour drive. We had set aside Friday and Saturday for our climb of the Preikestolen, which is very close to Stavanger. As with the Besseggen, we had to reserve a couple of days for the hike as the weather on any given day could be terrible. As the weather forecast for Friday was awful we agreed by email with our friends in Bergen that Saturday would be the day to climb. As such we took a leisurely Friday drive in a torrential rainstorm to Stavanger. More narrow roads, especially at the start of the drive.
Saturday morning we headed out early for the Preikestolen. Ann your comment about videos made me recall how the Preikestolen first came on to our radar. YouTube is full of such videos. With three kids in the house I think I have seen most of them. There is a famous cliff walk in China. The Bolivian death road. I had not seen the one you posted and would rather not see it again.
So the children had always been enthusiastic about visiting Norway and staring out over the edge of the Preikestolen, which by the way has been highlighted as one of the top ten viewing sites in the world: http://www.regionstavanger.com/en/Ar...ck-on-the-top/
I’ll take a guess and say that the combination of YouTube and articles like the above have turned sites like the Preikestolen into small scale carnivals. Notches in the tourist’s belt, as they were somewhat for us. What used to be hiking routes are now playgrounds, as I will detail in a minute.
But first we had to get there. The Preikestolen is about 60 kilometers from Stavanger. We had agreed to meet our friends there at 10:15. They had returned their BMW and were taking a ferry/bus combination to the site. Our route involved one ferry ride, which we thought we had left plenty of time for. It turns out that a good weather Saturday had convinced a lot of people that this was the day to climb the Preikestolen. We were the last car on to the ferry and managed to find one of the last parking spots at the site. The place was absolutely packed.
I had read that while Norwegian authorities had decided against putting up a railing of any type up on the rock itself, they had improved the trail somewhat given the hordes of people that were now making the climb – some of them totally unprepared. If they had improved the trail, it wasn’t terribly noticeable. We started the climb at about 10:30 with about 500 other people. Really a bit of a zoo.
Aug 29th, 2013, 10:57 AM
#37
A fear of heights can extend to driving along cliff sides as well. The last few miles into Kinsarvik were along the Hardangerfjord. Nothing awful but the roads were also narrow and twisting with lots of truck traffic. I made a note to pick a route next time where we would be driving on the side of the road away from the water. >>
you'd have loved the road to the western fjords in Iceland then! [especially when something was coming in the opposite direction.......]
you'd have loved the road to the western fjords in Iceland then! [especially when something was coming in the opposite direction.......]
Aug 29th, 2013, 05:59 PM
#39
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STW the first person we ALL ogled was our very first Swedish waitress. She was the classic Swedish blonde and so pleasant. I asked her how to say "seven" in Swedish. She said "sju" but her lips moved like she was blowing me kisses. We all swooned, even the women.
Aug 30th, 2013, 05:10 AM
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I found this quote from Eastave on another thread:
“I did the hike to Preikestolen back in the late 90s. It was great. I got an early start and was the first one there. By the time I headed back it was getting crowded. The trail was very busy. I remember seeing a number of women doing the hike in very inappropriate shoes and, even weirder, a bunch of them decided it was too hot and had taken off their shirts.”
I wish we had started our hike much earlier. There were so many people on the trail. I wouldn’t call it dangerous but we didn’t get the feeling we were connecting with nature. At one point the guy behind me said “welcome to Grand Central Station”.
In any event I had once again read numerous accounts and watched several videos of people climbing the Preikestolen. I had a sense of what the trail’s profile would be – a couple of major uphill sections mixed in with some flat sections and at least one section of boulders. While this profile was generally correct, we were not anticipating how many rocks we would be climbing on. Instead of one section of boulders there seemed to be several long sections of climbing rocks. And one section in particular of having to take big steps upward from one rock to another.
This is not my wife’s favourite form of hiking. We all climb differently and she hates having to step from rock to rock. And she was trying to use poles which imo work on dirt and flat rock but are less effective on uneven rock. First you have to find a place to securely plant your pole and then you have to find a place to securely plant your feet. This had also been at issue at the Besseggen where a couple of our group had been using poles when they really needed to be using their hands to climb. All this to say that our ascent was very slow. And with so many people trying to navigate the rocks there were a lot of bottlenecks - which at least made the climb fairly easy from an aerobic point of view.
Closer to the top the terrain did become flatter but it was still very rocky. While it may be 2000 feet straight down from the top to the Lysefjord below, the route does not start from the water. The parking lot is inland and well above the water level. So the entire route is only about four kilometers long with a climb of 1100 feet. That is a pretty easy climb.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File
reikestolen_Map.jpg
The wife of the stable couple had decided not to do this hike. So stable husband was way up ahead with our 14 year old, or at least that is what we thought. We learned later that the 14 year old was in the lead and arrived at the top by himself so that he could creep out over the edge and take some pictures. Bad boy. Then came our 18 year old. Then the unstable couple, and then my wife, daughter and me.
There was a section near the top that had a short wooden bridge with a chain on the mountain side (away from the drop). Unfortunately the bridge was tilting a bit towards the drop-off, which was not a nice feeling. The return trip on the bridge was worse, as it was packed with people and I could not get my hands on the chain from the drop-off side.
By now we were very close to the top. Then we came to this section. That is not me in the picture:
http://www.pbase.com/henkbinnendijk/image/32131331
This one little notch in the rock between the dog and the person in white is where my wife and I stopped, only 125 yards from the Preikestolen top. We stopped for three reasons. 1) I didn’t like the look of the step around the rock. 2) People around us were starting to do the stupidest, in my opinion, things. There was a couple right beside us with the husband standing on one leg leaning out over the edge with his wife, also on one leg, taking his picture. People were bumping into one another. 3) I knew if I got to the top I would not even be able to look at the people sitting over the edge, let alone look over the edge myself. There were people taking mock runs at the edge and then stopping, standing on one foot etc. And I knew I would be yelling at our kids to get away from the edge and ruining their enjoyment. I think my wife stopped with me just to be nice.
So that is where we stopped, still with a beautiful view of the Lysefjord below. At the time I wondered if we would regret stopping just around the corner from the top but we don’t at all. It was just too crazy up there. We saw a man dressed in a suit. A woman with a Great Dane. Couples with four year olds running around. To get back to Eastave’s quote above, if we had started earlier and been up there relatively alone, sitting on top would have been magical. As it was sitting 125 yards from the top was still amazing, if we weren’t looking at the antics of the people up there with us.
“I did the hike to Preikestolen back in the late 90s. It was great. I got an early start and was the first one there. By the time I headed back it was getting crowded. The trail was very busy. I remember seeing a number of women doing the hike in very inappropriate shoes and, even weirder, a bunch of them decided it was too hot and had taken off their shirts.”
I wish we had started our hike much earlier. There were so many people on the trail. I wouldn’t call it dangerous but we didn’t get the feeling we were connecting with nature. At one point the guy behind me said “welcome to Grand Central Station”.
In any event I had once again read numerous accounts and watched several videos of people climbing the Preikestolen. I had a sense of what the trail’s profile would be – a couple of major uphill sections mixed in with some flat sections and at least one section of boulders. While this profile was generally correct, we were not anticipating how many rocks we would be climbing on. Instead of one section of boulders there seemed to be several long sections of climbing rocks. And one section in particular of having to take big steps upward from one rock to another.
This is not my wife’s favourite form of hiking. We all climb differently and she hates having to step from rock to rock. And she was trying to use poles which imo work on dirt and flat rock but are less effective on uneven rock. First you have to find a place to securely plant your pole and then you have to find a place to securely plant your feet. This had also been at issue at the Besseggen where a couple of our group had been using poles when they really needed to be using their hands to climb. All this to say that our ascent was very slow. And with so many people trying to navigate the rocks there were a lot of bottlenecks - which at least made the climb fairly easy from an aerobic point of view.
Closer to the top the terrain did become flatter but it was still very rocky. While it may be 2000 feet straight down from the top to the Lysefjord below, the route does not start from the water. The parking lot is inland and well above the water level. So the entire route is only about four kilometers long with a climb of 1100 feet. That is a pretty easy climb.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File
reikestolen_Map.jpgThe wife of the stable couple had decided not to do this hike. So stable husband was way up ahead with our 14 year old, or at least that is what we thought. We learned later that the 14 year old was in the lead and arrived at the top by himself so that he could creep out over the edge and take some pictures. Bad boy. Then came our 18 year old. Then the unstable couple, and then my wife, daughter and me.
There was a section near the top that had a short wooden bridge with a chain on the mountain side (away from the drop). Unfortunately the bridge was tilting a bit towards the drop-off, which was not a nice feeling. The return trip on the bridge was worse, as it was packed with people and I could not get my hands on the chain from the drop-off side.
By now we were very close to the top. Then we came to this section. That is not me in the picture:
http://www.pbase.com/henkbinnendijk/image/32131331
This one little notch in the rock between the dog and the person in white is where my wife and I stopped, only 125 yards from the Preikestolen top. We stopped for three reasons. 1) I didn’t like the look of the step around the rock. 2) People around us were starting to do the stupidest, in my opinion, things. There was a couple right beside us with the husband standing on one leg leaning out over the edge with his wife, also on one leg, taking his picture. People were bumping into one another. 3) I knew if I got to the top I would not even be able to look at the people sitting over the edge, let alone look over the edge myself. There were people taking mock runs at the edge and then stopping, standing on one foot etc. And I knew I would be yelling at our kids to get away from the edge and ruining their enjoyment. I think my wife stopped with me just to be nice.
So that is where we stopped, still with a beautiful view of the Lysefjord below. At the time I wondered if we would regret stopping just around the corner from the top but we don’t at all. It was just too crazy up there. We saw a man dressed in a suit. A woman with a Great Dane. Couples with four year olds running around. To get back to Eastave’s quote above, if we had started earlier and been up there relatively alone, sitting on top would have been magical. As it was sitting 125 yards from the top was still amazing, if we weren’t looking at the antics of the people up there with us.
