Nikki

I guess the grass is always greener on the other side of the guilt divide.

colduphere

Speaking of 1000 feet of grass (straight down) on both sides, here is one last video of the Cat's Back. I think this gives a better idea of why three of us were petrified, though the other six weren't.

The camera must have been on the guy's head. The music is irritating. You only need to watch between :45 and 1:05. The rock where I went left on my ass when the guide said go right is at 1:02 (though we were coming from the other direction):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPIC5TiXUP4

annhig

cold - it made me petrified just to watch it, but strangely it wasn't the cat's Back bit that worried me but the part slightly later on with the drop off on the left-hand side which I found terrifying.

do jettison the guilt - you didn't deliberately put your son in danger, and he survived a great deal better than you did by the sound of it. so many of my clients are crippled by this negative emotion and usually for no logical reason. your kids won't thank you for feeling guilty!

annhig

yellow triangle duly pressed.

bye bye Rajasekar.

colduphere

Ann I tried to get rid of him last night. He's a tough bugger.

Lookin_Glass

I've never fully recovered from crawling on a ledge of the Grand Canyon and looking into the abyss. On my belly, and never that much afraid of heights I threw up and crawled on my belly - not hands and knees away from the ledge.

I've never fully recovered from the opening scene of the movie cliffhanger. like i said earlier it's not the falling but the time spent between the falling and the landing that horrifies me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d6-5UdFCis


So as the unstable couple in a phrase i love, 'were looking death in the eye' did they reunite?

gruezi

Thanks for a thorough and enjoyable read.

I am forgetting now - what is in the works for the next Cold family adventure?

colduphere

LG they are living apart. But otherwise you would think they were still married. We see them all the time as couples. The future is completely unknown.

Gruezi we should pay some debts and save some money. Also two of the kids can travel on their own now. But I thought that a year ago as well. Since then we have gone to Jordan and Scandinavia. So who knows?

Long shots would be Patagonia and/or NZ/OZ. Oh and that cruise for my wife hee hee.

annhig

The future is completely unknown. >>

how true.

immimi

I've been reading this while on a treadmill. I've had to
grip the handrails extra hard to keep from falling off the
edge.

Thanks for another 'gripping' tale of survival from the Cold
Crew.

Evidently, there are cruise ships that come with climbing
walls.

WeisserTee

Wow, what a saga! Makes me glad we have a 14 y.o. blind English cocker spaniel as an excuse. "Oh, we'd love to go on those hikes, but we can't take our dog on steep trails anymore." Yes, that's the reason. Sure.

Great trip report, a real keeper. And cool video link (actually, I kind of liked the music).

colduphere

Immimi - speaking of treadmills the six old people on this trip lost between 5 and 10 pounds each. Stable husband went from 170 to 160 pounds. Temporary loss most likely but still dramatic. A couple of these hikes a year and we could give up all other exercise. There's a flaw in that logic somewhere.

WeisserTee - I know you live in Switzerland - also a hiking paradise. We had a bit of a problem hiking down from Trockener Steg to Zermatt one year after we missed the last gondola down by 5 seconds. There was one dangerous area on the trail that still makes me shudder. What a beautiful area.

seetheworld

Cold: I am behind in my reading so I must catch up on your report. Take a look at my profile picture. My father-in-law and his brother-in-law, 1960 on top of the Zugspitze. Notice the way they are dressed.

So I think I have found my answer as to why my oldest son, even though he has a fear of heights, does what he does on vacation. The youngest just made the Zugspitze climb because he is competitive with his brother.

I haven't even been told about their Swiss hikes yet. They are also doing Half Dome (again - groan) in October. There is no rest for my poor worry, lol.

PegS

Heh. Thanks for letting me know, in detail, what I will avoid and not avoid when we finally get to Scandinavia.

colduphere

The first accidental death at the Preikestolen:

http://www.newsinenglish.no/2013/10/...kestolen-fall/

annhig

oops. seriously, poor bloke. i'm surprised, looking at it, that he's the first "accidental" death. There are places in Cornwall where people go specifically to throw themselves off; is this place the same for Norwegians?

the comments on the article are interesting.

sassy_cat

Eek, if this had happened just before your trip would you have still hiked?
Just looking at the photo makes me a little nervous and I don't have a huge fear of heights!

Nobody actually saw the guy fall so maybe it wasn't an accident...

colduphere

Ann I gather a few people have gone up there to commit suicide. Check the "safety" section on the link below.

Sassy_cat yes we would have still gone. But the dumb things we saw people doing while taking pictures would have driven us even further over the edge. I am fairly certain it was a Spanish couple standing on one foot each while taking pictures that I reported on above.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prekestolen

annhig

coincidentally, I got an e-mail from ? Lonely planet today that had Prekestolen on the front.

it looks fantastic, but soooo dangerous!

catcrazyaf

How did I miss this saga? What an adventure. I'm in awe. So in awe that I need to go have a drink to reduce the stress I've been experiencing while reading your fantastic story. Thanks for sharing . . . and cheers!