www.7summits.com
Next year I hope to do Elbus and Aconcagua.
Anyone wanna come with?
We’re into mountains - but not ropes etc… just hiking. Sounds like you’re into extreme mountain challenges! What have you been doing?
Living an hour from the Swiss Alps is pretty nice for us, though we get too much caught up in daily life (laundry etc… <!–emo&<_
)and don’t get up there nearly often enough. We’re also near (15-30 minutes) the Jura and Vosges - much lower mountains. It’s very civilized in the mountains here - it may seem that you’re in a remote place but you’re never far from a cosy Berg Hotel with nice friendly cows. I brought my tent with me when I moved here (having been used to hiking in the Rockies and Minnesota) but have never used it once. We’re pretty relaxed hikers now too - going at our own stubborn pace and stopping to look at every flower and animal along the way. It useful to be flexible when hiking with kids anyway.
I did spend 2 weekends up in the mountains this past month. A girlfriend and I went last weekend in the Alps (Berner Oberland) hiking with our daughers (5, 7 and 8 years old) - I’m finding it really fun that my daughter is finally getting to the age where she can spend the day hiking without me having to carry her on my shoulders. But at one point hiking up to a peak, I turned back when we got to a place with loose rock, a narrow ledge and shear drop off. It’s one thing to do it myself but I’ll have to go back some other time without the kids.
I also did a paragliding course in the Alps too when I first moved here, but somehow after kids I decided I should cut back on this risky behavior a bit. 