Ode to the Gornergrot

Yesterday confirmed what I already knew: tennis players are the best athletes.  Michael Aston clearly won in the race to the top of the fabled Gornergrot hike.  He made the trek from Zermatt in 3 hours exactly.  Jordan Rees arrived 15 minutes later, and the third place finisher, musician Gary Indjian, surprised the field with a 4 hour 5 minute journey to this 3136 meter destination. (10,266 feet).  The rest of the finishers will be listed below.  This year I came in 14th, and two years ago--the last time we came to Zermatt--I finished 8th, which leads me to believe that this is the last time I attempt The Gorney.  It's too grueling for me.  I tried to stop and enjoy the magnificent scenery, but then I tightened up.  If I sit for more than 5 minutes, my knees--the physical element that controls my will power--tells me to give up.  Devon D. (soccer)and Michelle Y. (swimming) were the first girls to finish, upsetting the perrennial favorites, Emily R.(track and b-ball) and Chelsea T., (x-country), who got lost, but still finished strong.  Other favs, David S., (waterpolo) Spencer S., (golf) and Mickey B. (tennis) were soo lost that their pre-hike hubris melted into the surrounding glaciers.  Two years ago, David Eiges, tennis player, also won.

I hiked up in the comforting presence of Amy G., Katie U., Mona Y., Michelle Yo., Christine D., Hillary D., and Garrett D.  Later I will put up some photos.  Our conversations kept me going. The terrain switches from forresty to meadowy to rocky.  After awhile, talking sucks up too much precious oxygen, and the lonliness of the hike prevails.  Our group fell into a single file. Some hum a heroic melody to keep hope alive, but I remembered a poem I had composed two years ago on the trail and tried to recite this doggerel from memory.  Here it is. 

Ode to The Gornergrot

You thought you left me there to rot,

But I was on The Gornergrot

You guessed I lost my will, my mind

Your thoughts of me left far behind.

But I was on The Gornergrot

The ancient peak that time forgot;

Across the way, The Matterhorn,

The most majestic ever born.

But I was on The Gornergrot.

I watched you fade toward the spot--

3000 meters, maybe more,

Then something happened to restore.

It came not from pride nor from within.

I knew I would again begin

And make my way up to the top,

For I was on The Gornergrot.

Frosty spoke of roads not taken,

Thoreau talked of desperation.

But I caught and passed you near the top

For I was on The Gornergrot.

The mountain was what sustained,

The Edelweis, marmots and terrain.

Your thought you left me there to rot,

But I was on The Gornergrot.

The Gornergrot-Voss Hotel and Restaurant was built over eighty years ago when a train to it was simultaneously built.  It has a panoramic view of a series of famous mountains above 4000 meters.  In fact, over a third of all the 4000 meter mountains in Switzerland can be seen from this site.  Just below is the Riffelberg Hotel which was built before Mark Twain's journey to Switzerland 120 years ago.  He wrote a typically comical version of hiking up to it--or rather being carried by a mule.  

Across the way, Coach Hall lead a group of girls on a slightly less famous hike--but grueling none-the-less--to Schwartzee.  The seven girls were: Becky M., Melissa L., Caitlin B., Jasmine D., Helen L., Nicole E., and Siobhan S.  While my group experienced more of a hiking crowd, there's was more peaceful, more into the wild. I doubt this group could care less who "won," but Siobhan and Caitlin easily took the trophy for fastest return.  The photos are courtesy of Jasmine.

Well, here's the list.  My special medals of heroic climbing go to Mona Y., who kept an impressively consistent pace while still enjoying the view, and Katie U., who hiked the whole thing with a bumb knee.

1. Aston

2. Rees

3.Indjian

4. Heller

5. Scott

6. DuPar

7. Yamazaki

8. Kinney

9. Resnick

10. Thomas

11. Brown

12. Skophammer

13. Springer

14. LV

15. Yazdi

16. Guttman

17. Young

18. Deakers

19. Davidson

20. Uraguchi

21. Dunbar

22. Nelson

23. Overstreet

24. Krumholz

25. Kurt

26. Cummings

27. Kato

28. Huerte

29. Nishimoto

30. Hsu

A few pictures--but my camera died early on: http://gallery.mac.com/mjhoeger/100033

P.S. OK, some got lost, some started late, some didn't know it was a race.  The last can be first in their own mind, and the middle can be first in their own logic, but the first cannot be last.