A few weeks ago, I over-exerted myself by going on a hike from Reusch (1,350) to Scex Rouge (2,971m), the last part of the 

Glacier 3000 Run course. It may have been an unwise idea for me to attempt 1,621 vertical meters for my first hike of the year.

The two girlfriends who had invited me, had--unbeknownst to me--been going on weekly hikes since April, one of them actually participating in the Glacier 3000 Run. I figured if people can run up that mountain, I could certainly walk it. I had been running five to six miles on the flat four times a week all summer.

I am happy to report that I survived yesterday's seven-hour hike that included a climb up the Giferhorn. At 10:45, we parked the car on a road past the Wasserngrat cable car base station and started our ascent through cow fields. For the next two hours, we walked at an easy pace, chatting, and stopping often to take pictures. As we passed the Giferhorn refuge hut, the path narrowed and grew noticeably steeper, and as it did so, the ground to my right disappeared. I stole a glance at the rock cliff below and felt my calves shake. So this is what tight-rope walking must feel like. I dared not look that way again, for fear that the abyss would pull me down. Then, I remembered the words of American writer and mountaineer Jon Krakauer, as he described the vertigo he felt as he climbed the Devil's Thumb in Alaska. Although, there is no comparison between our two ascents, I find his account in "Into the Wild" to be fitting: