Dirndls and Climbing

This is my Dirndl. It is the traditional outfit of the area. Liederhosen would be the guy equivalent. I'm fairly certain every family owns at least two or three pairs. People thought I was a local when I wore it. It was awesome. I've gotten to the point where almost everywhere I go the people initially speak to me in German and only when I falter do they speak in English. It is pretty cool!

Eiskogel is the name of the mountain we climbed this weekend. It was the highest yet.

We left Salzburg at about 10 in the morning on Saturday and started climbing around 11:30. We made it to a hut called Aton-Prosch Haus at about 4pm where we stayed the night. The evening was so much fun! There were some Germans in the "restaurant" area (it was the bottom floor with tables set up) and we talked with them for a good 2 hrs. One of them could speak decent English, but would humor us and speak some German with us. It was great to just sit around, us college kids talking with the generation above us. The man that spoke decent english also knew a few Zauber (magic) tricks and they kept us entertained. He was definitely a hit at the bars back in his day : )

The stars were spectacular that night as well. We stayed outside for about 30 just looking at them and admiring the fact that the mountains on the horizon were the Alps, but the stars we were seeing everyone back home could see as well. We were able to pick out the Milky Way and the Big and Little Dipper!

The ten of us in the class all slept in the same room. It had a giant bunk bed in it. We shared a mattress on the bottom and everyone shared a mattress on the top, 5 and 5. It was like a giant slumber party until we realized we had to get up at 7:30 the next morning and hike.

Sunday morning we began the trek up the mountain to the summit. It was steep and rough going for a solid 3 hours. This mountain was definitely the most physically demanding. However, the view from the top was by far the best. The clouds gave us a little bit of grace and we could see some of the distant mountains. It was the farthest we have ever been able to see.
There was a guest book at the top! Yes, Leonard, Oklahoma will forever and always be in the history books of Eiskogel!