Via Alpina

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No starter’s gun; no stop-watch timer;
No tape to break; no bar to cross;
No hurtling hurdles or pointed pole;
Just the joy of one foot after another
Placed on the path set out for us
On ridge after ridge, one view after another
Testing anatomy in rarefied air
Pumping red cells through dilated vessels;
Muscles tingling at full stretch
With pleasure – sheer pleasure.
 
Then looking back on the way behind
To what we thought impossible – now accomplished
As we fold up walking poles, pack away boots
Until next year.
 
September 2011
 
After André completed the Via Alpina


Click here Via Alpina to view photos of the hike from Rochers de Naye to Montreux