Dancing on a Mountain

In early June, my host dad and 3 of our family friends went on a 5 hour hike up a mountain in Switzerland. But it wasn’t just any ordinary hike. One of the friends is a student at a university in Zurich who is studying to become a dancer. She is almost finished her degree and in order to complete it must complete a 30 minute video about dancing in nature. So we climbed up this mountain one Friday afternoon carrying heavy backpacks filled with clothes, food and supplies.

The dancing that we actually participated in is probably not the kind that you would expect. We weren’t doing hip-hop or ballet or anything like that and nobody was teaching us a routine. We were given very loose activities that we had fun completing. For example, one activity was pretending we were the rocks surrounding and we had to dance as though we were forming the different shapes and changing how the rocks would over hundreds of years. Another activity was to move down the side of a mountain by trying as little as possible not to touch the ground. So we had to climb over each other and slide down.

We stayed in a tiny hut that belonged to a friend of our family friend and that couldn’t be rented out by anyone else. It was so stunning and such an incredible experience. The old house was located in a totally isolated nook in the mountains. We had an amazing view of all the mountains with no sights of other houses or people. The most movement we saw were cows because this is Switzerland!

Some other highlights:

• I went swimming in total mud and fell in love. I totally covered myself in it and then the only place I had to wash off the mud was the muddy water!
• We crawled along the edge of a ridge so high of the ground! It was like a giant mountain balance beam! I found it super scary but it was such a cool place!
• There were patches of snow on the side of the mountains and I went sliding down it which was sooo fun!

Click here to view a 2 minute clip taken from the original about my weekend away dancing!

Berggasthaus Aescher-Wildkirchli

The Berggasthaus (which in English means Mountain guest house) is a beautiful but tiny hostel plus brunch cafe on the side of a mountain. It is listed under the Lonely Planet guide to Places to Visit Before You Die! The hike up was pretty uphill but beautiful. We left our house at 6am in the morning so we were hiking for 5 hours watching the beautiful sunrise! Enjoy the pictures!

Aletsch Glacier

The final hike that I have to update you on was from only last weekend. I left early on Saturday morning and met with my 3rd Host family at the top of a chairlift. My third host family have 3 children, all girls aged 10, 13 and 15. There was nobody about when we began our hike which made it feel very special and unique. Our hike was to visit (and walk on) the largest glacier in the alps which was such an amazing experience especially since it is estimated the the Glacier will be melted in 15 years. Whilst we were walking we could hear the water running really loudly as it was melting. When we reached the actual glacier after about 2 hours we had to strap on funky shoes with spikes on the bottom, put on our warmest clothes and then tie ourselves to each other with rope so we didn’t get lost or fall in to the holes! Walking across the glacier was awesome and so beautiful. Gaps in the ice presented the most gorgeous light blue colour which mesmerised me.

So unfortunately I didn’t take any photos of the glacier and hike as I was too busy enjoying it but I will post some off the internet to give you an idea!

So thanks for reading!

Love Jaimee

xx