Handmade Ziplining, Corn, and a Castle

Our head guide, Gunther, told us that we would be making a zipline one day during the week. I wasn't sure what he meant. I figured that we might 'make' a zipline and then take it down, not really using it.

In the end, we walked along here:

...Played some team games in the forest:

...And went to a lovely spot in front of a waterfall TO BUILD A ZIPLINE!

I am still amazed that this worked and we were actually able to use it. Gunther had a group of students on each side of the river and he bounced back and forth, helping set up ropes with carabiners. That was really it -- ropes and carabiners. (Thankfully, a helmet was also involved.)

I wasn't sure the first student would make it across! The kids were great -- they took turns up top being the 'brake' while a student zipped across and others caught the student at the other end, pulling his/her feet up to a large boulder to climb down from. It was GREAT fun! Overall, it sounded like this ziplining activity and the mountain biking were the kids favorite parts of the week.

A lovely castle:

All the churches in this area have red steeples like this one:

Out of 39 students, 3 did not know how to ride a bicycle. Since my knee was hurt from the long hike a couple days before, I stayed with them while the rest of the group went mountain biking. Part of me would have loved to have gone on the ride but it all worked out and we still had fun.

We took a walk through the cornfields and the town and... sang about corn. It was quite hilarious. What started as a joke kept going and we all sang about corn. We still do when we see each other in the hallway at school!

One of my favorite photos from the week and my non-biking buddies:

"CORN!"

The longest hike I've ever done

Once the sun was up and we had a clear blue sky, we set off on the day-hike. I knew I had a lot ahead of me... but even when we stopped for lunch and I asked how much further we had to go, I was surprised when the guide said we were (only!) about halfway. Yikes!

Thankfully, the new hiking boots I bought for the big day were comfortable enough. Since we had taken two chairlifts UP the mountain, most of the hike was downhill. I hurt my knee throughout the day and it bothered me quite a bit for the next two weeks. Now (over 5 weeks later) it's fine.

I'm glad I did the hike... but I'm not really yearning to do it again anytime soon. I usually enjoy a 3-hour hike or so, not really 10 hours! Troppo! (Too much!)

39 ninth graders and a 10-hike... GO!

One of the guides taking a group photo of us (his photo is the one after):

The group!

Not sure if you can see it in the photo above but atop each mountain peak, there is a cross. Each cross is different and even made of different materials. We took the photo standing around the cross.

Below, we are marching to our lunch spot. Top of a mountain, 360-degree view!

(We may have been the group of stragglers and Gunther, in the middle, was pulling us all along the final steps!)

I had a bad cold all week and was really feeling it the day of the hike.

It was tough to keep the kids going while I wasn't feeling up to par myself.

I took a much needed nap after eating lunch.   :P

Just. Stunning.

(Ok, maybe I would do this hike again. Ha!)

Almost to the refugio! (There are refuges along hikes, where you can get a bike to eat, sit and rest, and even spend the night at some.) We enjoyed a rest and some snacks before the final decent to get to the bus.

We did it! We were all exhausted by the end of the day. Some students soaked their feet into the cold water of a stream while waiting for the bus. They were already worried (and complaining) about the "Night Hike" scheduled for the next evening. I felt the same! Haha. In the end, it was worth it and we all bonded along the way.

FIELD TRIP WEEK - South Tyrol, Alto Adige

Last school year for Field Trips Week (end of September), I went to Berlin with the 11th graders. This year, I was assigned to the 9th grade trip... to the Dolomites! I was really excited, as the Dolomites have been on my wish list of travel spots.

After about a 4-ish hour bus ride, we were in the Alto Adige (South Tyrol) area, very close to Austria. It actually felt a lot more like Austria than Italy and they speak German much more than Italian.

It felt so good to be up in the mountains with fresh air and cool weather. The sun was out for the week, raining when we got on the bus for the trip back to school on Friday (lucky!).

What a school field trip!! We had 39 students and activities included: mountain biking, high ropes course, handmade ziplining, forest games, bouldering, rock climbing on the side of a mountain, a 10-hour day hike, a night hike, waking up to watch the sunrise while on top of a mountain... ummmmm YES!

The view from my hotel room. I meeeeeeannnnnn... amazing!!

After checking into the hotel, we went to a high ropes course. It was quite expansive and I like how it was set up. We watched a video about clipping in and the harnesses were double-clips, so we could do it all individually instead of having a guide belaying each person one at a time. It was a lot of fun -- and all students participated and got up there!

Definitely a high-light of the week for me was watching the sun rise from behind a mountain while we sat at a cafe atop a mountain. Wow!! Definitely worth the 4:30am wake-up. From there, we went on a 10-hour hike... yikes!

We were on top of a mountain (having taken two different chairlifts up... and up!). The views were amazing. 360-degree view, surrounded by expansive mountains.

Two thumbs up!