Living like the rich in Switzerland

Sunday June 21

We are typing this entry from a parking lot in the town of Andeer, Switzerland. Today ended up being a rest day for both of us so we decided to treat ourselves to a real shower - since we have not had one in a week. Guys stink. The initial plan was to just go to a local campground and pay for a shower there, the real plan ended up being us spending the day at a fancy hot spring resort! The name of the place was Andeer Mineral Springs and it is run in conjunction with the local fancy, upscale hotel. We sat in the springs for about two hours, then took a real long real shower (with hot water)! It was awesome. Now we are sitting in the parking lot cooking super (snow capped peaks all around).

Yesterday was in interesting day. We woke up sometime around ten and had breakfast, then we went down to Andeer and checked our email. When we returned home (the Magic Wood climber campground) we found two guys with a very big video camera. They came over and asked if the could film us around the car - we said OK. After some time we asked what they were doing. It turns out they were making a climbing movie for German TV about Magic Wood and one of the local climbing hero’s. So, to make a long story short we are now in this movie because they were looking for foreign climbers.

After that we (Ben) went climbing. I ended up working Electroboogee (8A+) and Octopuss (8A). I got all the moves on both and will be going back to try and finish them when I grow some new skin. I also managed to climb Master of the Cow (7C+) and a couple of other easier problems on my list of “must do’s”. Maybe tomorrow, with all the dirt washed off, I can finish a couple of harder projects. Krissy is also planning to try climbing here again - hopefully things will go a bit smoother (ie. No lost shoes).

Random:
In Andeer the cows go home down the main street.
Andeer is usually 3-5 degrees warmer than Avers and it is only a five minute drive.
There is still snow only a five minute drive up from us
We stood on the Italian-Swiss border
The climbing brands Moon, Mammut, and E9 seem very popular here
Big crash pads are cool here - not like in Font
There are very sharp holds here
The climbind style is VERY powerful here
Phones are VERY hard to use
We do not understand anything here
Ben worked his projects with 4-5 Italians who were really strong and spoke some bad English
Miming beta seems to work well to explain how to do specific moves
Food, however simple, always tastes so good at the end of the day