mon ami de valais

On my next day off, I took off from camp the night before on August 1, Switzerland’s national holiday. It was raining pretty heavily, so instead of walking from my caravan all the way to the funiculaire, to get to Sierre, I played the odds of someone taking pity on me and hitching a ride down the mountain. 5 minutes later, after making l'autostop, three Portuguese ended up taking me all the way to Sion, after some mutually enjoyable conversation. The plan was to meet up with Matt in Martigny, a good friend from the Valais who I met two years ago. I got there early, and he was still up at his village Mex (20 minutes away) listening to his mother give a speech as she is the mayor of the town. I rocked out to some Swiss band playing some good waltzes and well known French songs. Matt got in just in time to see the grand spectacle of fireworks being shot off from the castle that overlooks the town of Martigny (or Octodure as the Romans once called it). It was much better spending Swiss day with Matt and his friends than at camp, because I actually felt part of something Swiss, even though it really turned into a high school reunion for Matt’s college. It was also funny how the kids came from all over, and traded stories about their different towns like how a wolf has killed fourteen sheep in Matt's town.

The next day was the perfect day off. I got to sleep in. I had a good two hour post-breakfast-philosophical conversation with Matt and his Father, Jean Pierre. As someone who travels the world and meets with officials to discuss sustainable development, Jean Pierre had much insight about how to go about fixing the world. One of my favorite expressions he said was “if you wouldn’t want to live in the house you help build, don’t build it,” in reference to the hypocritical double standard that exists with the UN. We then took off to go climb in Dorenez with Matt’s brother and met up with a friend from last night, Thiebault. I can’t even remember the last time I climbed on rock, but it has been ages. Either way, we climbed up some 6A/B cliffs which were anything but easy, especially for me with my shitty form. I made it to the top of two of the routes, which I felt good about, but Matt blew us all away. It was cool seeing the way to set the rope, and the different techniques that worked to get up rocks. I got pretty banged up climbing the wall, especially because the shoes I was wearing were 42s when my size is a 44. After a good four hours of climbing we took off back to Martingy and met up with more friends from last night.







Three rigorous games of Beach volleyball, and a couple dives from the 5 and 10 meter jump at the municipal pool later (one of the kids we were with was a life guard so he got us in for free), I hopped on the 8:38 train just to get into Sierre in time to take the funicular back up.