GET VERTICAL: THE MOUNTAIN BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER

I pull my boots out of my backpack and find a pebble stuck in the tread. My instinct is to pull it out and put it somewhere safe – "keep it as a souvenir" my gran would have said. Yet in reality if you want to remember something that's just happened, you don't need a souvenir. Sometimes you can do without photo (well almost!). I'm firing off these lines the day after getting back from Obergurgl. This little town, with its hard-to-pronounce name, is the highest in Austria. It's nestled in the western part of the Ötztal Alps, the area that lent its name to Ötzi the Iceman.

Salewa invited me there, along with a group of people from all over Europe, as part of the GetVertical competition. Emilia and Asia flew in from Poland, Alexandru drove from Romania, Carmen from Austria, Philip from Germany with a combination of delayed flights that only got him here on the second day... not forgetting Tobias, Flo, Simon, Sara, Bettina and Pascal.

"Why are we here?" asked Simon, our Salewa host, as we climbed the trail that led to our shelter. The easy answer would have been "To get vertical" yet the right answer was actually "We're here to celebrate the mountains!". Yet to "celebrate" hints, in the word's literal sense, solemnity, which is well suited to the grandiose environment welcoming us. And that's exactly what we did over the course of the next four days. We celebrated the mountains on long approach routes, glacier climbs and scrambles among the valley's sometimes unstable rocks, all which called for precision and lightness of foot. In Gabriel, Manfred and Vitus, we were lucky enough to have three mountain guides who provided us with the best possible support on these adventures.

The welcoming Langtalereckhütte shelter, 2450 metres above sea level, located at the entrance to a long glacial valley, was to be our base camp for the first two days. The guides split us into small groups. On the first day I put my name down for the longest trek (whyever not?) up to the peak of Hochwilde (3480 m). Four of us set off with Manfred, our guide. I'll be forever grateful to him for all of the help he gave to me on this amazing adventure. And now for a quick confession: I'm no mountaineer. I've put up with the embarrassment of being scared of heights for years but, in spite of this, I find the mountains endlessly fascinating. At first sight, the sharp profile of the Hochwilde seemed completely out of my reach. But nothing's out of your reach if you just keep on walking. After an approach of more than 5 km, we were ready to pull on our crampons and cross the long glacier that would bring us to the start of the ridge, with the little via ferrata leading to the summit. With help from Manfred who did a great job at keeping me calm, I even managed to get past the most exposed bits. At times I found myself thinking "I should be scared here!" but Manfred went on calmly telling me "I'm sure you can do it. Nothing can happen". And so after 5 hours of climbing, we reached the top: so much for my comfort zone! But the summit was actually only the halfway point. The return journey was even more adventurous, climbing down another glacier with a particularly steep edge, and then finding the best route as we leapt over crevasses and crossed ice bridges.

The second group followed a very similar ascent to us, hiking across glaciers and climbing rocks to reach the peak of Mittlerer Seelenkogel. The beer at the end was definitely well deserved! The end? What end? We were only just beginning! That night was unforgettable. Salewa provided us with heavy duty sleeping bags and bivouac sacks, and we built a small fire in a clearing not far from the shelter. The incredibly clear, star-studded sky took centre stage that night...it was all too short!

The first alarm clocks went off before dawn. Today, one group would be tackling a demanding via ferrata while the second would be heading for the summit of the Schalfkogel (3540 m). I joined the latter group, even though I was feeling completely frazzled from the day before (which was too much even by my standards!). We crossed the glacier and started a fun scramble over easy fallen rocks. With the immense sheet of ice stretching out below us and the Hohe Wilde towering above us, it was certainly a climb with a view! The terrain here was fairly fragile so you had to be careful not to send stones tumbling down onto the rest of your group. After a while it became clear that myself and Emilia were too slow for the others and, given the uncertain forecast for the afternoon, Vitus suggested heading for the Ramolhaus, a shelter a short hike away at 3006 m where we could spend the night. It was a shame we didn't reach the summit, but getting to the shelter was a fantastic adventure in itself: crossing the bottom of the glacier among thousands of little streams, long piles of stones, narrow "trails" (the inverted commas are a must!) and small snowfields. We stopped to admire the incredible view in front of a tiny lake and a refreshing waterfall before resuming the narrow trail leading to the Ramolhaus. Here we found the rest of the group that had completed the via ferrata. And since the shelter had a tempting selection of cakes, we had everything we needed! We spent the afternoon just chatting. It's always great sharing your passion with others and seeing how the mountains are able to bring people from all walks of life together.

The next morning we calmly set off back to Obergurgl. The path down from the shelter was gradual, as if it wanted to let us down gently as we left those majestic peaks. While crossing the valley's ancient pastures, two eagles, perhaps a mother and its chick, soared above us. It was a fitting end to a fantastic adventure. I feel truly privileged to have been part of this group and to have shared this incredible experience with them. A huge thanks to everyone, particularly the guides and Salewa, who couldn't have found a better way of bringing their slogan to life. Thank you for this pure mountain experience!