I haven't been in the Sierras all summer, but on a trip to Europe, while my wife was with our 6 year old at Euro Disney, I took the older three kids (17, 15 and 12) to Murren, a tiny carless town tucked in the Jungfrau region of Switzerland. While there, we spent a morning on the Via Ferrata ("iron highway"), a 2.2 km traverse and downclimb that positions much of the path along the ridge of a cliff with a 4,000 foot drop off. It had two tyrolienne traverses, an 80 meter Nepal bridge, breathtaking views of the Eiger and Jungfraujoch, occasional flybys of paragliders and even one flyby of a cow (when the cows wander too far down the mountain, they put the cow in a harness and helicopter them back up to their homes--craziest thing I've ever seen). This path also took accross a squirrel-suit base jump that gets a lot of action. I have taken all three of these kids climbing but never with so much exposure. We were all harnessed in and always had solid places for hands and feet. I worried about how my 12 year old daughter would do, but she did great. I couldn't be prouder of all three. This is a memory that will stick with us forever! So glad to be alive and doing these things with my kids!
