New York (Part 1)

Before BPM 2010 Conference Werner and I spent the weekend in New York and did some sightseeing.

Time Square by day and night

The Lego Store at Rockefeller Center is really amazing.












5th Avenue




The Apple Store at 5th Avenue is brand new and was full with people. The store makes 1.2 million USD a day, 440 million in 2008. It is the top-selling Apple Store and makes about 10% of all Apple-Store revenues.











Central Park

Gran Paradiso - Day 11

After breakfast we hiked down from Rifugio Vittorio Emanuel to Pont from where we started our drive home. While Stefan, Jakob and Andi headed back via the Aosta Valley through Italy, Matthias and I took the scenic route via Switzerland. This route was considerably longer, but brought us to some amazing places.























On the way to Gran Bernardino







































Rhone glacier at Furkapass

Gran Paradiso - Day 10

Today we started quite early in the morning since we wanted to climb Gran Paradiso (4061 m). When we left Rifugio Chabod with our backpacks it was still dark and we needed headlights for the first part of the way. We hiked for about an hour before we reached the glacier where we had to rope ourselves up bacause of the many crevasses. Stefan went first and walked really, really slow to ensure that we no one of us gets any troubles with the height (for me it was the first time at such an elevation).



















































After about four hours of hiking we reached the top of Gran Paradiso. To get to the summit we had to cross a short climbing passage. When we got at the summit the weather clared up and we had some really amazing views :-). Even though Gran Paradiso is considered as relatively easy it was a great experience for us.

































































































































In the early afternoon we arrived at Rifugio Vittoria Emanuel where we stayed overnight.

Gran Paradiso - Day 9

Today's leg brought us from Rifugio Vittorio Sella (2584 m) to Rifugio Chabod (2750 m).

Not far from Rifugio Vittorio Sella we observed a couple of marmots for a while.

























From the rifugio we followed Alta Via 2 della Valle d'Aoste which brought us via Col Lauson (3296 m) to Valsavranche.





































On the way down we could again see some ibexes from a very short distance.













The route led us to Giacchio di Gran Neyron which has retreated quite a lot.




















Having passed the moraines of the glacier our way became increasingly steep and even required us to manage a short Via Ferrata with ladders and iron pins.



































































Jakob at Col Gran Neyron Ovest



















On the way down we could again see many ibexes.