Monday, August 29, 2016

Week 34: Peak | Moving on Up

Last week, I had the opportunity to go hiking in the beautiful Montafon area. I had not been on a proper mountain hike for years and never been to Vorarlberg, the westernmost province of Austria, so was really happy I got to join this company outing, even though I was a bit of a gate-crasher, as not really part of the Sales team(s) whose offsite it was. Be that as it may, we all had a blast and the weather was perfect. Needless to say, there were plenty of mountain metaphors ("reaching the top", "rope team") mentioned to draw the analogy to work and it was somewhat shocking how - at the beginning at least - the majority of the participants seemed to saw this more as a race than an experience in the sense that they were running uphill that made others (including myself) long for a break, or even the opportunity to stop to admire the scenery and take a picture. I was really grateful when one of my office colleagues started the "break, please!" and it was reassuring to see that the intern in her twenties seemed way more out of breath than I was. Once the ice was broken, the super ambitious ones raced ahead and arrived at the chalet where wer had lunch an hour ahead of schedule and the rest continued the hike at their own pace and stopped to enjoy the beauty of the mountain range and blue skies whenever they felt like it. Deterred by the competitive vibe, some Austrians did not even join for the second, much longer, but less steep, leg of the hike, but I did as I don't know if I will ever be back in this part of Austria. Stopping to smell the roses, or take more phone snaps than anyone will have the patience to look at seems to be an "art" that does not come naturally to some.

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