Day 2 – Our K2
Mount Altissimo, literally translated Most High Mountain. Really there are few words that can describe this day and
climb other than breath taking. We were not expecting what was before us. Joyce looked for days on sites about how to
approach this mountain and after reading decided on a path that was described
as the most taken and of medium challenge, not extremely difficult but with
some hard climbs. Yeah right.. We started in a marble
quarry, one that Michelangelo was said to have taken an excursion or two here to look for marble slabs for his works.
Joyce was so excited when she saw the one
little patch of snow that she planted her foot in it and I followed suit. Little did we know what was awaiting us. We then
went up the side of a small
hill and onto an abandoned mining road which came to a fork in the road and according to the map we printed out,
we were to go to the right. Unfortunately it took us around to the other
side of the mountain with no access to get up. We had to track back 1/2 hour and were stumped, there was no other road we could see at the fork. Finally I spotted at the ground level a rock that someone had painted the words Mt. Altissimo
with an arrow on it. Apparently many people have made that mistake. We then
went straight up the till to the left until we hit a very active mining road, which went completely silent by the time we reached it. Lunch time, ha ha. There our trail marker picked up
again and we walked along the road till it ended in the quarry. The road had been plowed of
snow, which was nice because from the small patch up the side of the hill was a
little deep in places. We walked along
the plowed road for a bit and then it stopped.
The snow was now up to our knees. This was a little more of a challenge but
still seemed relatively safe. Then the trail got very steep, straight up until we hit the crest but the snow actually helped in that it packed down nice and wasn't as deep. 
We then arrived at the top and it then
felt like you were walking on a snow covered tight rope with sheer cliffs on one side and straight down fall with some trees on the other, that being the side we just walked up. We never once lost our
paths which were very narrow and snow covered but then it got more interesting,
narrower and extremely scary. It was all in awe and shear obedience to
continue until the bad feelings started.
There was a fully intact machine gun turret on the other peak, no clue how they got there, it is shear mountain. Maybe 70 years ago the landscape was different but there is no way to get there now.
We also passed another gun area and a small cave built into the hill. It was just past the cave that there was an opening in the crest area to sit down. We wanted to continue to the peak which was still another 1/2 hour but the path was all disintegrated so
we turned back after about 30 ft. stopped and prayed at the opening.
While we were
praying Joyce looked at me and said she felt she had a prophecy, but it wasn’t
for me or her, but in general, so I told her to let it rip. The Lord basically was saying that He had
longed to pull Italy to His bosom but that it would rather follow idols but
this generation was crying out to Him and He had heard their cry and He was
pulling off the chains, setting them free, they would no longer be slaves,
pulling off the chains of generational curses and sickness. That this generation would stand up and shout
across this nation and into the other nations.
It was really cool. We drove our
stake, took communion and then sat on the edge of the summit and ate
lunch. 
Afterwards we slid down to the
base like little children playing in the fresh snow with our daddy and His
creation. When we got back down to the mining road we read the trail marker sign again and we noticed the EE on the sign. Joyce was like, what is that for, European Excursions? When we got in the car we Googled it and found out
that it meant extreme excursions. It was a no joke excursion for us, hardest to date. In the future,
we will not be going up on those trails.
If we can’t get up to the peak because of it, we will stop and pray
right there. We also found out after
that, that many people have died on that mountain. Thank you Jesus for angels and protection. This mountain was 1589 mt. and sits in a
mountain range along with 11 other mountains that we will be walking but in June as they
are all above the 1000 mt. mark and covered in snow. Wisdom tells us to wait. To be continued......
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