General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums7 Pictures Of Gabby Giffords Climbing The French Alps
She has come so far. Way to go Gabby!!
http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/seven-pictures-of-gabby-giffords-climbing-the-fren
spanone
(135,874 posts)taught_me_patience
(5,477 posts)WTH? No appropriate climbing wear. I'm glad she's recovering, though.
MrMickeysMom
(20,453 posts)Look at his hat!
Go Gabby!
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)The cable car goes right to the top. They are just outside the station.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/23/gabrielle-giffords-french-alps_n_1695817.html
She rode the two-stage cable car to a station with spectacular views o f Mont Blanc and other peaks in France, Italy and Switzerland.
In bright sunshine but sub-zero temperatures at an altitude of 3,842 meters (12,605 feet) at the cable-car station on the Aiguille du Midi peak, Giffords smiled as she stood with her husband's arm around her shoulders.
BlueMTexpat
(15,373 posts)Via the cable cars and trams!
It's the closest that I'll ever get to mountain climbing. But the view is just as sensational and much easier on the joints - especially senior joints like mine. The history of those cars/trams is awesome.
I am so glad that she has lived to have such wonderful experiences!
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)The ride is not for the faint of heart, though, and my wife refused to go past the midway station.
BlueMTexpat
(15,373 posts)I hope that you both enjoyed your trip. I love Mont Blanc and the Chamonix-Megeve area.
In "Charade," one of my favorite light films, the scene where Audrey Hepburn first meets Cary Grant is filmed in the Megeve ski area.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,361 posts)Their mission (code-named STS-134) was to install the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), the dark matter and antimatter detector designed at Cern, on the International Space Station. Since then, AMS has been sending over 18 billion cosmic rays events from space to the Payload and Operations Control Centre, on the Cern site.
In 1943, a laboratory was established by the French CNRS-National Centre for Scientific Research at 3613 m above sea level, on the Col du Midi, Mt Blanc, under the aegis of Louis Leprince-Ringuet, to study the cosmic rays and their applications in nuclear physics. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the discovery of cosmic rays (Victor Hess, 1912) and after one year of cosmic ray detection from the International Space Station, the astronauts who flew AMS to the International Space Station will walk from the Aiguille du Midi to the present Refuge des Cosmiques.
Cern scientists will then have an opportunity to meet the men responsible for getting the AMS up to the space station, during a visit by the astronauts and their spouses, one of whom is Gabrielle Giffords, wife of mission commander Mark Kelly, who was a US House Representative from Arizona, from 2007 to 2012. She was badly wounded in a shooting incident shortly before the mission left.
http://genevalunch.com/blog/2012/07/23/geneva-cern-welcome-astronauts-100-yrs-after-cosmic-rays-discovered/
It's not clear if Ms. Giffords did that too; I've done it myself a few times (I could recognise it just from the photos), and it needs good confidence on a narrow, steep snow ridge - if she could do it then she's making an excellent recovery. With only one ice axe visible between her and he husband, I think she probably didn't do the walk.
On edit: WSJ blog says she didn't:
http://blogs.wsj.com/photojournal/2012/07/23/photos-of-the-day-july-23/
Marksman_91
(2,035 posts)The cold was manageable with jeans. You need not worry about Gaby
proud patriot
(100,715 posts)elleng
(131,107 posts)There was a huge, dangerous avalanche there recently.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18822185
PavePusher
(15,374 posts)in jeans and with a Gondola tower in the back-ground (photo #3), but it's good to see her active.
I hope she continues to recover and can eventually become politically active again, if she wants to.
Skittles
(153,193 posts)but good for her - she's out and about and that is what counts
VenusRising
(11,252 posts)Good for her.
malaise
(269,157 posts)Her husband is one good man
kentuck
(111,110 posts)Wow!!
closeupready
(29,503 posts)K&R
liberal N proud
(60,344 posts)whistler162
(11,155 posts)Alfs on Melmac.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)And in all three photos her arm is in the same position.
Good for Gabby!
MADem
(135,425 posts)Considering the damage she took, these photos are a real miracle.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)She's truly amazing. Surviving wasn't easy, nor do I believe it was up to her, but how she's fighting once she did survive is all her.
pam4water
(2,916 posts)DesertRat
(27,995 posts)onehandle
(51,122 posts)FailureToCommunicate
(14,022 posts)Beacool
(30,251 posts)I'm glad that she's recovering so well.
Historic NY
(37,453 posts)permatex
(1,299 posts)she has really come a long way since that tragic day in Tucson.
Thanks for posting these.
Rhiannon12866
(206,016 posts)These are spectacular! Way to go, Congresswoman!