Mt. Pilatus was such an amazing experience for the cast here in Luzern! Through an alumni, we were able to visit the “Forbidden Mountain.” The history of Mt. Pilatus is that Pontius Pilate was buried there, which is how the mountain received it’s name. However, the mountain became a symbol of bad luck and devilish activity causing the mountain to get it’s nick name of the Forbidden Mountain. One time a man accidentally worked his way up to the mountain without realizing it and he fell into a large cavern with only a small opening in the very top. He met two dragons in that cavern that were friendly and helped him survive. Eventually they helped him back to his friends and family and the man made a vestment to remember his two dragon friends.

From then on the mountain became less forbidden and became the home of the steepest cogwheel railway. We got to ride it up to the summit of Mt. Pilatus and have an amazing view of the mountain in route.

We started out by taking a boat ride out to the base of the mountain. It was really cold there, because of the wind from the boat moving! But we all had warm jackets or went inside if it got too cold. From there we had an extraordinary view of some of the Swiss country side. Once we got to the mountain, we had a brief tour of the railway cars storage garage. We learned all about how the cars worked, when they worked (from May to November), and how they were made and repaired (since no one makes those kinds of cars any more).

After the tour we took the cogwheel railway all the way up to the summit for a presentation of the mountain’s history and logistics. Corinne Häggi, the woman who gave the presentation, is an alumni of UWP. It was awesome to meet her and see what she did with her life after UWP. Hearing about the history of it all was fun as well… Not just because I’m a huge fan of dragons though. ^^

We ate lunch on the summit and I walked up to the highest peak of the mountain, even though it was so misty out that you couldn’t see the view. It was fun just kind of looking down into the abyss and not knowing how far down it was. XD Well, it’s 7,000 ft, so we knew how far down it was, but it was still fun to imagine a dragon in the mist somewhere.

On the way back down the mountain a lot of us stopped by and sledded down the summer toboggan track. It was lots of fun to be sledding, even if there wasn’t any snow! Thanks so much to Corinne Häggi, Colette Rickter, the CRC’s of the city, and everyone else who helped us have such a fantastic experience on Mt. Pilatus! Thank you!!!

If anyone would like more information on Mt. Pilatus or would like to visit it yourself, please check their website at: www.pilatus.ch