This week's leg of The Amazing Race, in Switzerland, delivered one of those Amazing Race moments that is the reason this is one of my favorite TV shows. That being, showing me something I did not know existed.
As in the 4.5 mile cog railway that climbs inside the Eiger formation, to the Jungfraujoch railway station, it being the highest railway station in Europe. From there an elevator takes one to the Sphinx Observatory.
Train tunnels and elevators taking people to the top of a very high mountain formation is something I had not seen before.
The Jungfraujoch Roadblock set my acrophobia off to full blown queasy knees mode. The racer doing the Roadblock had to put on rappelling type gear, attached, via clip, to a cable. Then climb out a window, walk on a narrow board, un-clip a Travelocity Gnome and then get back to safety via another window.
This clipped walk on the wild side took place above a multi-thousand foot steep cliff dropoff.
Wynonna got stuck when she got to the Travelocity Gnome. The elevation was in the 11,000 feet above sea level zone. I have been that high before. One gets exhausted easily.
I re-watched Wynonna's dilemma multiple times. I could not quite figure out how the clipping and un-clipping worked. It appeared the clip had to be un-clipped and moved to the other side of the bolt to which the cable was attached. Did this leave the Racer temporarily un-clipped? I suspect not. Were there two clips? I could not tell, but the more I watched the more my acrophobia ratcheted up.
All the other Racers, except for Wynonna & Chuck and the YouTubers, Joey & Meghan, made it to the first train off the mountain. Wynonna & Chuck and Joey & Meghan followed an hour later.
When I saw how difficult that next challenge was, as in haul a sled up a steep snow covered hill, with the final ascent with the help of a rope, well, I figured Wynonna & Chuck would be in trouble.
Eventually Chuck was able to get Wynonna to the cheese rounds. But, apparently these natives of the South had never seen a sled before. So, they turned the sleds upside down and loaded on the cheese. This, predictably, did not work well, which had Wynonna telling Chuck she'd roll one round of cheese down the hill while he managed the other three.
Meanwhile, Joey & Meghan had completed the task and were on their way to the Pitstop. Directionally confused, as usual.
Wynonna & Chuck finally delivered the cheese, go the Pitstop clue, then found taxi to take them to Phil, who told them they had incurred a 30 minute penalty due to not following the instructions correctly when they did not use their sleds to transport the cheese.
As the 30 minutes clicked down Joey & Meghan failed to find a cab, with the exhausted Meghan eventually in tears as they slowly trudged through the snow, on foot, making it to Phil before Wynonna & Chuck's 30 minute penalty had expired, thus keeping Joey & Meghan in the Race and eliminating Wynonna & Chuck.
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