The High Mountains Lounge is a hybrid place. On the one hand, it exists physically in Les Ecureuils at Arolla, Switzerland, where up to 12 people can meet comfortably. On the other hand, it exists in virtual space, currently via Zoom, where people far away can join.
The name is program
The physical part of the lounge is located in the Swiss Alps, at an altitude of 2’000 m, surrounded by mountains that reach to almost 4’000 m, many of them hardly accessible. This landscape is a wonderful image for the purpose of this lounge: meeting fellow souls to approach really big topics at a high level, in exercise, in discourse.
In the high mountains the air is thin. The paths are narrow, steep, dangerous, and difficult. The views are always surprising, often breathtaking, sometimes threatening, and then again deeply exhilarating. This is so in the physical high mountains here at Arolla and also in the emotional, mental, and spiritual landscapes that we open up for ourselves here.
And finally, this is a lounge. We want to see the difficulties and the hardship, want to dive into them to feel deeply, to understand. But we also need to rise again into the lightness, the bright clarity, the joy. Rise above the deep harshness to see the vast and great,… to create it,… to be it.
A lounge, in which our edges and scurrilities are allowed to be, have to be, where they disturb time and again, but where they help even more, inspire, open up new perspectives… with a cup of tea or coffee, or a glass of wine,… in any case enjoying being together.
