health & safety – Page 74

August 5, 2009August 3, 2009

where is the best hike in Austria?

by site editor Rick McCharles

Though I’ve been hiking in Austria out of Bad Gastein for a week, I’m still not clear where to find the best hikes in this country. More than 60 percent of the nation is mountainous. Seems to me you would enjoy hiking almost anywhere.

A good starting point for someone hiking Austria for the first time, however, is Hohe Tauern, the largest of Austria’s six national parks.

Grossglockner 3,798m (12,460ft) is the highest peak in Austria.

Every Summer, over 1.2 million people drive an expensive toll road to see it.

I wasn’t one of them this Summer.

Instead, I tried to spy the big guy from the top of Kitzsteinhorn. That’s a very popular day trip out of Zell am See.

Kitzsteinhorn

The Alexander Enzinger trail here is often touted a best hike in the area.

The day I rode one of the longest cable cars in the world (50min) the weather turned bleak. And I ran out of time to make it to the top station.

In fact, I must report that it was very ugly at the top of the ski lift. My least favourite place in the Alps, so far.

construction-atop-ski-resort

It was here, too, that 155 people died Nov. 11, 2000 in a tragic railway car tunnel fire.

… enough grim reporting from me …

Check out some gorgeous hiking photos of the area from Adventure4Ever. Everyone else aside from me loves this region.

August 4, 2009July 30, 2009

Your Own Machu Picchu: Choquequirao, Peru

An excellent article on one of the best hikes in Peru was posted on Matador Trips: Discover Your Own Machu Picchu: Choquequirao, Peru

Did you visit Machu Picchu thinking you’d arrived 50 years too late? Wish you could’ve seen it before the tourist hordes and luxury hotel moved in? Then Choquequirao might be for you. …

There are very few trekkers there in comparison with Machu Picchu. We did it in 2005 and had the ruins to ourselves.

It’s a massive up and down hike. We hired a mule and mule driver to carry our packs.

The scenery is fantastic, of course.

Our biggest concern was the tiny biting flies. (Especially after their bites get infected.)

read the entire Matador article: Discover Your Own Machu Picchu: Choquequirao, Peru

Read the comments for some personal stories on continuing from Choquequirao to Machu Picchu without a guide.

P.S.

There’s one drastic mistake in the story:

From the village to the ruins and back, you’re looking at 74 km (46 miles). …

It’s nowhere near that far. … Is it?

More details and links on our besthike Choquequirao Trek information page.

August 3, 2009January 27, 2010

future climbing trip to the Italian Dolomites?

Dreaming …

Via Ferrata are, in effect, a range of protected scrambling routes, comprised of skilfully installed fixed cables, ladders and gorge-spanning bridges, which assist ascents to high levels, from which you walk on, often to a nearby rifugio, or back to the starting point via a path.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I wouldn’t want a guided trip. But one instructional session would be valuable.

The gear costs about $200. Helmet, and carabiners. Or you can rent it for about $10 / day.

via-ferrata-gear

Best timing would be the first 3wks of July. Or September.

There are plenty of good guidebooks.

August 1, 2009

lesson learned: don’t hike Iran/Iraq border

Three US nationals who crossed into Iran via Iraq have been arrested, the state-owned Al-Alam television has reported.

“An informed Iranian source confirmed the arrest of three Americans after they infiltrated through the Iraqi border,” the Arabic-language television station said on Saturday.

The two men and a woman entered Iranian territory a day earlier from Iraqi Kurdistan despite repeated warnings not to do so, a Kurdish official said.

A fourth American originally with the hiking party had not joined the trek due to illness, said Beshro Ahmed, a media adviser for the general security department in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region.

He named the three as Shane Bower, Sara Short and Joshua Steel, while Shaun Gabriel Maxwell stayed behind in their hotel in the autonomous Kurdish region’s second-largest city of Sulaimaniyah.

A spokeswoman for the US embassy in Baghdad said: “We’ve seen the reports and are looking into it but can’t confirm anything at this time.” …

… The arrests came after the three visited the mountainous resort region of Ahmed Awa, about 90km northeast of Sulaimaniyah.

Ahmed said: “The [Kurdish] tourist police in the area asked them not to climb the mountains because the Iranian border was very close. …

al jazeera

August 1, 2009August 1, 2009

hikers die of dehydration … near Palm Springs

… Authorities recovered the remains of two hikers in the hills near Palm Springs last week. They can tell that they’re hikers based on their clothing, but the bodies are so severely dehydrated that they can’t even pull fingerprints. …

details on The Goat – Why It’s Important to Bring Enough Water

In the Italian Dolomites I was shocked at the scarcity of water. There’s none up high. Anywhere in July.

Weird.

And the few water sources you do come across normally have signs saying “not potable”.

Luckily, carrying a stove, I melted snow whenever I needed H2O.

July 29, 2009July 26, 2009

hike Bocca di Brenta to Molveno, Italy

The Brenta Mountains in the Dolomites are popular with via ferrata (iron road), cable assisted, climbers.

They stretch 40km (25mi) on a north-south axis. I nearly chose to hike a lengthwise itinerary called The Mighty Brenta Dolomite Traverse. … Unfortunately transport to the trailheads was problematic.

Instead I crossed west to east from famed tourist trap Madonna di Campiglio to the most lovely mountain town I’ve found in Europe so far, Molveno.

Again I took a cable car to start as high as possible.

I was delivered to Rif. Tuckett and Sela.

The wildflowers are still going strong in late July. (They are nearly gone now in Canada.)

It’s great being instantly on top of the world. Just like heli-hiking. The start is mostly a traverse under the highest peaks. Amazing. Such easy access to this environment.

The sunset was a classic Dolomite experience. Wow.

Next morning the weather was fantastic. So I stashed my pack in the boulders and dashed up as high as I could go to Rif. Alimonta.

Wonderful. But daylight was burning. I turned back and pushed hard to get over the mountains.

Here was the crux of the hike when I was there. (It was not quite as bad as it looks in the photo. But it was challenging.)

I entrusted a Summit Stone to the virgin guarding the highest pass.

This is astonishing Rif. Pedrotti 2491m. Many famed climbers have stayed here.

Starving, but in a mad rush now to get DOWN off this mountain, I ordered a meal. It tasted FANTASTIC at this altitude.

No photos from my decent. I practically ran from 3000m to the lake at 868m in order to be sure I would catch a bus out of the valley.

That was one long, long exit.

Whew.

This was my personal favourite of the 4 Dolomite hikes I did on this trip. See the rest of my photos on flickr.

July 27, 2009July 27, 2009

harsh night on an Italian mountain

Trip report by besthike editor Rick McCharles.

I was super excited to hike the Alpe di Siusi region of the Dolomites.

… Seiser Alm, (Italian: Alpe di Siusi) is the largest high altitude Alpine meadow in Europe. Located in Italy’s Bolzano-Bozen province (South Tyrol) in the Dolomites mountain range, it is a major tourist attraction, known for skiing and hiking. …

I planned 3 days, 2 nights. A big trip. Lots of mileage.

To get started, I cheated by riding the cable car to Compaccio 1844m (5050ft), a busy mountain tourist trap.

Arriving late afternoon, I was quite quickly forced into a cave.

under-a-ski-lift

OK, it was actually a storage space under a ski lift. I relaxed, dry, for about 90min.

The typical late afternoon rain ended. Some blue sky appeared. So I set off across gorgeous alpine meadows in the direction of the high peaks. Towards Rifugio Bolzano. I was following the Walk 24 itinerary from Walking in the Dolomites: 28 Multi-Day Routes by Gillian Price.

I was alone in the early evening except for many friendly cows.

Surprisingly, the skies threatened rain once again. To stay completely dry, I quickly set up my (technically illegal) tent on the side of the mountain. There I got pounded with a severe storm. Thunder and lightning non-stop for at least 5hrs. Super dangerous in the mountains. I feared for my life.

It continued raining all night.

I stayed in the tent 10hrs before I finally heard it stop.

Unzipping the fly , I was astonished to see this winter wonderland. It was July. In sunny Italy.

snow-in-the-trees

Snow is always better than rain for a hiker. I packed up as quickly as I could. And headed back down the mountain. The only other hikers I passed were a couple from Norway. They had the same idea. Hiking in the snow is beautiful. Hiking in the rain, a drag.

That night I ended up in a soft bed in a terrific hostel in the quiet mountain town of Brixen.

All’s well that ends well, I guess.

But I REALLY want to go back ….

By the way, my friend Jeni had a similar experience on this same route. She got lost, taking a wrong trail/animal track. On the side of a steep mountain she decided to rope herself to the cliff. Gathering her wits, she finally decided on the safest way out of danger.

Even when there are hundreds of other hikers around, the mountains can still be very dangerous.

This was a cautionary adventure for me. It was almost as scary as the lighting storm I experienced on the John Muir Trail.

July 25, 2009July 22, 2009

Bus and Bike the Italian Dolomites

To rest my feet between hikes, I rented a mountain bike for an “easy” day in the mountains of North Italy.

I did a good chunk of this loop. The bus delivers you to a high pass. And you roll generally downhill.

The Rails to Trails sections were awesome. But at times I was pushed out into astonishingly dangerous holiday traffic. I can’t believe they don’t have several deaths a day.

The cycling was brilliant. So much fun that I ended up cycling about 120km. Probably the longest day in the saddle I’ve ever done.

(There was some chaffing.)

My 19 Euro / day bike was great. The company – Noleggio – does a very professional job. I could drop the bike anywhere around the loop.

bike-and-bus

Check this out … a custom water bottle holder for a 1.5 litre Coke Lite.

Coke-Lite-on-bike

Brilliant!

July 24, 2009July 26, 2009

hike the 5 Towers, Dolomites, Italy

Trip report by besthike editor Rick McCharles.

Like my hike to the 3 Peaks, again this trailhead starts high, at a bus stop mountain pass

Rick-at-mountain-pass

I followed exactly trip #10 from my hiking guide. I planned, as recommended, to sleep the unique and extreme Rifugio Nuvolau 2575m (8450ft)

Sadly all the bunks were reserved, the only Refugio I’ve found completely full, so far.

This lofty aerie is totally dangerous. It would never be allowed in Canada. I assume one or two people fall to their deaths off the cliff every year.

Here’s a guy drying his t-shirt on the helicopter landing pad a few feet from the brink.

I’m a little more cautious getting that close to the drop-off.

Rick-on-the-brink

There are the famed 5 towers far below.

From here they don’t look like 5 towers. But from Cortina they do.

It was a fantastic hike. Just gorgeous. See the rest of my photos.

On the return to my starting point I checked 3 more Refugios. All had space for me. But I did not like any of them. Especially the one that suggested the price 45€.

The one previous charged 26€ for a basic bunk bed.

Happily there was a late bus back to town. I slept in my own tent in Camping Rocchetta back in Cortina. Cost 9€.

The 5 Towers is a well known destination for mountain climbers:

… Cinque Torri, meaning “Five Towers”, is a group of actually more than 5 towers that lies on the south slopes of Falzarego Pass above Cortina d’Ampezzo. …

Summit Post – Cinque Torri Group

Highly recommended!

July 23, 2009July 22, 2009

hike the 3 Peaks in the Dolomites, Italy

Trip report by besthike editor Rick McCharles.

These are the famed and disclaimed 3 Peaks. The most photographed mountains in the Dolomites, I reckon.

… The Drei Zinnen (German for “Three Peaks”), also called the Tre Cime di Lavaredo (Italian), are three distinctive battlement-like peaks, in the Sexten Dolomites of northeastern Italy. They are probably one of the best-known mountain groups in the Alps. …

People come to the Locatelli Refuge (IT Rif. Locatelli) to enjoy a fine meal at high altititude.

I’ve never seen so many hikers in one place at one time before, except on the Tongariro Crossing in New Zealand.

many-hikers

Why are they here?

It’s easy to take a bus right to 2300m (7545ft), the very base of the mountains.

But, for some reason, the crowds did not bother me. It was wonderful to see so many people exposed to hiking in such an easy and painless way.

If you hate crowds of enthralled visitors, go hike Alaska.

I adored everything about this hike.

I loved the wild flowers. Alpine meadows. The WW 1 history. The tunnels. Especially the Via ferrata (Iron Way) side trips. I think I’ve found a new life passion.

Hiking in Italy is far easier than I expected.

map-of-Dolomites

hiking-guidebook 1) Travel to Cortina, Italy
2) Buy a bus ticket to TRAILHEAD at Rif. Auronzo
3) Wander where you like for as long as you like
4) Take a LOT of photos

I used Walking in the Dolomites: 28 Multi-Day Routes by Gillian Price. This Cicerone title is the best available in English for this region. This area is covered by hikes 1,2 and 3. Buy your guidebooks in advance of travelling to Italy. English books are not widely available here as there are so many other titles in German and Italian.

Cicerone has several other guides including Treks in the Dolomites: Alta Vie 1 and 2 and Shorter Walks in the Dolomites. But the one I used is the best for most hikers.

No need to carry a hiking pack. There are great mountain huts every hour or two. Hosts will feed you and give you a bed for 40-50 Euro a day.

I left a Summit Stone on behalf of artist DSD. Look for it in the cairn atop the carved stone steps starting the Via ferrata closest to Refugio Pian de Cengia. (That’s a FUN Via ferrata by the way. Exhilarating, but safe.)