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July 30, 2009July 29, 2009

hiking the Stone Sea in Germany

Jeni and just about everyone else told me to travel to the most beautiful lake in the country. It looks like a fjord.

map-Germany You get there from Berchtesgaden, 30km south of Salzburg. Hitler’s mountain residence, the Berghof, was located near here though Der Fuehrer rarely visited due to security worries. Today the Nazi Eagle’s Nest is a restaurant.

Nationalpark Berchtesgaden was established in 1978 and has gradually become one of the region’s largest tourist draws. While technically in Germany, this spot is surrounded on 3 sides by Austria.

The day I was at the lake a boatload of tourists disgorged every 10min to visit a famed pilgrimage church.

From the church I climbed up an interesting gorge to Kärlingerhaus, a popular mountain lodge.

Nice. But my real goal for the day was to reach the Steinernes Meer. The stone sea. A bleak and rocky plateau.

Weird. Geologically ineresting. And beautiful.

At Riemann-Haus I could have escaped back down to the valley.

Instead I had a beer on their deck. And listened to some Army mountain climbers sing group songs before setting out for the cliffs.

Immediately after … I got badly lost. (A gorgeous sidetrip, as it turned out.)

What direction would you go if your guidebook told you to take route 411?

A highlight of this hike for me personally was seeing many Chamois up close. For the first time.

Even better was crossing a high mountain pass alone to meet Mt. Watzmann.

What a great evening I had up there!

This is the best hike in the Bavarian Alps. A hiking region surrounded and overshadowed by more famous neighbours: Dolomites, Austrian Alps and the Swiss Alps.

But I’ll be adding the Stone Sea to our list of the best hikes in Europe.

It’s fantastic.

I posted 80 photos from this 3 day hike on flickr.

There’s only one guidebook in English: Walking in the Bavarian Alps. It’s one of the weakest Cicerone guidebooks I’ve used.

July 29, 2009

Outer Edge Adventure Magazine

From Australia …

… Outer Edge, has broken new ground in outdoor publishing by dedicating the majority of its latest edition (on shelves 29 July) to unearthing active Indigenous adventures across Australia and beyond.

“We believe it’s a first for any outdoor magazine – to theme nearly an entire edition along Indigenous lines and specifically to focus on Indigenous adventures that go well beyond the stereotypical cultural tour options trotted out time and again as a core Indigenous tourism product,” says editor, Patrick Kinsella. …

Good idea.

Outer-Edge-magazine

Outer Edge home page

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 28, 2009July 28, 2009

Timex survey: Return the Outdoors

I would have thought the economic downturn would be getting more people outside. Survey says … NOT.

Lauren Flemming from Catalyst │Thinkable Results sends us the results of an interesting survey of 1,122 Americans ages 18.

Americans’ attitudes towards spending time outdoors

The vast majority of Americans 18 and older (87%) feel that they need to take the time every week to get outdoors, and feel that doing so would make them feel less stressed (72%), but more than one-third of Americans expect to get outside even less because of the economic downturn (35%).

Americans of all ages, both male and female, strongly identify with the benefits of getting outdoors

93% feel refreshed when outdoors
93% agree being outdoors relieves stress
90% agree that getting outdoors makes them happier
88% agree that being outdoors makes them feel free
86% agree that spending time outdoors with family and friends brings them closer together

…

How Americans spend their time – outdoors and otherwise

In a typical weekday, Americans spend many more hours watching TV and on the computer, than they do outdoors.

Reasons for not getting outdoors in a typical week day vary, according to age and gender.

Millennials (18 – 24) don’t incorporate the outdoors into the social interactions that are dominating their time. They spend almost 5 hours per day on the computer and almost 3 hours per day socializing with friends, but less than 2 hours per day outdoors

Young parents aren’t incorporating the outdoors into time spent caring for their children. Women 25-34 spend 5 hours per day caring for children and more than 3 hours per day watching TV, but less than 2 hours per day outdoors

The weekend is an opportunity to do more of the same.

Millennials continue to spend an incredible about of time socializing with friends (4 hours) and on the computer (5 hours), but they spend no additional time outside (less than 2 hours)

Women 25-34 spend three times as many hours caring for children on weekends (9 hours) and find almost two hours daily to socialize with friends. Additionally, their TV usage increases to 4 hours per day, but the time spent outdoors remains flat at less than 2 hours.

Americans’ reasons for not spending leisure time outdoors range from being too tired (almost 40%) to being busy running errands (27%).

Millennials cited the widest variety of reasons to remain indoors, including:

44% are too tired
38% are too busy running errands
25% need to spend more time at work
19% are not sure where to go that is close by

Young parents are most commonly too tired (38%) or busy taking care of children (38%).

Playing outside starts at home. In the past year, Americans have been walking (83%), gardening (52%) and playing in their backyards.

18 to 24 year olds gravitate towards fitness and exploration activities:

Walking (90%)
Swimming (76%)
Running (66%)
Biking (51%)
Exploring (48%)
Hiking, Camping (37%)

Young parents stick to family and neighborhood-centric activities:
Picnicking (57%)
Playing in their backyards (66%)
Visiting and neighborhood parks (56%)

Timex® Expedition® watches were derived from the virtually indestructible 1960s infantry watches and adapted to meet the explosive growth in popularity of outdoor activities. … The brand recently launched “Return the Outdoors,” a joint endeavour with the Conservation Alliance and American alpinist Conrad Anker to inspire Americans to get outdoors and reconnect with nature. The brand’s Web site, TimexExpedition.com, hosts content, forums and tools designed to make the outdoors more accessible to our everyday lives.

Conrad is an American rock climber, mountaineer, author and environmental activist.

July 28, 2009July 28, 2009

scrambling Lake Louise in the Rockies

Krista Morris posted some great pics on Facebook.

… 11 hours of hiking, 4 hours of driving! …

scrambling-Lake-Louise

Summit-photo

Summit-Book

They summited Niblock, Whyte, and a 3rd peak on a beautiful sunny July day near Lake Louise, Alberta in Banff National Park.

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, 2009

best hike Grossglockner, Austria?

Right now in Saltzburg.

Cannot seem to put my hands on any of the Cicerone hiking guidebooks covering the region. (They do not stock many English language titles in Austria.)

Leave a comment if you have a recommendation for the best hike around the biggest mountain.

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.)