New Year in the Sextener Dolomites

Last year we've watched the night sky over Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, this year we topped that with a nice winter hiking trip up into 2500 meters above sea level. We hiked into the Fischleintal and up to the Rifugio Locatelli/Dreizinnenhütte at the National Park of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo in the Italian Dolomites. We took our tent, as much winter gear as possible, still had to fight against the freezing of all our liquids and toes... and enjoyed three incredible beautiful and peaceful days in snow and sunlight. With dramatic sunsets and beautiful sunrises. And we watched a party of two climbers in the wall of one of the 'Tre Cime'. We kept our drinking water in our sleeping bags and I had to thaw the contact lenses and cleaning liquid before use... but it was worth it - see some pictures:

Schwarzkogel Snowshoe Tour

It's been a while since my last post. I've done a lot of mountaineering and will try to post some more pictures soon, but today was a nice one and since I've just uploaded a couple of pictures, I want to share them. I'm still a terrible skier and so I have to stick to snow shoes in order to go up the mountains in winter. Well... I mean I really have this idea of starting glacier tours next summer and I want to get familiar with snow and ice this way, trying to handle ice ax, crampons etc. Today I was walking up the very easy Schwarzkogel in fantastic winter weather. Nothing spectacular, but some nice fews and ice cold wind in the ridge. The mountains you see here are just about a half hours drive from home, so I guess I will be there more often this winter.

 

West Coast Trail - Pacific Rim National Park

The West Coast Trail in the Pacific Rim National Park on Vancouver Island, Canada, is surely one of the most remarkable trails in North America. It was built as a rescue trail for stranded sailors after the wreck of the SS Valencia in 1906 (which wasn't the only ship that stranded on the cliffs off the coast) as the 'Dominion Lifesaving Trail', following already by Natives established trails through the woods and along the coast.

The nominal distance one has to hike today is about 75 km, but it gets more depending on the route chosen (approx 80k). The trail is usually hiked within 5-9 days, we hiked it in 7 which was very nice since we had plenty of time to enjoy the beautiful scenery and relax at the beach after a day of strenuous hiking. And strenuous is the word... infamous as one of the scariest hikes of the world, the WCT is definitely nothing for backpacking beginners. The trail is very wet, very, very muddy and extremely slippery on most stretches - you have to hike over wet and muddy roots, logs and wooden bridges, climb up and down over more than a hundred ladders, climb over slippery boulders and sandstone cliffs on the beach below the tide line, through deep and soft sand and through challenging weather conditions. In addition, wolves, black bears and cougars roam the area - we've encountered a black bear and seen tracks of wolves and cougars, so they are definitely around.

Despite the hardship of the hiking (remember: you not only have this challenging terrain, you have to carry a pack of >25 kg with a week's food supply over it), it's an outstanding trail in an astounding scenery: beautiful beaches, waterfalls, creeks and this wonderful rainforest with up to 800 year old cedar trees! It's another wonderland and worth the effort. See the pictures.

Owen Point can only be passed if tides are below a certain level, otherwise you end up swimming (well, there is sort of a rescue rope somewhere but I wouldn't want to try climbing up there).



Endless kilometers of muddy, wet, slimy green and slippery boardwalks (it doesn't get any better than this - you can consider this as best case!).



Bernhard on the trail.





Near the trailhead.





Just to make it clear: this is NOT a river crossing. It's just the trail.



On the Coast.























Endless ladders up and down...