In 25 years of playing in the mountains, daily no less, I have never witnessed nature’s power as I did this afternoon. Rising over 1200 meters directly behind our house in the Italian Dolomites are the northern slopes of the Plan de Corones, or Kronplatz. The giant hillside is completely covered in thick, lush forest [...]
Posts under ‘Personal Story’
A Dolomites Hiking Masterpiece
Val di Fassa’s Val San Nicolo Ridge Traverse After twelve years together, living, working and playing in the mountains – Janine and I may well have just discovered our perfect day. One of the very best of about 4000 days together in the mountains. Janine found it, right there on the Val di Fassa map; a [...]
Rifugio Lagazuoi and the WWI Gallery
A Historical Walk to Dinner through the Lagazuoi Tunnels Part of the culture of life in the Italian Dolomites is to share a dinner with friends in one of the many mountain huts (rifugi) – for us, this is habit. Sometimes we hike, other times it’s a ski approach, maybe a trail run, or even a mountain bike ride. [...]
Buddha on the Bike
A couple of years back I had a realization. Riding a road bike was feeling as natural as breathing or eating. Since 1987 I have been training, racing and riding a bike for the pure joy of it – almost everyday. But it wasn’t just a comfort level I noticed, it was something more, the [...]
Italian Dolomites Backcountry Ski Camping
Huts vs. Camping “But one doesn’t really camp in the Dolomites…”. I knew further protest could jeopordize work for a favorite client, instead I listened, “But for the shoot we need camping, we want to see that kind of ski tour, no huts”. “No huts?” The pain was lessened by the fact that the huts [...]
Backcountry Skiing Alone
My friend John Dittli just posted his thoughts on this same subject over at his Blog – it got me thinking, while I was out backcountry skiing alone today… Why would you ski without a partner? I too am challenged with the same questions as John as I often venture out on my own program [...]
