Inspired Mountain Living
It is always nice to see our fun trips with friends turn productive. Here are some examples of La Sportiva’s current advertising photography from trips in 2009.
Kurt Astner balancing on a third class ridge while climbing the Zillertal's Wildspitze
Oskar Irsara trail running beneath the walls of the Sella Group, Italian Dolomites
Andreas Irsara and Janine Patitucci hiking in a downpour, Iceland
Andreas Irsara and Dan Patitucci trail running
For the participants of this morning’s Tour de Sas ski rando race in the Italian Dolomites, part of the Coppa Dolomiti, on what was a greatly modified course due to extremely high avalanche risk, these photos are for you. I will post more, with captions later, now… I am off to my own ski rando race in Cortina.
Per i partecipanti alla gara di sci alpinismo “Tour de Sas”, tenutasi questa mattina su un percorso decisamente modificato a causa di alto rischio valanghe: queste foto sono per voi. Ne pubblicherò altre complete di didascalia, adesso però… esco per la mia di gara di sci alpinismo a Cortina.
This is why the course was modified, avalanches everywhere
One of the Italian Dolomites most idyllic settings, Santa Croce in Alta Badia
DolomiteSport has dropped off the radar a bit this last week due to a super busy schedule. A friend from the US, Brandyn Roark Gray, is here enjoying the Dolomites and Zillertal Region and we are of course shooting backcountry skiing each day. The usual list of comments are coming from her about this area, the primary of which is, “Wow, this place is amazing, why don’t more Americans know about it?” …….I am doing my best to share.
I had the great pleasure of discovering that my close friend and Mountain Guide, Alberto De Giuli, was booked for five days of work with two North Americans who discovered the opportunity of a Dolomite trip after finding this website and getting inspired to have a look at the Dolomites. Alberto was with them at a nearby hut so Brandyn and I set off to meet them for a ski and dinner at the Fanes Hut. For me, huge rewards come from showing the Dolomites and Zillertal Mountains to people – and especially to see them marvel as I have at what I feel is the most beautiful and culturally perfect place I have seen on this earth.
Brandyn Roark Gray climbing the Zillertal Alpen's Hörnspitze
Ski touring the Dolomites Cresta Bianca
Alberto De Giuli scores a 10 with his Ski Roll
Dolomites Ski Touring with the Tre Cime di Lavaredo behind
The Fanes Hut, Italian Dolomites
Interior of the Fanes Hut. Yes, it is in the backcountry
The Fanes Hut kitchen
Alberto De Giuli with some very happy visitors
It’s a cliche for a reason: “The best camera is the one you have with you”.
Right. In the age of iPhones and Photo Apps, you not only have a camera always at the ready, you have some very useful tools to make the images look the way you want them to look. Get to know your applications then think ahead and you can have some very cool results.
As athletes ourselves, we cannot always have a camera with us, but it is likely that we’ll have a mobile phone onboard. Thus, the extensive collection of cycling, or from the bike, shots. What I like about all of these images is that they are real; rush ahead and snap a frame as friends go by. These are true images of what we see while living our lives, not as photographers but as athletes or travelers.
All of these images were made with an iPhone and all effects were from various apps within the phone itself. We’d love to hear which is your favorite and why – thanks.
While training in Tuscany with my friend Andreas Irsara, he rode ahead on these dirt roads we were riding and snapped this photo of me with my own phone. It is one of my all time favorites. Well done Andreas, you out shot the pro!
During the same trip to Tuscany, I made this image literally while pedaling by. I knew I wanted the square, old timey effect, so I centered the group of trees so as to be able to crop later.
Janine and I on one of our countless days out mountain biking near Cortina d’Ampezzo. The Tilt Shift effect does a great job of miniaturizing the scene. You have to practice to learn when it will work and when it will not.
Andreas and I were waiting for Janine to shoot some landscape images while on a trip to Iceland.
Janine made this photo of me in the Eastern Sierra Nevada as I was riding up to meet her after she had gone for a trail run. I like the depth in the image behind me while it maintains a snapshot feel.
While riding with four Dutch friends in the Dolomites, I was frantically trying to get something exactly like this, from the bike, to show the drama of what you see while road riding in the Italian Dolomites.
Andreas Irsara mountain biking in the Alta Badia while we were scouting a video location. When we returned a week later, a huge bench had been built right where he is riding.
A Tuscan hilltop town photo made right from my bike saddle. I think Tuscany truly was made for the camera.
I love the spontaneity of this image of Janine while in Pienza, Italy
We were in India for the big news
India… It would have been a shame to have missed this one
Shot from my road bike on the dreamy, car-less roads of the Chianti Region of Italy
Late in the fall a group of friends did a huge mountain bike ride in the Dolomites, this was from a small summit we rode to the top of with endless views of the range.
This photo was one of the first I ever made with the iPhone. I was on a long mountain bike ride alone in the Dolomites and stopped at a hut to eat something when this Dohle landed on my handlebars. It is said that these mountain birds are spirits of people lost in the mountains. It hung around for awhile as if to say hello.
The Camera Apps that we use are:
Photogene
Tilt Shift Gen
Camera Bag
Photoshop Mobile
Genius
Follow us on Twitter to see more of these photos as they are made
Rae Lakes sunset, John Muir Trail, Sierra Nevada
As mentioned in our earlier post about John Dittli’s new coffee table book Walk the Sky, John himself would be writing a follow up article with his thoughts about tackling a photography project that required hiking 220 miles of the most rugged terrain in the lower 48 – on foot.
A certain burden had been lifted. On day five of hiking the John Muir Trail this last summer with my wife Leslie, I came to the realization that the project was over. Four years of wandering back and forth, constantly searching, working if you will, for the right composition, the right light in the right place, had left me well aware of every bend, every hill. But heading up the south side of Forester Pass, I became relieved of all that.
I no longer would have to look ahead, but rather now had the opportunity to reflect on past days, months and years. To many the walk along the JMT is a lifetime accomplishment, and it is certainly worthy of such a cause. For myself, after a lifetime of weeks and months spent exploring wild lands, I was not expecting any kind of epiphany along the Muir Trail.
Having spent my childhood summers criss-crossing the Range of Light, end-to-end, painstakingly avoiding the JMT, I was well aware of references to the trail as the John Muir Freeway. In fact I have previously referred to it as such myself. For me the JMT was merely a crowded pathway to use on my way to some other remote location.
It wasn’t until I started on the Walk the Sky project that it became evident; hiking the John Muir Trail is in fact, a social walk through some of the finest mountain scenery in North America. Accepted as such the JMT becomes a truly “world class” trek.
As I sat atop Forester Pass, looking north across countless divides, I reflected not only on the places I had seen, but the people met: the young curly haired woman whose beautiful voice I heard singing on the breeze, or the grizzled old man who was no less beaming when he talked of days “following the music of water”.
Indeed there was an epiphany; that wilderness truly can be a state of mind. While I personally still very much value the trail less, I also see the importance of places like the John Muir Trail. A thread not just connecting place, but a common thread binding an environmental and cultural heritage.
To see more of John’s work, and to get information about ordering the book Walk the Sky, visit: JohnDittli.com
Follow John’s adventures, photography and writing via Twitter : John Muir Trail or the Walk the Sky Facebook Fan Page
Below…… some of John’s favorite images from 25 years of working as a professional photographer.
Wildflower bloom in Mojave Desert
Climber on summit of Mt. Challenger, North Cascades National Park
Dan Patitucci on the Silvretta Ski Tour, Austria
Evolution Basin, John Muir Trail, Sierra Nevada
Cathedral Peak sunset, Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park
Skier in flight, Mammoth, California
Dean Karnazes: Looks mean doesn't he? Not true. Voted great guy by PatitucciPhoto
Calves of Karnazes
I remember seeing Dean Karnazes for the first time. It was at the Rucky Chucky river crossing during the Western States 100 Mile Race. He stuck in my memory because he was the only guy who came through looking like he had just started. Or maybe it was the calves. Or, maybe it was the smile and cheery nature which he always seems to have, whether it be at mile 3 or mile 300. The guy can run. And he can motivate others to run.
These are the traits I like about Dean. He has an energy that fuels others, whether it be meeting him in person, running alongside him, reading his international best selling book Ultramarathon Man, or watching him on Letterman. Dean looks like he could be your pal. The reality is, he can be. He’s that kind of guy.
Dean Karnazes in California, 2004
As a standalone piece, Dean’s personal resume reads like a bestseller. 50 marathons in 50 days in all 50 US States. 350 miles in one go… A TIME Magazine poll declared Dean in the “Top 100 Most Influential People in the World”. All of this yet still I have seen Dean criticized from some within the running community. A minority believes he isn’t what he is made out to be. The arguments… If he is so great, why hasn’t he won more races? And why all the hype? Why the attention and money that goes along with it? Real trail runners don’t seek media attention, they seek the experience and the joy of running.
These comments have always irritated me. Never have I seen Dean claim to be anything other than a really psyched guy. That, as well as happy, motivated, and genuinely in love with running and helping others. Dean has done more to motivate people to try running than probably any other human. He has raised money for charity and he has made a lot of friends along the way. I don’t see Dean so focused on winning races, I see Dean wanting to enjoy races.
Janine and I are fortunate to call Dean a friend and to have spent a fair bit of time with him, both for photos and for fun. I recently asked him about how he felt hearing this criticism, his answer was very Dean.
“It used to depress me to read this stuff, but 99% of the comments I get are positive, so to hell with those who criticize others. I just came off winning the 4 Deserts Championship (which TIME magazine called “The world’s toughest multiday endurance event”) and finishing runner-up at the Canadian Death Race, so I guess you’ll never please all of the people.”
And the charity figures he has raised? “I have raised over a million dollars for kids charities across the globe, including help to save the lives of three young children awaiting critical organ transplants.”
Getting to do what you love each and everyday, being healthy, happily married, a father, a responsible role model and contributing to both society and to targeted charities… I call this success.
Dean trying to converse with some Italian locals
In 2004 we did a mountain trail running endurance photoshoot for The North Face in Cortina d’Ampezzo, right in the heart of the Italian Dolomites. I vividly remember it was August 1st, and there was about 8 cm of fresh snow on the ground for a 4 a.m. departure at the car. It was a summer shoot and we were all bundled up in little more than shorts and long sleeve shirts. Luckily the sun came out, the skies turned blue and we could resume the action. Poor Dean was asked to wear some very Euro shorts, a bit tighter and shorter than he would have liked, but that would be a compliment to his calves. Dean, always in good spirits, obliged.
After this, we saw Dean several more times, once in California for a photoshoot for his book, and then several more times in Europe.
Dean Karnazes’s longtime partner in crime, and our mutual friend, Topher Gaylord, was living in the Italian Dolomites with his wife Kim. Dean would come over and join them for some long days trail running in the area around Cortina. I wanted to get Dean’s take on the Dolomites and to find out what one thing stood out as unique about his time running in the region. His response comes as no surprise.
Thanks to Dean for writing this up as he was recovering from his Chicago Double Marathon yesterday. I actually Twittered him while he was running to remind him about this piece being due, and he got right on it today – again, the kind of guy he is…
Dean Karnazes and Topher Gaylord trail running in the Dolomites
Dean on the Lagazoui's Hut deck, Viva Italia
“My good friend, Topher Gaylord, was living in Italy and managing The North Face European office. He and his wife, Kim, had a little weekend pad in Cortina they’d dash up to almost every weekend. Topher used to rave at how fantastic the trail running was in the Dolomites, about theses incredible hut-to-hut overnight runs he would do.
Now, I was a bit skeptical. Having raced and competed on all 7 of the earth’s continents, I had seen some remarkable places. The thought of schlepping from one grungy hut to another, miserable and cold, didn’t sound all that appealing. I’d crashed in mountain huts before, and there was nothing glamorous about it.
What I learned on my eventual visit to the Dolomites is that the Italians use the word “hut” very loosely. After running through what turned out to be some of the most spectacular mountains I have ever seen, I wasn’t necessarily looking forward to a cold night on the floor of a hut, pouch of dehydrated food partially cooked, surrounded by other smelly hikers runners. Wow…was I wrong.
The “hut” was more like a fully stocked palace! The beds (yes, beds!) were warm and comfortable, and the food, prepared on-site by a top chef, was amazing! I couldn’t believe my eyes. How they possibly got all of this stuff to this remote mountain location was anyone’s guess. Not that I cared!
We toasted our run with a glass of fine Italian wine as we watched the distant sunset from the 180 degree view from the patio of the hut. In my wildest dreams, I never could have imagined such luxury. All I can say is Viva Italia!
To learn more about Dean, be sure to visit his impressive site: Ultramarathon Man – better yet, read his book, it is fantastic.
Karnazes in the Dolomites near the Falzarego Pass
Dean Karnazes trail running in the Italian Dolomites
Dean Karnazes is also part of The North Face Endurance Team, more info can be found at The North Face
Dolomites Tour Operator