Lazarow World-Hike-About

'Eyes on the road' at a great destiny deep in the heart of the Dolomites. We suppose that's a 'medium five' from Jen. On the saddle, a little higher still to go. Jenni commences the snow channel, part 1 of 3, very much steeper than captured by camera. Should you be ending a trip to Italy, Europe in general, this hike provides a big finish. It wasn’t the longest, not difficult but included thick snow causing the nature of the outing to change dramatically. To give you an idea of the snow: Imagine the weather is warm and you are sweating but feeling comfortable. Simultaneously, your toes, feet and ankles are so cold that you begin to worry about frostbite and complications. Traipsing in the snow will do that, especially when the feet sink in deeply. At one stage, we almost sat down and removed our boots and socks in order to allow the warmth of the sun to alleviate the pain. However, the thought of our rear-ends sunken in snow wasn’t very attractive e...

Snowfield twins Panorama view from the outside edge After reaching the peak of this hike, we were rewarded with quite a treat Today’s hike was superb, more than that, really. We faced incredible scenes while crossing snow, through forests, streams, moving along cliff edges and arriving at an alpine lake fed by glaciers, of course. Words fail us and so we will rely on the pictures to provide superior descriptions. We breathed a sigh of relief after meeting a couple of Germans and Austrians on the trail today. Mind you, the trails are very quiet. We suppose this could be for a number of reasons. For one, they are difficult. We also note there are many cyclists in the region as well as bikers, reducing the potential 'schleppers' even further. The bikers tickle us as we have written before. We are fortunate that we don’t have any biker friends or at least, not since we wrote of them. We have many questions for them but will leave it at one as we have strayed from...

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At 5:32am, the sun 'hit' this mountain in an amazing way. The editor trudges, later she had four limbs on the surface. Meantime, 'our hero' takes helicopter ride up for photo-shoot There are a myriad of hikes in this area, some are brutal and others seem impossible. We thought the Swiss hikes were steep. The difference is that the Italians appear to do little with their trails. They have a start point and an endpoint and up you go. The trails are wild; switchbacks are rare or unknown. Whereas in Switzerland, the terrain is very steep, the Swiss take to it like gardeners, tinkering here and there to make it look well-tended. Both systems have merit. At the time of writing, we’ve only had four hikes so we are not too qualified to criticize the Italians although that won’t stop us. Foreground gives an idea of the slope and the surround. After seeing some of the cableways over the last few days, we think it’s not only the Swiss that are ‘nuts’; the ...

An introduction to the Dolomites...pleased to meet you, indeed. Through the channel, a spectacular and somewhat dangerous place (extreme gradient not captured) Illustrates the gradient on our 'favorite' surface...slippery, loose stones. How's that slope? We spent 10 days in Austria, nearly three weeks in the Berner Oberland and have a week planned for Northeast Italy. Until we left Grindelwald, our accommodation, if not luxurious, was at least very comfortable—we find that ideal. Then we hit Interlaken and got a taste of Swiss prices. Suffice to say, short-term stays in hotels are either: very expensive and comfortable, expensive and not always comfortable or relatively expensive and very, very basic. We hit the latter in Interlaken. This reminds us of our stay in Rome a few years ago, prior to Hike-about days, when we still owned a tie and high-heels...respectively. Some variation in the landscapes Are you serious? We're going up there? Sloping b...