Backpacking through The Dolomites, Northern Italy

August 21st - August 24th

Day 1:  Bressanone to Plosehutte

We left Bressanone on August 21st and started our 3-day backpacking trip through the Dolomites on the Alta Via 2 trail.  We took the chairlift up to the start of the trail on Plose mountain and hiked to the top of Plose where we spent the night at Plosehutte.

Chairlift ride to the start of the hike 

View of Bressanone from the chairlift

Bressanone

Gene beginning the uphill trek to Plosehutte

There were about 20 horses at the top grazing and roaming around the hikers.  They were actually pretty tame.  Here's Gene petting one of them.

Staring north towards Austria and taking in the beautiful scenery

Paraglider

One of the horses relaxing on the slope of the mountain

View looking south towards the Italian Dolomites.  This is where we will be hiking over the next few days.

The Dolomites at Sunset

Many layers of mountains

Day 2:  Plosehutte to Rifugio Genova

Rifugio Genova

Day 3:  Rif. Genova to Passo Gardena

We climbed through the pass between the pinnacles.  Look closely and you can make see the trail leading up through the pass.

Two deer on the side of the mountain

 

Edelwise flowers

Rif Puez. 

 We cancelled our reservation and decided to continue hiking on to Passo Gardena

Passo Gardena

Bressanone, Italy

August 20th

We left Switzerland on the morning of August 20th and headed to northern Italy.  Again, we had a full day of train rides with a stop in Innsbruck, Austria. 

This was one of the shops in the Innsbruck train station - filled wall to wall to ceiling with meat!  We ended up buying a sausage, Gene just couldn't resist.

After a long day of train rides, we made it to Bressanone, a beautiful town in northern Italy and the start of our Dolomites backpacking adventure.  We checked into our hotel, cleaned up, threw on some nice clothes, and walked around the charming town.  Of course, we stopped for an amazing dinner at this excellent Italian restaurant recommended by our hotel, complete with their homemade house wine.  The great Italian food experience begins!!

Here are some pictures from our evening in Bressanone:

Our hotel

The town is lined with these beautiful cobblestone walking streets.  During the day, the town was packed with people (all speaking Italian).  This was the main pedestrian road in Bressanone (Via Bastioni Maggiori).

Beautiful old church

One of the many decorative drinking fountains throughout the town.  Some of them are large fountains in the middle of a square, and I'm unsure whether it's ok to drink from it until I see locals running up and cupping their hands under the fountain of water.  So cool!

Another church lit up at dusk

Backpacking Through the Swiss Alps (Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, Schilthorn, Griesalp, Kandersteg)

August 15th - 20th

We left Meiringen on August 15th and started our 4-day backpacking adventure through the Swiss Alps.  

Day 1:  Meiringen to Grindelwald up over the Grosse Scheidegg pass

Starting our hike on a beautiful day!

We passed some pigs chowing down in their pen along the trail. 

 Kat with a view of The Eiger (glacier) in the background.

Gene and Kat at the top of the Grosse Scheidegg pass.  Behind us - "The Eiger!"

 

Bunnies that we passed on our way down to Grindelwald

Town of Grindelwald

Day 2:  Grindelwald to Lauterbrunnen over the Kleine Scheidegg

From the top of the Kleine Scheidegg pass.  This is a view of the "Top of Europe" attraction, one of the tallest peaks in Europe.  There's a little building up there where tourists can take a train to.

 View of the Eiger from the top of Kleine Scheidegg

Lunch break, surrounded by beautiful glaciers!

Now hiking down hill towards Lauterbrunnen

The town of Lauterbrunnen and the waterfall 

Day 3:  Lauterbrunnen to Rotstockhutte

Enjoying french press coffee for breakfast before our hike out of Lauterbrunnen

We just happened to be hiking up to the top of the Schilthorn on the same day The Inferno race was taking place (Saturday afternoon).  The Inferno is a famous half-marathon that starts in Lauterbrunnen and ends at the top of the Schilthorn glacier (about 21 km elevation!).  We watched the runners run by as we hiked up. 

Top of the Schilthorn lookign down as the chair lifts approach the top.  Schilthorn mountain's elevation is 2,970 meters - yea, just a little chilly on the top!  The top of this mountain is home to Piz Gloria, the revolving restaurant, and it was the set for the James Bond movie, On Her Majesty's Secret Service. 

 

James Bond Museum

Picture from the movie set.  That's Piz Gloria, the revolving restaurant. 

Helicopter that was used on set during the movie

The finish line for The Inferno race!  Finishing strong after 21 km elevation!

Hiking down the Schilthorn to our hut for the evening.  Check out the background of glaciers - so incredible!

Kat is down at the bottom of this picture, hiking along the ridge with the magnificent view ahead.

Rotstockhutte - our hut for the evening

Sleeping quarters upstairs in the hut.  We shared the upstairs with ~40 other hikers.  Gene and I managed to secure the far corner of the hut.

Ranchers cleaning the cow hooves

Corral of cattle heading towards water

Just a few of our German buddies from Rotstockhutte.  We had a blast with these guys!  They were on a work retreat, they work for a German bank near the Swiss border.

Kat in "contemplation mode" staring out at the famous trio of glaciers, Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau. 

Day 4:  Rotstockhutte to Kandersteg

Today was a long and challenging day.  We started the day off by hiking straight uphill to one of the highest passes of the Alpine Pass trail.  

View looking up to the top of the pass - almost there, but still a lot of elevation to cover.  The trail literally went straight up the side of this mountain with  very little switch backs.

Top of the pass looking down at what we had just climbed!

 We decided to take the long way down from the pass to the town of Griesalp, by-passing our hut and continuing on to Kandersteg. 

Heading down the side of the mountain.

Look very closely and you'll see a ladder that we had to climb to get over a collapsing glacier.  The ladder is 50 meters, quite a scary and long climb hanging over a huge slab of melting ice!

Kat crossing the gorge between the glaciers 

One of the many herds of sheep we passed throughout our hike in Switzerland

Day 5:  Kandersteg!

We arrived in Kandersteg after 4 days of challenging backpacking, ready for a hot shower and a nice warm bed to sleep in.  We spent our fifth day hanging out in the town of Kandersteg.  We even were able to do some laundry while we were there before heading off to Italy for our next backpacking adventure!

Kandersteg.  

The view in this picture is of a chairlift that takes you up to Oeschinensee where there's a beautiful high elevation lake.  This day was very rainy so we decided to skip the chairlift and spent our day in the town of Kandersteg.

Pretty river running through the town

Despite the rain, we found a perfect fire pit and built a large fire that evening.  

Bratwurst and grilled veggies!

 

Mountain frog (or toad?) we came across as we were heading back to our hotel for the night