Yep... The Dolomites are more magical than I ever could have imagined.
Disclaimer: these cell phone photos could never do this place justice. I only hope they suffice to convince you to someday visit.
Our first stop on this leg of the journey was near San Martin de Tor in Naturpark Puez-Geisler. After talking to a nice lady at the information center we settled on a hike that would take us to the peak of Mt. Peitlerkofel. It supposedly had a via ferrata at the end of the hike so we were excited.
The hike was incredible. In every direction we were treated with mind-numbingly beautiful views. The via ferrata at the end was way easier than expected and we didn't even need to put our harnesses on.
At the top, Camille's first priority was to take a nap. The elevation gain was definitely new for both of us.
Way too wide of a panorama, but merely to show you as much of the view as possible.
Our log book entries were immature and facetious. We giggled. The French says something like "an elevator would be nice too".
Next stop was climbing focused (as are most of the stops). We decided to live laveshly and book a site at a campground for a couple nights. We were looking forward to some showers and the campground was at the base of the climbing.
The wall we checked out was nice!
Near the crag we saw some people setting up for a festival. Upon inquiry we found out it was a new festival centered on health and wellness. We returned later that night to enjoy a bonfire and talk to some local people. T'was a nice night and our first time really getting to know some local people in Italy.
The next day we drove further down the road to check out another climbing spot. Set higher in the mountains the views didn't even seem real. It had to have been one of the most beautiful places I've climbed at so far this trip.
The actual wall we climbed is in the bottom right corner of this photo.
Single pitch sport climbing in the Dolomites: all the comfort of sport climbing with the beauty of the Alpine setting.
Camille was excited to have lead every route that day (without fear or hesitation) and I was psyched to have tried some super fun and technical harder routes on awesome limestone.
Back at camp we enjoyed dinner with this view from our site.
We then headed back to the festival for some live music, slacklining and a much bigger bonfire. I got all nerdy with some local Brewers who made a damn fine American Pale Ale.
Our next destination was Tre Cime National Park, a little farther East. Set even higher up, we were starting to get colder than we liked. Camille took charge and made a fire for us that night.
Our free site for the night once again had a decent view.
Clouds and mountains in the morning.
As we drove to Tre Cime we hit a toll plaza along with hundreds of other tourists. The 25 Euro toll and hoards of people were quite discouraging. Figuring both were justified we carried on and tried to find the hardest or most obscure hike so as to avoid most people. We found a nice looking hike/via ferrata combo.
The hike was a bit busy but the views were incredible. We then reached the start of the via ferrata which was actually a series of tunnels; remnants of a past war.
The views just got better and better.
Some ice and snow kept us focused on the trail.
And the summit! Tre Cime (3 summits) can be seen in the distance.
I think this is the 2nd or 3rd photo we took of us together? She was happy to be taller than me.
A day that started off discouraging turned into an awesome adventure that will certainly be remembered.
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