(written a couple weeks ago)
After a true water logging in Switzerland and Austria, we opted to jump down to the southern Alps. Thankfully, my parents were game for a big change of plans as they were meeting us in Austria and they had planned to hike there. They met us in Innsbruck in the pouring rain and we all ran together to Sudtirol, a region that was part of Austria until after WWI when it became part of Italy. From St. Ulrich, we took a cable car to the ridge where we began our first hike in the Dolomiti. The weather was still unstable, so our pace had to be swift, but we were all blown away by how dramatic the scenery was. We knew that the pass would be the crux of the hike, but Sati and I were not expecting to bring Joyce and Egils on a hike with cables! Heh heh. It’s one thing to lead friends on hiking or canyoneering or BC snowboarding routes. It’s another thing altogether to bring your 60-something and 70-something year old mother and step-father on a trail in a foreign land. And like the Italian families we see here climbing steep, rocky, muddy trails through these mountains, mom and Egils were champs! They smiled and laughed right through the hardest parts (even on our next, more difficult, climb). We arrived at Refugio Puez right at beer thirty and sat in awe of the landscape among sheep and rabbits, surrounded by people of all ages who just love to hike. Awesome.
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