Fall with Mom and Denny!

My Mom and Denny came to visit Europe for 5 weeks this fall! I almost immediately shuffled them into the car and headed up to Berlin for the weekend, picking up Alex on the way in Leipzig.

The Brandenburg Gate! (we were there just before the Berlin Marathon Rollerblade race finished - talk about excitement!)

We went on an exceptional tour of the bunkers built underground during WWII (http://berliner-unterwelten.de/guided-tours.3.1.html). The most intriguing part was the flourescent paint on the walls which glowed so brightly, if the electricity was cut, you could read a newspaper!

In the aftermath of the war, much of the debris of the crumbled city was piled into huge hills and covered with dirt (kind of like the land-fill-turned-ski-hills in Southern Michigan). This was also done around the back side of one of the flak towers (an anti-aircraft gun blockhouse). The front side is now an urban climbing wall. Some plastic holds have been added, but you use a lot of the natural features of the crumbled face of the tower. Sinister climbing - and what a view!

(Alyssa, me, Brittney, and Kimberly)

Alyssa also happened to be traveling through Berlin that weekend with her friend Brittney. They were staying at Brittney's cousin's, Kimberly, and so we all got together in the rain at the East Side Gallery and had some great Vietnamese food.

After Berlin, my mom and Denny headed south to Switzerland and I went back to work. But only for a week, until Fall Break, and then it was off to Portugal, to Katinka and Fabian's wedding party on the coast near Lisbon!

Congratulations Fabian and Katinka!

( Rainbows at Village Praia Grande: Me, Christina, and Monica)

Fabian kicks off the guestbook footprint signing.

That the bride and groom had to translate addresses to their wedding guests into German, English, Portuguese, and Hungarian, demonstrates their richly multi-cultural lifestyle. It also lead to a wide variety of dance music :)

My mom and Denny came the day after the party. The had just returned from Switzerland where they had attempted to hike into a hut near Corbatsch. However, 40 cm of snow fell overnight and they were snowed out, the first snow of the season. To reconcile the grave situation, we rented a car, and drove down the Portuguese coastline, beach hopping!

Wow, galão! A cafe latte by any other name...is just somehow different! (watching the surf at the beach in Carcavelos)

Obrigado!

Off season is cheap in Portugal. We stayed at this nice little apartment, Quinta das Varandas, in Vila Nova da Milfontes, for two nights. Since our Portuguese is somewhat hit-or-miss (read: high school Spanish), we were not quite sure if the price was 45 euros/night or 45/person/night. (it was /night).

Breakfast at a popular little cafe in Vila Nova da Milfontes called Mabi - great galao, great croissants stuffed with cheese and ham, and excellent pastries.

My mom said, quite a few times, that the coastline of S. Portugal reminds her of coastline around San Diego, California, 40 years ago when she was growing up. Rugged, undeveloped, rocky in some places and long stretches of stand in others. We drove down the coastline, stopping at beaches, hiking along the cliffs. An outstanding spot for camping, an outstanding spot to hang out in your van and surf...

Lots of fishing...lots of fish...but not on Mondays, because the fishermen take the day off on Sunday so the fish on Mondays is old...and some shops are closed on Tuesdays...and between 2-4pm...and most also on Sundays...

Hiking along Praia de Odeceixe (we preferred the phonetical pronunciation, ode-to-sexy)

Floating the river at Praia da Amoreira!

Spent the night in a little room connected to Restaurante Oceana, perched on this hill overlooking Praia da Arrifana.

Birds and wild garlic...

Mom and Denny at the end of the world...Ponta de Sagres, the furthest SW point of Europe, considered to be the end of the world to many only a few centuries ago.

Fish stew. Wow. We had really exceptional food in Portugal - lots of fish, seafood, meat, great olives and bread, great pastries, not much fruit or vegetables.

The bane of Denny's European traveling experience...espresso. "Dois galao e dois pastel de nata" is relatively easy to communicate; "american-style-coffe, just black, no milk or sugar, in a regular mug with a handle, and lots of it," is somewhat more difficult. Every breakfast was a small surprise for Denny - what type of coffee will he get today? It was mostly espresso.

(Fuchstanz Friday: Lea, Denny, Mom, me, Bonnie, and Richie)

Once we returned from our long vacation (Denny and Mom continued on to France and Italy for another 2 weeks in the midst of the French country-wide transport strike) fall was upon us. Our weekly Fuchstanz Friday bikeride (= bike up hill directly after work to Fuchstanz, enjoy a nice, cold beer, and bike down a lot faster) required head lamps on our way home.

Süd Tirol August 2010

One of the first weeks in August, I went on a climbing/biking/hiking trip with Felix to the Dolomites in Süd Tirol, Northern Italy. I had traveled around this area last October with my dad and stepmom and wanted to go back to take a closer look.

We packed our bikes and climbing equipment into Felix's van, bought some maps, and headed down south. We had a vague idea of doing sports every day, all day, someplace in the mountains.

We spent a few days near St. Ulrich (Ortisei), which is just SE of Bressanone. We did some great biking, although we found that the Dolomites are extremely rocky, which makes mountain biking hard. Many of the trails marked specifically as bike trails on the maps were so ridiculously rocky I don't know who could have biked that stuff! We had to carry our bikes over large boulders or down tiny switchbacks and up some hills that were so steep I almost passed out pushing my bike!

(The main towns and passes we stayed near in Süd Tirol)

So we headed for the rocks and became completely enthralled with Klettersteige (aka Via Ferrati). We spent most of our days exploring the local routes.

During World War I, major battles were fought in the Dolomites between the Austro-Hungarians (who, at the time, controlled the region) and the Italians. The Via Ferrati were originally created by the Austro-Hungarians during this time in what, one guide book said, was the largest mountain fight in the history of the world! They affixed permanent cables to the rock using large sturdy anchors for movement of troops and equipment high up in the mountains. This was quite a feat, and most of the casualties of the war in this area was to movement of equipment through the mountains and not the actual fighting itself.

The Italians won the land back at the end of WWI, and these climbing routes have been maintained, and added on to, since that time. Klettersteige are like simpleton's trad climbing. No real skills are necessary, and the only equipment needed is a helmet, harness, grippy shoes, and a lanyard. It takes a few hours to climb up a massive, 500m rock face instead of dozens of pitches and many hours with ropes and gear. I'm a big fan.

(Here is Felix on the first Klettersteig we explored near Sas Rogais. You can see the fixed lines bolted into the rock and the lanyards he used for protection. We did this Klettersteig in a big cloud, so we couldn't see much except the rock directly in front of us. And Italian teenage couple warned us not to go because of the snow and cold, but we mostly missed out on the views. )

(The clouds and Mars-like landscape where disorienting. As we descended below the cloud line we ended up in a valley much closer to the Sas Rigais Rifugio, our end point, than we thought. )

Our third day we spent climbing just below Grödner Joch at an enormous rock face called "Frea". Felt great to do some easy multi-pitch climbs on super grippy rock.

(The view from Frea reminded me of those model train sets where the grass is always too green)

But soon it was back to Klettersteige. This day we did the Lipella Klettersteig near Passo Falzarego which started in a cave created by soldiers during WWI to move troops and gear up to a good vantage point. We climbed ladders into the entrance of the cave.

(This is at the top of the ladder looking down to the start of the climb. You can see the old ladder made of wood next to the newer metal one - all the routes were impeccably maintained. )

(Climbing through the cave was a little like climbing up to the top of a church tower with the circular steps missing. There were occasional holes blasted out to the side of the mountain to keep an eye on the enemies during the ascent.)

(A special dynamic lanyard is used during vertical sections due to the high fall factors)

(Felix walking along the Lipella Klettersteig on the west edge of the mountain overlooking Val Travenazes)

(I am the small black line in the center of the photo standing on the featureless flat-ish tan section of the mountain)

(You can see others climbing above me - three black dots to the left of my shoulder)

(Felix near the pyramid-shaped peak at the end of Lipella Klettersteig)

(We hiked down from the peak on the other side. Riffugio Giussani, snuggled between the boulders of "Mars" looks like a birdhouse in the distance at Felix's knee-level, but it really takes 1 1/2 hours to walk there from here)

(Military buildings used during WWI, built directly into the rock, seemed to be used for a while as a Rifugio, but now abandoned).

The following day, we explored Klettersteige P.ta Anna and Olivieri, located along the ridge of Tofana di Mezzo, the next peak West. The city of Cortina lies in the valley below. The mountains surrounding Cortina have many ski pistes and all are connected by the same ski pass - seems like an outstanding place to check out in the winter!

(Where's Felix?!)

A bit of an epic adventure, thunder clouds rolled in part way through our climb, and we could hear the buzzing of electricity in the iron cross at the top of the final peak!

(During our Seilbahn descent, we could see the Bus di Tofana, a large hole in the rock which we hiked over during the Klettersteig. We hiked along this edge with each foot facing a different valley)

The day afterwards, we explored the Ferrata Strobell along the E. face of Pomagango and then the Passegg lata della Croda.

(Passegg lata della Croda was more of an intense scramble along the face of a steep cliff than a Klettersteig, but the views were worth it!)

Where to next?! Now that I'm back in Germany, I crave the fresh pasta which we cooked every night for dinner - it became addicting, and every night we added a few more ingredients to the sauce.

(Klettersteige around Cortina. Tut mir leid, some of the shots are a little jerky)

Washington and Oregon are great!

This summer I spent 3 weeks around Washington and Oregon. Chelsea, Dave, and Pete were gracious enough to let me use their house in Seattle as a home base.

I headed down south first, to Oregon, a state I've always wanted to visit but never been. Hannah and I took a road trip in a nice big square which included just about every ecosystem out there - desert, costal, high mountain, rainforest - Oregon's got it all.

We started in Portland where my friend Lea showed us the neat trails, shops, and microbreweries. Everyone is right, Portland seems like a great city to live in.

Then we headed south along the coast, which was in some places rocky and forested, in some places sandy, and in all places cold and windy!

(The Pacific from the top of Cape Perpetua)

We found some good surf spots.

Then we headed east to Eugene (which was a little disappointing, but maybe we just didn't make it to the right places). At least we found this campground with a secret tunnel between the coast and the city.

We continued further west to Bend, which was unexpectedly located in a high desert. We did some climbing at Smith Rock, just north of Bend, but I was sweating in the shade by 11:00am!

(Hannah is the white dot at the top of this route, you can just see her shirt.)

(A great swiss-cheese-like 5.7 route. )

Floating the river is what everybody does in Bend in the summer - on a raft, inflatable mattress, old inner tube, whatever...Hannah just happened to have her inflatable boat in the car - woohoo!

Next, we drove up to Mount Hood and did some hiking along the tree line from Cloud Cap Campground.

(Mt. Rainier looming to the North)

Back in Washington, Hannah and I made a day trip with Dave and Jeff to Index, and climbed a great crack there. Somehow, two pitches took us 5 hours! Index is a beautiful area, especially down by the river.

(Dave climbs General Maintenance)

Hannah and I also went to Port Angeles to hang out with Tyler. We went out on a nice kayak along the Juan De Fuca Strait, did some cliff jumping into Lake Crescent, and drove up to an impressive outlook overlooking the Olympic Mountains.

Hannah and Tyler stayed in Port Angeles, but I headed back to Seattle to go on a long weekend trip with Chelsea and Jen to Goldmyer Hotsprings.

Most people take the 10 mile 2-track which is flat and maintained to Goldmyer Springs. We hiked up over Red Mountain, which was also 10 miles, but up over a mountain. Although we didn't post hole as much as some suspected, we found some big patches of snow and had a good time hiking over and around them.

(Chelsea and Jen vetoed the initial suggestion of sliding down the snow patch, and here they are, safe and well, in the crack between the melted snow and the rock. )

(Teamwork brings the packs down the steep spots. Yak Tracks, what a great invention!)

(Jen checks out a melted tunnel)

The caretaker's cabin at Goldmyer Hotsprings. If I ever get the chance to be a caretaker there I may never leave!

Check out the story behind this awesome spot: http://www.goldmyer.org/

(post-hike water hookah)

(Goldmyer hotsprings)

(the first pool is the hotest and located in a cave. Then there are 2 more which cool off as the water moves along. We had the whole place to ourselves until the last couple hours.)

(Seriously big trees here - Chelsea is sitting at the bottom of this one and looks like a black spot)

We managed to peel ourselves out of the hot pools, put on our hiking shoes and packs, and hike down the valley, and then up another mountain to Snow Lake. Luckily, we had Snow Lake to ourselves as well, and set up camp on a little peninsula hanging out into the crystal clear lake.

We spent the morning sunbathing and reading and hiked out in the late afternoon. What a great trip!