Blog Posts in Category: Italy

Landscapes around Tre Cime

Alastair BegleyDolomites, Landscape Short Link

With the car park located in such a beautiful location, which was so high, it was obvious that I was going to get up for sunrise and head out for sunset, especially as the times were at such a sociable hour given the time of the year. Unfortunately for sunrise I had no plan as we had arrived in dark the previous evening, so I literally just got out of the van and walked 20m to the front of the car park. Given the lack of effort I had to put in I am pleased with the photos I managed to capture, but in hindsight it would definitely have been better to make a short walk to find a even better viewpoint. The sunrise was very short lived, as the sun rose up and went behind a bank of cloud, but before this happened it was really beautiful, and certainly worth the slightly early alarm clock. I had done some research on sunset locations, and ended up with one specific shot in mind, the Tre Cime lit up in the golden hour and reflected in a small lake. However what. Read the full article…

Paternkofel – Innerkofler und Schartenweg Klettersteig

Alastair BegleyDolomites, Via Ferrata Short Link

I have been wanting to visit Tre Cime/Drei Zinnen for a while now, and a perfect weather weekend at the end of September seemed like the perfect time. We headed down to the Dolomites after work on Friday and could head straight to the Tre Cime car park as overnight parking is allowed. As we arrived were were blown away by the number of campervans that were already there, but we managed to find a nice space which was very flat and not boxed in by all of the other vans. My day started by waking up in time for sunrise, which was very enjoyable, if a tad cold first thing in the morning. The car park is really high at around 2300m which means that without much ascent you can be on the top of a pretty high mountain which makes the views outstandingly good. Our objective for the day was the Paternkofel, via the Innerkofler Klettersteig on the ascent, and the Schartenweg Klettersteig on the decent. This provided a longer day out than the standard route, avoided the scree gully which is described as unpleasant in the guidebook. Read the full article…

Volbiv from Stubai to Olang-Antholz

Alastair BegleyAustria, Italy, Paragliding Short Link

One of my aims this year was to do a VolBiv, which is where you travel from A to B by air with a paraglider, along with a tent and other associated camping equipment. As this was my first VolBiv and I only had 3 days, I had set myself some simple rules to make it easier/more enjoyable: In the week running up to the VolBiv the forecast for Friday-Sunday was very good, with Friday and Saturday looking great and Sunday looking OK, which resulted in me planning a route which started in Stubai with the flying crux on the first day, flying over the Stubai glaciers and the main alpine ridge. Once over the ridge, it should have been plain sailing along the south facing slopes of the Pustertal. I didn‘t have a specific objective, but had planned routes to Lienz and onwards to Spittal an der Drau. The advantage of this route was that there was a trainline all the way along the route after I reached the Pustertal, so getting home on the Sunday would be easy no matter where I finished. I gradually packed my equipment. Read the full article…

2022 in 100 Photos

Alastair BegleyAlpinism, Arco, Austria, Bavaria, Dolomites, General, Landscape, Paragliding, Road Cycling, Rock Climbing, Scrambling, Ski Touring, Skiing, Uncategorized, Via Ferrata, Walking, Winter Climbing, Winter Walking Short Link

Thankfully 2022 was a more normal year than the previous two years, and our first full year with our new lifestyle living an hour from the Alps. A high point of the year was the number of visitors we were able to host, for skiing, walking, paragliding and climbing. We certainly made the most of living near the alps, with most weekends spend in the mountains one way or another. Winter Our winter was fairly dominated with piste skiing, where Becky progressed from tentatively skiing easy blue runs to confidently skiing red runs with the odd short black run as well! This was great to see and I am looking forward to her continued progression this year. Despite the focus on piste skiing we also squeezed some paragliding in and I managed to get 4 days of ski touring as well. General Through the winter we managed to squeeze in some paragliding, and on one of our final days of skiing of the year, I am managed to combine a morning skiing with my first proper cross country flight on my paraglider which was a very memorable experience, as I. Read the full article…