Dolomites - Col Bechei

Our final walk in the Dolomites was to climb Col Bechei. Once again we started from Pederu, this time climbing south east to the Fannes Refugio, about an hour and a half from the start. This hut is situated in a wide open basin and remains in the sun all day.

Behind the refugio the track (a mixture of foot trails and 4 wheel drive roads) climbs to the small but beautiful Lago de Limo. From here the summit still looks a long way off. The track then climbs across the southern slopes of the mountain to reach a high shoulder from where you can look down on Cortina.







The route climbs directly from here to the summit, up a loose gravel ridge, with a small rock band to negotiate near the summit. The difficulty is never too great however. As with the other mountains we had climbed this week, the views from the summit were superb in all directions, in particular we could see the Tofana massif to the south and the route that we had walked earlier in the week Croda del Beco.













We returned the same way, taking our time to enjoy the scenery and stopping for a well deserved beer at Fannes for a late lunch.

Dolomites - A circuit around Putia

This was an easier day which all the kids walked as well.

From Ultia de Borz we walked up to Munt de Fornela, before making an anti clockwise circuit of the mountain. The first section is the steepest and the children had to pay attention on the narrow path crossing several scree slopes, however this was soon safely negotiated.



From the Forcela de Putia I took a side trip to climb to near the summit of the mountain itself. This was about an extra hour, walking at a good pace. I had planned not to go to the true summit on account of its difficulty, but on refection and after seeing it I think it would have made a straightforward scramble, with chains helping to protect the narrowest sections.





Back on the main route, the easy path swung around through alpine meadows before eventually crossing the east side of the mountain. The return trip was more enclosed, passing through sections of pine and rocky grottos.

Dolomites - Croda Del Beco

Our second walk in the Dolomites saw us climbing Croda Del Beco from Pederu.


Pederu is 16km up the road from San Vigillio and you have to pay to park. After a quick coffee we took the 4 wheel drive road up to the Refugio Senes, which sits in a high mountain pasture. The road is a continuous series of switchbacks which climbs besides a sheer rocky cliff and is quite a feat of engineering.









From Senes we continued on easy tracks climbing to Refugio Biella alla Croda del Beco. This is a delightful area with alpine meadows and the flowers were in full bloom. We heard the shrill cry of the Marmot and spotted them watching us whilst perched on rocks above us.





The Refugio is the same colour as the mountain, so is quite hard to spot, despite it's large size. Carolina's Mum sunbathed on the col above the refugio whilst we climbed the steep east ridge to the summit of Croda del Beco. The drops to the south were vertical and there was one long chain section on the most exposed part of the climb. On the summit itself there are fabulous views in all directions. We stopped on the top for lunch and to sign the visitors book.











Once back down at the col we carried on down past Lago Gran de Foses to create a circuit. We headed back down to Pederu with more stunning views across to Tofana and met Carolina's cousins on the way down.

Dolomites - The Tre Cime

In Italy we had almost a week in the Dolomites with Carolina's family in San Vigilio
There were 13 of us in total: 6 adults and 7 children. Most of the family were already in the mountains and on the drive up from Udine we stopped at Moso to have a look at the Tre Cime Di Lavaredo, one of the most famous mountains in that area.



From Campo Fiscalipo, in the midday heat, we climbed up to Refugio Zsigmondy-Comici. The track was easy and well marked. The views of the towering cliffs and mountains were outstanding. The route up to the hut is very popular and with it being a weekend as well there was almost a constant line of people on the way up.







After the hut things quietened down a bit as the route split in several directions. We headed across to another hut: Refugio Pian di Cengia, which gave great views across the north face of Croda Dei Toni









The most exciting stage of the route then followed as we crossed steep scree slopes below Paternkofel. At all stages though the path was wide and the exposure minimal. It takes longer to get to the final refugio on this route (Refugio Tre Cime di Lavaredo) than you would expect. This hut is so large that it appears you are closer to it than you really are.





Once at the refugio the Tre Cimi pop in to view, a great spectacle that many people had come to see. We took afternoon tea at the refugio, before heading down Val del Sasso Vecchio - a steep sided valley with less views and then on back to the car.

Tramping Hardangervidda

In Norway we met up with Sascha and Daniella to tramp the Hardangervidda Plateau. This is the largest mountain plateau in Europe and covers an area of around 6500 square km. Over five days we hiked from Finse to Kinsarvik, via Vøringfossen with its spectacular waterfall.

After a night in Bergen, we took the train up to Finse climbing from sea level to over 1200m in a three hour journey.

The weather on the plateau wasn’t fantastic at first, with low clouds covering the ice cap and a cold wind blowing, but it cleared up eventually to give us a nice day and even some suntan.

From Finse we took the route to the east of the Hardangerjøkulen Plateau, crossing the east end of Lake Finsevatnet to access the start of the marked route.

We spent the day traversing below the ice plateau. As was the case throughout the trip the tramping was easier than is the case in New Zealand, so it was possible to cover greater distances. Outside of the summer season however, the whole area is a vast snow field, (it was used as the setting for Hoth in the opening scenes of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back) and is used for cross country skiing.

Towards the end of the day we walked one of the most spectacular sections of the trip, across the low saddle of Helvetesgilet before sidleing around some iceberg covered lakes.

We then descended towards Lake Skåltjørna camping above it on a dry shoulder giving great views of the glaciers pouring off the edges of the ice plateau.

On the second day we continued the traverse, turning south around the ice plateau before eventually reaching the large manmade lake of Sysenvatnet. Here we watched shepherds, far below, herding their sheep out on to the summer pastures.

We had intended to reach Vøringfossen on the second day, but at around 5:00pm with several kilometres still to go we called it a day and camped above Lake Grytetjørnane, in another spectacular location by a small pond on the slopes of Fjelldalen. In the evening we made the short climb to the summit to look back over the ice plateau in the evening light. (in fact this far north at this time of year there is very little darkness, just a sort of twilight at around 2:00am)

The third day started with the descent to Vøringfossen passing numerous huts along the way.

We found ourselves at the Fossil Hotel for morning tea, which consisted of a fabulous salmon sandwich. We were quite out of place in the grand hall of this building dressed in our tramping clothes, complete with boots and gaiters. From the hotel we peered down from the top of one of the most spectacular waterfalls I have ever seen. All the tourists here didn’t detract from its beauty one bit. The falls are 187m in total with a small upper tier and a much longer lower tier.

The trail headed down to highway 7 at this point, giving different views back to the waterfall. After following the road for a short distance we headed back up on to the plateau climbing above the Bjoreio River.

This was the least interesting part of the trip, with open heather moorland reminiscent of the Eastern Cairngorms. It wasn’t helped by a sudden and dramatic change in the weather with a twenty minute hail storm forcing us to stop and seek shelter. The scenery and weather improved late in the day though, with a return to steeper river valleys and a mixture of open bush and scrub. We camped on a small terrace above Fljotdal (one of numerous small hill communities spread over the plateau) and avoided the worst of the mozzies that we had started encountering in the valleys.

By day four the good weather had moved away. We awoke to grey skies and the rain started around lunchtime and continued for most of the day. We passed the large hut of Hedlo (still closed for the season until next weekend) then crossed the Veig River on a bridge which had only been finished the previous day by the hut warden. (Bridges in this area are either summer bridges or all year bridges. On several occasions we had to ford because the summer bridge hadn’t been completed yet)

From the bridge we climbed then headed west across the plateau for the rest of the day. The scenery here – a mixture of wide open views and small lakes is pretty rather than spectacular. In the late afternoon we rounded the small peak of Valeggi and then descended to the ‘self service’ lodge of Stavali. We seriously considered staying here, - but the price and the distance to walk on the last day put us off. Instead we camped in the wet, an hour further on, on the shoulder of Randinuten in an exposed but well drained spot. Luckily there was no wind to go with the rain.

The last day saw the rain turning to drizzle and then being replaced by low cloud over the mountains. This was a pity as we only got glimpses of the Kinso River Valley, which is extremely steep. The path drops dramatically on rock shelves which had turned greasy in the wet. On the way down we passed numerous huge waterfalls all of which were in full flow after the rain.

The last hour of the tramp was through woodland to the town of Kinsarvik. We celebrated with a lunchtime beer before sadly having to say goodbye to Sascha and Daniella who took the ferry over the fjord to return to Bergen. We caught the bus to Geilo and the night train onwards on Oslo to complete our Norwegian adventure.