We
woke up at 5.40am and got our gear and jumped in the car at 6am and
drove to the little lake.
On
the way I saw 3 deer in the bushes!! YAY We headed into the fog
– it was quite dense in the valley. We were hoping for some nice
light mist with the mountain peak reflected in the lake.
We
got to the lake and the ground was frozen. The lake was 90% frozen.
It was about -3 degrees and boy it was cold.
The
mountain is there - just where the tree's come down into the "V" - just
behind that cloud...trust me - it was there yesterday!! lol
We
tried to find some good compositions in the dark and in the fog. We
could see through the fog that the mountains behind us were lighting
up and the sky was pretty and pink. Unfortunately our mountain was
still hidden and in the dark.
I
raced off up the road to take any sort of image with colour & something out of the fog. Got to
a spot and the colour disappeared within seconds of me getting there…
I managed to get a few shots taken and I turned around and Luca was
there! But he missed the light.
So Luca & I went back to the little lake. We set back up and BAMB suddenly
the mountain appeared!! Steve rattled off some images and I realised
my memory card was full and I couldn’t take any more images!!
OMFG! So by the time I changed over cards, the fog came back
thicker this time and I had missed any chance of getting “the”
shot.
Afterwards
Steve said that he wasn't really happy with the image, but I think its
lovely. (I might edit it for him later...push those sliders all the way
to the right baby!) lol
Luca packed up and went back to the car. Steve stayed with
me for a few minutes and then he was over it. But I wanted the
shot…. So I stayed out there in the freezing cold. I swear it was
getting colder. The cameras were starting to get ice on them – the
tripod legs were full of ice. The fog was getting even thicker if
it were possible. So there comes a time when you just have to say
“I’m not getting the shot” and you have to leave. So thats
what we did - not before I rattled off one last image!!
Thank
god Luca had the car running for the past 20mins, so it was nice and
warm and we could thaw out just a bit.
Cortina
was sitting under the fog. We dumped the car at the apartment and
walked to the local cafe that was open nice and early and we at
croissants and hot chocolate.
Showering
at the apartment was interesting….. no shower and only a bath. We
made do. I managed to blow up the new power adaptor Steve had only
bought the day before! Bloody international hair drier is not good!
So I have wet hair in a fairly cool environment – this wont be good
for the cold.
Steve
is feeling better than yesterday. Luca is getting worse. He was
running a fever yesterday. But the stubborn men wont take the Codral
– so they have to suffer! Bloody men - and Luca is a Pharmacist too.
He took a look at the Codral and said "OMG, that is too strong"!! He
couldn't believe we could just buy this over the counter without a
prescription. So he wouldn't take it as it was too strong a medicine
for him! Nahhh - its only Codral. Oh well, I tried to nag them into
taking it!
Tim
and Scott made it back to the apartment around 9am and their sunrise
was pretty epic! They were well on top of the fog so they got all
the pretty colour! Lucky bastards! :)
We
are all heading up to the 3 Peaks for sunset tonight. The weather is
going to turn bad now any day, and we don’t want to risk not
getting there…. Well I don’t want to risk not getting there. Tim
and Scott both say the walk is really easy (we’ll see just how easy
it is for me). They are going to camp up there tonight. Luca, Steve
& I will stay up there for sunset and appenglow and then we will
walk down and come back to the hotel to sleep. With the boys not
being so well, it is better for them to sleep in a warm environment.
Tim
thinks I’ll want to be back up at the 3 Peaks for sunrise tomorrow
once I see sunset tonight. Tim’s sunrise image was amazing. Luca
wants to take images at Lake Limitless, so we’ll see how today’s
itinerary works out.
We
are now racing out to get some supplies and head up the mountain,
hopefully for lunch. Tim seems to think everything is open…. Luca
keeps telling him that things are now closed for November, so we will
see who is right in the end ha ha ha!
We
got up to the gate at Tre Cime and it was open, and so was the
restaurant up there. We had some lunch – the boys all had Vienna
Sausages and Polenta (Steve didn’t eat the polenta). Luca had
pasta and so did I. Was great – really authentic.
Then
at 2.30pm we drove up to the car park and got ready for the big hike
to the three peaks. WOW – the scenery was just amazing. The fog
was still sitting in the valleys below and it looked like a sea of
cloud.
The
wind was howling up there and OMFG it was COLD...I mean, bone
shatteringly cold, and we hadn’t even started walking yet.
We
were all hanging shit on Scott as he has never camped before and his
pack was so heavy. He was nervous, but he did really well.
So
we made our way on the very rocky track. Very obvious as the owner
of the park has to drive his car to get to the first Refugio (refuge
hut). The first part of the hike is down hill & was quite steep,
and then quite flat to the
Refugio! It was ok. I think the elevation and the freezing cold
winds are what took the wind out of my sails. Hiking was no problem,
I just couldn’t breathe. My Ventolin and Seretide had a massive
work out and it still wasn’t helping. Luca said it could be the
altitude. Maybe? Maybe its just the fact that we are really unfit and
didn't do any training in the couple of months leading up to this and
we were just ill prepared! :)
Looking back towards the first Refugio where the cars are parked.
Luca and Steve walking along the first part of the track where its nice and flat.
This is Steve's favourite mountain....so jagged. This is off to the rhs of the track as we were walking.
This is the little church before the 2nd Refuggio....if I wasn't so buggered I would have got the good camera out to take a photo. I could have held this little camera more straight too now that I look at it! ha ha ha
Looking to the LHS of the church, this is the view over the valley. If you look far enough into the distance you can see Venice apparently (but not today!)
This is Steve coming up to the 2nd refugio. The mountain you can see in front is the mountain we will climb up to (where the palest part of the rocks are towards the bottom) to take tonights photos!
We
met the boys at the Refugio (as we were walking slower and taking
videos and photos along the way – because we could!!!) ha ha ha ha
This is the back of the 3 peaks opposite the 2nd Refugio.
Then
we said our good-byes as we knew we would be the slow ones. Tim was
off like a rocket – almost lost sight of him within 5mins. Scott
then made his way slowly.
That
little speck is Scott - Tim was already well out of eye-sight. We have
to hike up there and then when we get to the top ridge, we turn right
and head all the way up to the mountain!! OMG!!
The track got steep – very steep, and
OMG, I was not coping at all – just with my breathing. I really
struggled. I had to stop like every 30m or so. Then I was
overheating, so I had to take most of my layers off – I didn’t
care if I froze to death at that stage. It did make things a bit
easier.
I
think Steve was happy I needed to stop on a very regular basis - meant
we both got to catch our breaths. Poor Luca must have been frustrated
with us stopping all the time. He was brilliant in waiting for us and
making sure we were ok every step of the way, but our stopping meant he
couldn't get into a rhythm. Oh to be young and fit again! lol
Part of the way up to the ridge looking back at the 2nd Refugio.
And higher we climb and the Refugio is getting smaller and smaller!
We made it to the ridge! YAY!
Tim
(god love him) – waited for us at the top of the ridge which is at
the bottom of the 3 peaks. Scott had continued on because he was on
a mission – plus with the weight of his pack, he needed to go
slowly & Tim would catch up with him no problems.
You can see the 3rd Refugio off in the distance. When you get down there, that is the "iconic" typical shot you see of this region. This image was never going to be for us. This is where Tim and Scott were headed. It might look all down-hill from here, but apparently there is a very steep section towards the Refugio. Ahhh who could be bothered with that?? ha ha ha I was just happy I got to lay eyes on the Refugio at least!
Tim
showed us the way to the shot he took the past couple of mornings
which I really liked. Plus the shot that everyone takes, is still
another 1.5 hours hike away and it gets more difficult as you get
closer to the big Refugio.
So
Tim said good-bye and Luca, Steve & I looked skywards up towards
the ridge that leads to the other mountain opposite that has some
caves dating back to WWII. Man it was a hard hike getting up there.
A lot more steep again, and this time the tiny rocks made it
difficult to get any traction, and with my track-record of twisting
ankles, I have to admit I was more worried about that happening, than
me having a severe asthma attack and not being able to breathe!
Luca
was fabulous. He stopped every few meters, so we could catch our
breathe and get out of the howling winds just for a few minutes before
starting skywards again. We had an hour to get to the top, but we made
it up there in about 15mins – but it seemed like an hour.
This
was our view - Tre Cima (3 Peaks) As we are more to the side of it,
it is not the typical view, but I like the symmetry of this view point!
Cameras all set up ready to go!
View off to the LHS looking down towards Venice with the fog in the valley below.
So
proud of ourselves for making it up there! There would have been no
way in hell I would have even bothered to have attempted to get to
the base of the Tre Cime, let alone all the way up here in normal
circumstances. Being part of a group – even a small one is what
pushes you that little bit further.
We
had a look around in the cave. It had many tunnels – most coming
out to the mountain face where the people in the war would have been
sniper shooters.
Then
one tunnel opened up to the back of the mountain and if you wanted to
hike from there, you needed a harness and tether yourself to a rope.
We walked close to where that started, but it was a vertical drop
down to the bottom – and we were a hell of a long way up! So we
played it safe, took a selfie and then we were back in the safety of
the cave.
Inside
the cave there were a heap of icicles. They were crystal clear –
so beautiful, but it just showed how damn cold it is up there and it
hasn’t even started snowing yet!
The
clouds were looking good, so we set our gear up outside and took some
long exposure shots waiting for the sun to start setting.
Some
other hikers made their way up to us, and it turned out that Luca
knew them through Facebook – other photographers from the
Netherlands! What a small world it is!
The
sunset was good, but not epic, so Luca had packed up, and so did
Steve, so I reluctantly packed up too. I wanted to stay a lot
longer, but considering the huge hike we had to make in the dark, it
was best to leave whilst we had some light.
I no
sooner thought it was ok to leave, then the sky went off like a fire
cracker! Luca and Steve set back up so quickly. I only had my
camera out – not my tripod. Anyway, I took some hand-held
panorama’s – not the most ideal thing to do. Who knows if they
will stitch together ok? I took a few “safety shots” just wide
angle. The sky was amazing. Everyone was ecstatic as to what we
were witnessing!
Look at what Steve got!!
This is what my hand held pano ended up looking like - rough edit for now, but I have to be very happy with the result!
It made the very hard effort to get up there, so worth it! We all had smiles on our faces!!
The second the last colour left the clouds, we started the descent
down. OMG, this part was hard. The tiny rocks just made us slide
most of the way. The section we were coming down, is part of the
mountain that falls down – the avalanche residue. It's very steep
and very slippery.
We
all made it down (without twisting an ankle) and we found the main
path and started to walk. Thank god most of it was down hill now.
Poor Steve had a heart issue just as we got close to the end, but he was ok as long as he went very slowly.
We
didn't put our head lamps on and chose to walk in the dark. As we were
up so high & on the side of the sunset at this point & even
though there was no moon out, we had the appenglow to light the rocks,
so it was somewhat easy to see. It helps that the rock is almost white
in colour!
We
were all struggling with our breathing again. The freezing cold wind
was even colder now the sun had disappeared behind the horizon. We
were hot from hiking, not to mention wearing ALL of our technical
gear and our huge down jackets whilst hiking – made us hot….but
then breathing in freezing cold air wasn’t good for us oldies who
weren’t used to this sort of thing.
The
last 100m was very steep up to the car park. That was the hardest of
all. It was a huge hike and it took everything out of us – but god
we were so happy we had achieved what we didn’t think we could.
Back
in the car and out of the wind we got our breath back and then made
our way down to Cortina. By the time we got back to town we had recovered from the hike and felt more human again.
We
went to a new restaurant – DOK. WOW it was fantastic! They must
have had 40 legs of ham hanging in the windows! (Luca and I wanted
to steal one each!) LOL. Luca had a hamburger – it was epic! I
want one! I had Tortellini with prosciutto….. OMG – it was
nothing to look at, but blimey it had some mighty flavour. Steve
had something that looked like Carbronara, but it was a different
pasta type, but with a cream base with bacon – so he was happy!
Dessert was Strudel for me, and Tiramisu for Steve, (it was really
yummy)!
We
got back to the quiet apartment and I was in bed by 9pm –
absolutely shattered. It was a huge day! My feet weren’t happy and I was wondering if
I would even be able to walk in the morning! My back was sore too –
possibly from carrying the pack.
Steve
was coughing his lungs up, so we decided that we would sleep in
tomorrow morning. We have another lake location to do for sunset,
and that requires a 30min hike – but STEEP – just like tonight
apparently to get to – ugh, it better be bloody epic or I'll chuck a
hissy fit!! (we might try and find another hobby to do that doesn't
require so much strenuous activity! I might look at becoming a movie
reviewer!) ha ha ha
Buone
Notte Cortina
xxx
