Satisfaction

Western Lyskamm 4482 m/14705 ft    July 9, 2012

I have come down from 5 days of heavy and exhilarating mountain climbing in the Alps: Monte Rosa and Gran Paradiso. I am thrilled about my accomplishment. Eleven months after surgery on a broken achilles tendon (August 4, 2011), I was able to successfully scale three peaks at over 4000 meters high in just a few days over the course of last week.

July 9th

Western Lyskamm 4482 m /14705 ft 

July 10th

Castore 4421 m /13848 ft

July 13th

Gran Paradiso 4061 m/ 13323 ft

It's such sweet success because I have been diligently recovering and rebuilding my leg since surgery. It's absolutely devastating what happens after not being able to weight-bear on a leg for three months, which was doctor's orders in my case. All the muscle tissue disappears and doesn't want to grow back once you are supposedly "healthy". The muscles are actually stubborn once you try to restimulate the area again. Then there are issues of balance. Therapists explained to me that the brain-nerve message system was damaged from lack of use. I had to work on that too. Then the other secondary tendons and various fibers and ligaments in my foot, ankle and leg needed help. The problems were many. But after faithfully doing my exercises and slowly going back to the gym for "baby" workouts, such as just 2 minutes of running at a time 9 months after surgery that eventually became 3 minutes and so on, I began to get results.

My calf is still only about three-quarters of what it should be but it was enough to get me on top of Monte Rosa!

On top of a mountain on a spectacular day is like nothing else.

For link to post about frustrations after surgery and physical therapy, click here.

Italian Life in a Leg Cast

It's been 24 days since my operation. My stitches were taken out yesterday. The doctor says that everything is proceeding well. I still have two more weeks of life in a cast and another 25 days after that of life being every step=1 leg + 2 crutches. I'm at that horrible halfway point. I look back and say, "That was boring," or, "That was difficult." Now I have more of the same to look forward to.

I spent just under 3 weeks trapped in a house with a beautiful view. I spent the longest time ever of my personal history in the mountains with sunny weather, yet crippled. I watched the sun rise and set in a hot blue sky everyday except for two. Meanwhile I could only watch the good weather from the terrace. Sunbathing was the best I could do to enjoy the great weather. Now I have a tan only on my arms, chest and tummy: the classic sunning chair position.

This year's experience was especially ironic because I have been coming to this location in the Dolomites in August for a decade and this was the first year that it didn't rain for at least 60% of the vacation. Some years, the percentage hit 90%. Instead it was sunny EVERYDAY this time. It rained a couple of times, but it was either sunny before or after the storm.

Leaving that house proved extremely tricky and tiring because of the street outside. The house is located in the oldest part of town and has a narrow and steep walkway that is several yards up or down from the nearest parking area. It's part of the charm, but you always have to walk it. In snow. In ice. On crutches. Even as the mountain climber I have become in recent years, I was huffing and puffing after short distances of navigating the stone walkway carefully and very physically with crutches.

A view of the stone walkway accessing several houses in the Dolomite region

In total, after almost 3 weeks, I left the house 5 times.

Streets like this one are part of the marvel of Italy, but prove potentially hazardous when you are not physcially fit. It's why the bel paese is una sfida (a challenge) for anyone who is handicapped. I am lucky this condition is only temporary.

But do not dispair. If you do find that you have handicapped concerns while travelling in Italy, read this Slow Travel article for insight and useful links. As the author says, it's possible but you need patience and a good sense of humor. (I wish I had some of that right now.)

Currently I am back in Padua where the terrain is flat. My new challenge is accessing my condo which is a 2-floor walk-up.

Have a Nice Vacation

And vacation it is!

Italy is officially on vacation. Today, Ferragosto, is the day when all Italians "should" be on vacation. And most of them are. Either at the beach (70%), in the mountains (15,7%) or in some foreign place, the USA being on their favorite destinations in recent years (10%). (The strong Euro against the dollar makes their US vacations cost-effective.) 33 million Italians are on vacation this summer, which is 55% of the population.

Some things have changed from last year. The average cost has come down Euro 100 to Euro 776, including room and board, transportation and entertainment. The average length of

the holiday has dwindled a day to 11 nights away from home. The time period to take vacation is also changing. June and September are becoming increasing popular with 4% increases for both, although August remains the favorite month with 52% choosing now as their time for the great escape.

On another front, Italians are increasingly borrowing money to go on vacation. Around 35K of them are borrowing anywhere from Euro 4500-7000 for this purpose. The average Italian asking for this kind of prestito is 40 years old and generally comes from the South, Sicily and Sardinia being at the top. However considering that it takes these borrowers 3 years to pay off the loan, it may not be a very wise choice over the long run.

Buone ferie!

Happy holidays!

Vacations statistics from here and here

Loan information source.

Finding my Hidden Pulse for Mountaineering

As a little girl growing up in Baltimore, USA, I would have never told you that I was interested in becoming a mountaineer. Yet here I am at 34, scaling mountains in heat, ice and snow in the Alps.
This hobby exemplifies the surprising twists a life can take, especially by changing countries. Even though I could have moved to a place like Colorado from my own country, in Italy, the mountains became accessible by accident. I moved to the Veneto for cultural and personal reasons and I found not only cities of great historic interest like Venice and Padua, but also a nearby seaside on the Adriatic and mountain area, the Dolomites and Italian Alps.
In the USA, I would have needed to choose a completely mountain life in the move to a place like the Rockies.
My Italian husband first introduced me to hiking in the Dolomites. Those initial hikes were surprisingly steep and difficult yet I saw even elderly Italians easily walking up the rock trails so I made sure that I could do the same. After all, I was in my mid-twenties at the time! Once at the top, the views were spectacular and made the fatigue worthwhile. I enjoyed the direct contact with the magficient towers of nature which turned rosy at sunset. I found my mind would be cleared of everyday stress from jobs and city life while hiking. My husband and I started to walk higher and higher. Soon I leared how to climb ferratas, with the assistance of steel wire and ladders bolted into the mountainside. We began to hit the BIG peaks of Monte Civetta and the Marmolada, which includes a glacier. That was the first time I put on crampons.

Photo: Pisciadù ferrata outside of Cortina (2006)

Photo: The peak of Marmolada, 3445 meters (2006) with husband and another couple, S and R

To round off the experience, rock climbing was included in the new bag of techniques to learn and utilize in the Alps. Through a course we took last year, we discovered nearby rock faces and natural outdoor gyms such as Rocca Pendice in the Euganean Hills and started scaling them, too.

Photo: Piccolo Torre Falzarego (2009)

Unbelievably, despite having broken both bones in my left forearm twice in my twenties, I can actually rock climb. Who would have known?

Our rock climbing teacher and alpine guide, Andrea, mentioned a course that he was teaching on Monte Rosa that summer. We decided to join another couple and do the experience, practicing our mountaineering abilities on a higher and even more famous mountain and learning new techniques for snow and ice. Among other things, I learned 8 knots, understood how the materials work such as ice axes and ice nails and pretended to fall and save people in a glacier crevace. I found myself hiking and rock climbing on the second tallest mountain in Europe just this past summer.

Photo: left: faking having fallen into a glacier crevace while my husband practices saving me; right: learning pirolet traction with my husband as my sicura (Monte Rosa, July 2009)

That's what I get for moving to the Veneto: I'm now a alpinist.

Funny how things work out.

Photo: Ferrata Merlone (2006)

Top post photo: Along the hike to Mulaz (2005)

Glorious Fatigue

The high mountains demand respect for their immense presence, potential for danger and fantastic panoramic gifts. My husband and I finished our 6-day experience among the crests of Monte Rosa.
Life goes into a different dimension at 12000 ft. As true alpinists, we had wake-up calls at 4 a.m. everyday and were treading the snow at or before dawn to guarantee the best conditions for the long journey to and from the peaks. By 11 a.m., the snow that was crispy at dawn had turned into mush under your crampons and made walking almost hazardous from mounting snowballs that formed under your feet in descent.

At that altitude, you are literally living above the clouds. Most days, the valleys were hidden under a blanket of vapors while our skin toasted away despite protective factor 50+ sunblock, thanks to a very formidable sun.

Processing oxygen becomes a more cumbersome on top of Monte Rosa, according to scientists. We were lucky because we only suffered from a couple of headaches and I had a slight loss of appetite. Blood runs thicker through the veins as it tries to nourish the body on overdrive, plodding along the trails to Punta Parrot (mt 4435/ ft 12422), Punta Gnifetti (mt 4554/ft 12756) and Piramide Vincent (mt 4215/ft 11806), in our case. Fatigue is a constant but through sheer willpower, you burn on. One step at a time gets you to the top of the summits and back to the lodge for some much-awaited rest and the single hot meal of the day.

The landscape dazzled our eyes in its symphony of white, ice, snaking human trails of skiers and alpinists. We could constantly admire a handsome suite of summits. It was even possible to see the Matterhorn peek out from behind Lyskamm, the peak featured in my last blog entry.

Everything is hushed. You only hear the crunch of snow under your crampons for hours, except for the occasional comment or exclamation from your alpine companions. Being on the top of the world is surely a kind of escape from it. No TV. No distractions. Barely any mobile phone use. You. Nature. Sun. Wind. Snow. Clouds. Ice. Rocks.

I discovered that I can handle serious alpine conditions. My body and mind allowed me to succeed in reaching a series of incredible summits on Monte Rosa, the second tallest mountain in Europe. Unfortunately I cannot say so much for the other woman in our entourage. Her constant complaints were a drag on spirits and the group's progression on more than one occasion.

This expererience only makes me further revere those who scale the Himalayas, shooting twice as high into the atmosphere. (Of course, our alpine guide, Andrea, came with pictures of his journey there and up the Mountain G2.)

General Evaluation:
Sweet personal satisfaction on an adventure accomplished.

A Week on Monte Rosa

I am leaving at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow for Monte Rosa, a mountain range on the border between Italy and Switzerland in the Aosta region. I just finished packing some very heavy backpacks, filled with gear, clothes, emergency medecine and food stuffs.

Over the next week, I will be sleeping at 3498 meters and participating in a glacier techniques course with my husband, another couple and led by our Alpine Guide, Andrea. The above picture could be one of the views that await us on the high peaks of this large and famous mountain group. It is part of the Mantova lodge's official website, which introduces some interesting ascents.

Once back in Padua and in the plains, which offer easy Internet connection, I will resume my blog. Happy vacation to all those going somewhere high, low, foreign or just plain nearby home this summer.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for good weather!
And wish me luck!

Dolomites: UNESCO World Heritage Site

On Saturday, these fabulous and revered mountains were distinguished as a World Heritage area by UNESCO. It took the commission less than an hour to weigh the decision.

These rose-colored mountains cross five provinces including Trento, Bolzano, Belluno, Udine e Pordenone. Now various cities are jockeying to host the UNESCO offices for this disinction, which will guarantee more tourism for their area, most likely. Will Cortina in the province of Belluno win, home to the 1956 Winter Olympics Games?

Some spokesmen, such as Reinhold Messner, are worried that the new flurry of activity will bring tourists who are just interested in the "post card" aspect of this natural treasure. These potential tourists/intruders may contribute to hurting the ecosystem and rock formations. I would like to hope that the new status brings extra respect and funding for all aspects of its safe-keeping.

Pictured here is one of the most famous sights nestled in the mountain chain: Tre Cime di Lavaredo.

The Dolomites are the second park area to receive UNESCO's title in Italy, after the Eolie islands of Sicily and their naming officially places Italy in first place for the number of World Heritage treasures in one country. Naturally, the others are all cultural treasures, as in Venice and the city center of Florence.

Let's Talk about the Weather

This is my father's favorite conversation: the weather. I grew up in a family where this topic was discussed on a regular basis. But in Baltimore, the only time that we might get worried about a proper weather report is to predict whether the upcoming winter storm will be in the form of snow, ice or sleeting rain. Those distinctions can make the difference between a fairly safe drive to work or a perilous one.

Coming to Italy and teaching English as a language and culture, I came to learn that my father's passion for the subject of weather probably comes from his English ancestory. The British talk about the weather a lot because it can change rapidly and drastically there on the isles. There are stories of it raining, being sunny and briefly snowing all in the same odd summer afternoon.

Now I find myself consulting online weather forecast sites on a regular basis. I do this not for Padua's weather, but for predictions of the weekend in the Dolomites. In the mountains, the weather changes often from day to day and througout a single day. It can turn a hike or climb into a miserably wet experience or even a highly dangerous one, especially if you consider that sometimes you are hanging from a metal wire while going up a ferrata. (We all know what can happen if there is lightning and you are attached to a piece of metal!)

So in true form, I am clicking away on various sites and talking about the weather today with my husband as we plan for the weekend.

I have added a favorite site, ARPAV, to the mountain links section of this blog so that you can check out my weather predicament, too.

Dad, this is dedicated to you.

Sleeping with Casanova

While preparing for our imminent trip of 6 nights on Monte Rosa, we have decided that it would be a good idea to get our bodies acclimated to the high altitude a week early.

My husband and I are joining the other young couple, who will be with us for the week of the glacier course and climb, for a night at another "Mantova" lodge. This one is on the mountain peak Vioz in the Gruppo del Cevedale north of Trento.

The climb itself should be quite short and fairly easy. Our objective is not to tire ourselves out too much. We just want to get to know each other with this teaser of a trip as well as sleep up high where there isn't much oxygen in the air. That night's slumber will happen at 3535 m (11,600 ft).

But maybe our male companions should think twice about taking their women up there because we'll be in the company of Casanova! Yes, the lodge manager's name is Mario Casanova, as in the famous Venetian lover from the eighteenth century. Of course, that one had Giacomo as a first name.

Will our Casanova be providing any extra services?

Piles of Money destined to a "Mountain" of Stuff

To prepare ourselves for our big trip to the top of Monte Rosa, scheduled for the end of July, my husband and I had to go on a shopping spree. We basically bought a ton of light-weight petrol products. Why do I say petrol? We need to wear technical gear designed for mountain use that protects against wind and water while allowing perspiration to escape through the same fibers. These wonder-fabrics are all made from polyester derivatives. And polyester = spun petrol.

The products are all light so they don't wear down your bags as you hike up the mountain. That is great for your back while on the trail but not so rewarding as you cart your pile of merchandise out of the store.

In this case, light and petrol does not equal cheap! No, dear. We are talking large chunks of change for even the smallest things.

We outfitted the husband from head to toe while I already had several clothing pieces in my stash from past ski trips while other things I will wait to buy next year. So far the list goes as such for the duo:


2 pairs extra-UV protection sun glasses
1 light-weight Montura shell
1 medium-weight Rady's shell
waterproof pant shell
1 pair of medium-weight Montura hiking pants
1 pair of approach and hiking shoes
1 pair of crampons
1 38-liter backpack
2 pairs of men's breathable underwear
2 pairs of hiking socks
2 compact fast-drying towels

The fashion show of our alpine shopping spree will be photographed at a later date.
The bill to be paid will be next month's entire paycheck, even after a 20% discount.

But what the hell-
Viva la montagna!

These petrol jewels just better not rip this season on any stray rock!

Going for Snow this Summer

These pictures reveal July's summer destination for me and my husband: Monte Rosa (4633 mt), second highest peak in Europe after Mount Blanc.

We decided to take up a unique offer to join another couple and splurge on the instruction of glacier mountain know-how with a professional mountaineer guida alpina scheduled for the end of July. We will be sleeping at above 3000 mt for 6 days and will be more worried about frost-bite than sun-poisoning, despite the traditionally sea-faring date. After the course, we should be able to save each other from crevices, learn how to use an ice axe properly and be experts at toughing out pretty extreme cold.

I am curious how our state of mind will be during the week. Everything is more difficult at those high altitudes and sleeping may not be easy at the lodge for the same reason. I remember my strange nightmares from last year's overnight on top of the Dolomite's Civetta. The lodge where we are staying this time, Rifugio Città di Mantova (3498 mt), is almost twice as high as last year's Rifugio Torrani (2132 mt). I am in very good physical condition this year, after working out well over the winter but this adventure will surely be a challenge, nonetheless.

At our age, either this will be the first or the last time we can do something like this on such a massive mountain while under the safe tutelage of a mountain expert.

I can't wait to see sunrise over that mountain!

Now it's time to start running an extra few miles a week and start buying gear.

I'll keep you posted on how the training and preparation are proceeding.

Mount Soppelsa

Snow snow snow. It's still up there and not at a very high altitude for May. This year brought an exceptionally long ski season and the snow still hasn't melted much. The ski runs were open through Easter this year.

Unfortunately many alpine skiers are getting swallowed up by avalanches now, provoked by last week's fresh snowfall on top of watery snow being burned off quickly by May's warm sun. The news reports have talked about major avalanches in at least two areas, the Marmolada being the closest one to my area.

For my husband and I, it is lovely sight from our mountain home in Cencenighe Agordino as white tips to fresh spring mountainsides. We are staying down low and just enjoying the view from up high.

Official Club Alpino Italiano (CAI) Member

This document makes my initiation into the Italian mountain system official, I am a CAI member. This little booklet gets stamped and a sticker update every year and offers me discounts on mountain lodging, a subscription to a magazine, makes me part of a local association and, most importantly, guarantees me insurance in case of emergency, if ever I need to use a helicopter to be saved from a precarious position on a dangerous mountainside.

After hiking for about 6 years on high and sometimes dangerous peaks and plodding over glaciers, as well, not to mention the new introduction of rock climbing as a sport activity, I deserve this little "subscription" and testiment.