Dolomites

It´s always exciting when you explore a new area, a new trail. Even after some research
on maps and the internet, you are not sure if the trail is rideable and worth hours of walking up.

Right from the parking place the trail is steeply rising, leading us trough a narrow valley.
After 2 hours of walking we can see "our" summit high above (marked with the arrow).

It took us 4 more hours till we reached the top. The scenery is so amazing, you can understand why some
people say, that the dolomites are one of the most beautiful mountains in the world.
Tired but happy on our way up: (klick on the pic, it´s 1600 pix wide)

Wolfgang and me posing on the rocks. ;-)
If we would jump of the cliff, we would "land" on the meadow you can see on the first picture!

The trail comes all the way down from the left side to the saddle in the middle of the picture.

Some well known mountains in the background: "Tre Cime di Lavaredo"

After more than ten ours we are back at our cars, tired but happy!
This time our exploration was a complete success!

Eurobiketour

Martin and myself are on our way to the Eurobike trade fair in Friedrichshafen.
We make a stop in Tirol for two rides, thanks to Thomas for shelter and guidance.

The first day we have to carry our bikes most of the time till we reach the top of
the mountain. Weather is perfect - as you can see on the photos below.
The downhill is mixture of (slick) rocks at the top and loose gravel in the midsection
of the mountain. To avoid the boring final downhill we make some extra altitude,
walking up to a smaller summit next to the main one. The reward for our effort
is a long singletrail with lots of flow down to our starting point.
This is one of the best rides I had this year!

On our second day we already start at 2000 meters above sea level. First part
was easy on a paved road, after that our bikes are mostly on our shoulders.
We are not reaching the summit, the last part is very steep and also there are to much
hikers on the trail, which is not a good thing when you are trying to ride a section
and always have to wait till the hikers have passed. (Here in Austria 99.9 % of the
trails are illegal to ride with a bike, so you always give way to a hiker)

The first 5 photos are from day one, the last 2 from the second day.
(Photos shot by Martin and myself)