GroovyGeek
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
|
 p.1 #13 · Dolomite hiking conditions | |
LeoPizzo wrote:
I resume this old thread, with my considerations, just in case someone can be interested.
I live just few hours from Dolomites, and I visit them three/four times per year.
I am not a “master of the mountains”, but rather a normal men.
The Dolomites can be very challenging, and deciding on the best time to visit them is always a nightmare.
Winter is magical, spring is exciting, summer would be perfect, and fall (if you know where to go) is breathtaking.
From a photographic point of view, there are no "restaurant or gondola in the frame" problems as soon as you get a few feet away.
These problems arises when you do not know where to go or if you didn’t had any scouting before shooting.
The real problem is that the best places are overcrowded, but as soon as the rush hour ends you find yourself alone in the high mountains, and you always have to remember that.
Sometimes the peak hours often include sunrise and sunset, unfortunately.
Especially in the Tre Cime area, sometimes it feels like Iceland: a continuous line of photographers taking almost the same shot.
You have to walk to take good photographs, often over 2,000 meters: this results in breathing and sleeping problems for the first few days, even for those who are trained.
However, 90% of the points of interest are easily accessible, 8% are a bit more difficult is only 2% require some climbing.
If you consider, for example, the Torri del Vajolet, it is really very easy to approach the Vajolet Hut (90% of the hike): cable car, almost flat path, only a small ramp at the end, but on a driveway.
The last 700 meters, however, go up 350 meters, from 2250 meters to 2600 meters, between rocks, on an equipped trail.
In short, if you want to hike it, I recommend that you prepare well beforehand and rely on someone who knows the area well....Show more →
I agree with you and Dan that local knowledge is absolutely necessary to find the gems. Alas that takes multiple visits, and when I think about the world there are much more remote places that I would return to multiple times to scout rather than the Dolomites. How can a mere 2km hike get you out of the crowds? There is a hut at the base of Torri del Vajolet which almost automatically means that it is pretty well visited. I will relatively frequently hike 15km+ with 1km+ elevation gain if I think there is good photography at the end. But what you describe feels more like a stroll with a brief but not particularly challenging exertion at the end.
This is not a diss of the Dolomites. The mountains look absolutely spectacular but solitude is why I do landscape photography and there are far better options for that locally and elsewhere in the world.
|
