My wife and I recently did 5.5 days of spectacular hiking in the Dolomites. We ended up making one huge, good decision...we hired a guide to take us around, to show us very different hikes, and to help through what turned out to be challenging, technical terrain. Our guides turned what could have been a really messy set of logistics (buses, long lines, sold out parking, etc.) into a purely wonderful hiking experience. It was really crowded, ridiculously so at the 'iconic' Tres Cime and Cinque Torri hikes, but since we were with a guide, the logistics were painless..and the company fantastic. Anyway, I'm still going through images, and there are way too many beautiful images to post, so here are a few from the different hikes. Not traditional landscape images that are usually taken at sunrise/sunset since we were hiking....
trail circumnavigating the famous Cinque Torri formation
Cinque Torri..lots of climbers up here
WWI Army Barracks...Lots of war history in these mountains
Famous Locatellit Refugio on the Tres Cime hike
Tres Cime
Back side of Tres Cime....very crowded here, note all the cars in the lot
Thanks gang! In terms of gear, I left my two Z8's home and only took my Z63, which is slightly smaller and lighter. For lenses, I only took the 24-120 and 14-30. I used the 24-120 about 95% of the time. I hike with a Mindshift holster strapped to the shoulder straps of the pack. It looks dorky having a camera holster on your chest, but is highly effective as it means I never have to stop to take the pack off to access the camera.
Jakelbee wrote:
Unreal landscape. I bet the air was so fresh.
We were lucky, had zero rain over the 6 says...mostly sunny, with a few clouds here and there. We did see smoke from one small fire that had evidently been burning for quite some time. It was miles away, and the winds were blowing the haze away from where we were hiking.
Wonderful shots, by your experience I think I'd take the hike anytime over just waiting for sunrise / sunsets, though I'm sure I'd try for both to my wife's chagrin. If you don't mind, who / what outfit did you use to guide? Feel free to just PM if you prefer.
pbraymond wrote:
Wonderful shots, by your experience I think I'd take the hike anytime over just waiting for sunrise / sunsets, though I'm sure I'd try for both to my wife's chagrin. If you don't mind, who / what outfit did you use to guide? Feel free to just PM if you prefer.
Thank you. It was really great to be able to have a good camera with me. I looked pretty dorky with it strapped to my front shoulder straps, but it makes a huge difference in having immediate access.
We used an amazing guide company....www.dowlomites.com. They like owls so that was worked into their name. The head of the company is a local (we saw his village on a couple of our hikes), who is well known in the area. He actually founded what has become one of the most famous trail running races in the world. He and his girlfriend were amazing to be with, they made the entire trip perfect. We were hiking on a lot of pretty technical terrain, and they were very helpful to my wife who needed some guidance...while I hiked on ahead with my camera! Using a guide isn't the least expensive option, but the logistics up there are pretty difficult, and the crowds huge, so for us, they made all the difference.
Jim Dockery wrote:
Thanks for the trip down memory lane - I did a bit of climbing there back in the 80s.
We saw a lot of climbers, in fact in a couple of spots we were hiking right in the middle of them. Interesting tidbit...our guide, 3 weeks prior, had guided Alex Honnold for a morning. He said he was pretty fast!
