Gas gas gas.... tranquilla

Another week survived. An intense, variegated but anyway rather pleasant and fun week.

Keep going basically the same way as some previous weeks with some additional activities. Longer I stay, more life I see around - it will be caused by first signs of coming spring or more probably by the fact that with every day I know more people and thanks to them I find more to do. Lately I havent felt boredom in evenings, time is passing fast and I feel that I would need an additional hour every day (so I have returned to normal life rhythm).

I have promised to try every week something for first time in my life, so last week it was my first time to be dog-sitter... or dog-walker? We were practising both activities.

walking with polar wolf... yeah, there is a bike road

Just touching the rock to not forget, some travers... no rope this time, no verticality

...and another nice thing- combination of skiing on the piste, off the piste and rock climbing. Big thanks to Renzo who introduced me this nice rock-spot... We´ll be back! 

My off the piste skiing skills are near zero, so... Renzo says "lets go from here, there shouldnt be risk of avalanche here", passed two seconds and while trying to do inversion i got stuck in the snow with one ski (ski remained in direction down the slope 😂) and off we go.... "Eeeeh....I think I will cause an avalanche now" I was screaming. Sliding down on my back and bottom are my streghts in skiing. Some 50 meters i wasnt able to arrest myself 😖😰🙊🙈. Sorry, I wasnt able to make video of this fun.

cold desert ahead... just need to cross it to get to the rock

And of course i couldnt have finished the week without ice. This time we were iceing in Val di Brenta near Madonna di Campiglio with Giulio, Isabella, Elisa and Massimo (no, not my bike, another Massimo). Ayee, there was also a nice piece of verticality to get arms more tired. On the pic you will also see a nice fragile ice curtain which I prefered to avoid. Still top-roping... but looking forward to an occasion to try opening some route. I am experienced now - tried ice climbing already 5 times 😂😈. LOL, even 50 times I wouldnt consider as experienced.

Hold on and go up (actually it was not too hard... you know, if you are used to keep yourself up, holding some not existing corners of rock then holding ice axes is not too tiring... but holding is not enough if you want to get up, obviously

... I still reached to top without major problems

Turning back to parking. Giulio with unbalanced backpack. What is he carrying in the bag... i have never understood... nobody has

I am really not sure whats the name of this beautiful peak... I dont trust what my friends say. Sometimes they are not serious.

Got back home from waterfalls I read a message from another couchsurfer living nearby - there was a concert happening in Dimaro. Miracle!! United for Dimaro (there was a landslide and some flooding caused by heavy rains in the end of october... damages were notable and now there was a concert to support community...). Unfortunately there was not enough public so im not that dure if the money from ticket sale covered organizational expenses. Live music has been really missing from life for some time. Now i got recharged.

Nextdoor blues. They made me dance on my chair

Sunday was a normal skiing and bouldering day. Yes, I think I almost have some weekly routine.... fridays and sundays I finish skiing a bit earlier and go to the small friends´ handmade boulder corner to get my arms destroyed. Big thanks, Tiz!

The week I ended with gas gas gas by Goran Bregovic 🙉😂

First ski alpinism (read: ski excursionism) in my young life ;D

Finally I got some shoots of Ice climbing. Thanks to papparazzo Luglio. Saturdays fun in Bletterbach

New week.... woke up at 5.30 with my dear couchsurfers, had caffe and went back to sleep to get up again at 7. Strong breakfast with Davide and allez! To the pistes! Unfortunately Pejo 3000 was still closed because of too much snow and the danger of avalanches. Poor Davide! No fun for him 😈

Sun was shining and it seems that it attracted quite some people. I was sunbathing with t-shirt

Would like to go up....

Tuesday, 5-th of february. Late afternoon ice climbing. Late because at first Luglio was breaking my neurons and when he stopped and we still decided to go I still needed to hitchhike to his place (its not the easiest destination... a bit illogic way). While hitching I made friendship with a donkey (in my opinion they are super sympathetic)

4-feet donkey. I didnt take a photo of 2-feet one.

...and then I needed to survive a car ride with a 2-feet donkey (an older middle age guy from Albania who believed that we shoud go to eat pizza some evening... because he is divorced and needs some copmanion sometimes :D. We didnt arrive to consensus, but fortunately we got to Dermulo and I left the car). Actually I shouldnt complain... he picked me up and transported towards destination.
I am sorry but again I didnt take any photos of ice climbing because I dont have space for phone in my pockets when i am wearing harness. It was short climbing because we were really late. 3 climbs and back we go... in the darkness with head light

Wednesday. Ayee, long and quite intense day. Started with missing my skibus. It happens often because of a bit weird organizing... my destination Peio is not important enough to guarantee connections between different bus lines. Effort is put on Madonna di Campiglio and Marilleva-Folgarida as they are a bit more chic and touristic resorts.... there are more moving wallets hanging around. But I dont care, i arrive faster by hitching. Nice weather, hard skiing till afternoon

View from Pejo 3000 (yeah, 3000 m high). Finally I tried the highest piste of Pejo... It made me sweat (the weather was warm and some parts of the piste were steep enough for a beginner like me)

...and then, ayeeee, maestro Renzo proposed to do a short bite of easy ski mountaineering. First time to try this sport and ski skins to not move backwards. You see, I keep trying something new every week 👍☝. Yaah, ski mountaineering is for people who love to make some effort... and who prefer to see some nature instead of cablecar. Its not that easy to keep balance in somebody elses traces... wrong steps sometimes made me sink into the snow... and i bended my ski poles (not mine actually 😆) quite a lot.

mountain house on our way

Forest and snowy peaks... almost looks like winter

And here we go, Renzo much faster than me 👺. That was one of the easiest sections of the way up. Almost flat and so wide path

...the day ends always with fire

I won again. Managed to make fire in the stove (I have became much faster in that)

Thursday: Trying to ski with "real skis"... hmm I dont know whats wrong wit my rental skis 😁😂😔 but Renzo borrowed me a pair of real skis... much longer than my 150cm yellow things. Anyway first day with those "real skis" was a bit wobbly (they were like wild horses), but next day was already much better.... need some time to tame those skis.

Sitting on a rock, resting feet before sliding down on "real skis" 

On friday evening I had again the joy of hitchhiking to Val di Non because there were some Icey waterfalls near Bolzano in program for saturday. Aargh, this bloody darkness on the road near Male. I still made it to Cles and Luglio picked me up from there.... so we were ready for early morning ride to Bletterbach.

Some of us walking towards ice walls

an example of climbable ice and group of mountain rescue guys having some training

Bletterbach, a Canyon-like place with many waterfalls

basic position

Changing hand to move left

Concentrating. "More anger and hate, please!"

Luglio and Flavia at work

"Luglio, make angry face, because anyway I cant convince you to pretend to have fun!", "Buona sofferenza!"

Our group + Andrea and Flavia

After-party. Sun started to escape, we did the same.

Sunday... today. Low energy, I am an hunger with feet. Morning skiing, afternoon bouldering in Tizianos hand-made gym. Fingertips are not used to this stuff anymore but I fought until the end of arm muscle power.... anyway I think I need a big fatty pizza.

Personal best in couchsurfing

Monday, tuesday, saturday and sunday....
Life is not only skiing, ice axing and biking 😬. There are also some other daily activities like fighting with stove (its not always easy to start the fire). In the end i have always won but sometimes it has taken many rounds (fortunately never ended with knock out. I wouldnt be happy without stove either).

Relaxing after victory over the stove. The temperature will get almost livable in my room in 2 hours.

Ofcourse its also important to take care of wood to burn

...and as we got a lot of snow last friday (1st of february) there was another activity for sport loving people - cleaning paths from snow, just to get back home or out of the house. First time i saw/heard/felt some excitement in Dimaro. Buses blocked the main road to Madonna di Campiglio (another ski resort which felt too snob for me) and there was traffic jam for many many hours. Skibuses were late about 2 hours etc.... of course i was hitchhiking to start skiing before all children groups arrive...

But... more snow means some off the piste skiing and possibilities for skialpinism (even though i am a bit too beginner to do or even talk about real stuff). Anyway I really enjoyed skiing in this super snowy day - few people, fresh snow and interesting/new conditions to get used to. Its not fun if everything is optimal/perfect. The most fun I have when I can learn something, push myself, make some effort... sweat and maybe cry for some moments... and laugh about it.
Mountain skiing technique on fresh snow differs quite a lot from usual technique on the piste. Speed is lower, feet closer to each other, to change direction you need to work more (even jump) to not get stuck in snow) and while turning skiis dont need to be that much on edges because snow is making counter force anyway. Big thanks to Renzo Turri, a maestro di sci, who has given and hopefully keeps giving good tips to learn adequate technique. 😁😂 Citing my friend Luglio: "Sopravvivere non significa sapere sciare" (surviving on the piste doesnt mean knowing how to ski).

Near rifugio "Scoiattolo" (squirrel)

You cant say that Sun is missing. It was super day for skiing. Because of heavy snow previous day it was few people, lot of fresh snow and lot of energy

"You are all disgusting" written grammatically wrong. Should be schifo... or maybe with scifo they want to say sci di fondo (crosscountry skiing) 😂.... so it will be "you all do crosscountry skiing". Yes of course we do.

Life is arriving to Val di Sole... its february, days are getting longer, the ski season is on its peak - I got my first couch request during my time in Trentino. It was 4 travellers from Russia. They were traveling by car, photographing Dolomites and found themself from couch emergency. Ofcourse it was one of the busiest days... I was skiing all day, then had a dinner in a house of two local couchsurfers and I also hosted my dear cave mate Davide who came from Brescia to ski a bit. Whaaat, how can I put 5 people and myself in my room???

Basically thats my office... and if i put two mattresses on the floor it becomes a 7 stars hotel room (actually now I have a table-like thing for my laptop insted of chair.

Where there is a will, there is a way. 2 mattresses for 4 person, a couch in the kitchen for 5-th and my bed for me. Like sardines. Those guys were super awesome. Real travelling spirits, easy to get along and improvise with.