Italian passion Part 3

[zinger-uk]

Heres some more Via Ferrata and Mountain Bike pictures from a trip we did In July 2011

The VF Brigata Tridentina is a pretty good with lots of vertical climbing and a not too bad hike out










In the evening I borrowed one of the Hotels bike and climbed up a dirt road to the top of one of the hills



Unfortunately this all went wrong as I headed down what seem'd like a nice trail, which ended up with me hiking my bike down a mile of steep slippy wet steps !! - Route finding is an issue here as the maps are not that great, and unlike the states there arnt loads of nice guide books to show you where the good stuff it.

The next day we did another VF - Delle Trincee
This one has some nice climbing and towards the end you even have to go through old war time tunnels (we had forgot to take torchs and ended up shuffling through the tunnels using our cameras on playback to light the way)










The next day I went on another tour with the Hotels owners son. After a long grind up alpine roads we rode some very nice singletrack









After dropping back down again we took a cable car up high again and rode some excellent non-track (Apparently the trail we were riding didnt get much traffic and was just a a sea of wild flowers)



In the afternoon I headed out to do a ride on my own, and took 2 gondolas up to the top of a pass and then rode back down trail 8 - this was the best ride of the trip



















On our last day we decided to take it easy and do a VF that required very little hiking to get to the start, you take a gondal and then a chair lift to get to the start

The VF is called Piz da Lech











The next day we packed up and drove back down towards verona stopping off at Lake Garda for a refreshing swim and ice cream.

The next time we go to Italy we will definitely be taking our own MTB bikes, and will to try to find more of the good stuff !!! - with hopefully less hike a bike and dirt road.

If anyone has any suggestions for must do XC MTB in the dolomites please let us know.

Now I'll get onto planning my MTB trip to Colorado this September

[rockman]

Stellar. You certainly know you're way around a Holiday. Wifey and I were fortunate to spend a week in the Dolomites and you do an excellent job of capturing the flavor. Thanks for the memory jog and hi to Clare.

[Plummit]

Awesome stuff Zinger. Keep 'em coming!

[Mellow Yellow]

did you rent bikes or ship your over?

[giantbikeboy]

Wow Zinger! That looks like fun.

[zinger-uk]

did you rent bikes or ship your over?

we rented bikes as this wasnt supposed to be a biking trip

But next time we will be taking our bikes - even a good rental bike cant match your own ride

Also Take cycling shoes that are good for hiking !! - as you wont find miles of buff singletrack like in USA - as most trails were made for goats or sheep

Plus the euro style brakes (wouldnt be a problem for you chaps from usa) were really tough to get used to , lots of locked back wheels during the trip..