The Alpine Experience

17/09/2024

Part 2 - So this concludes the Art portion of “Peter & Deb’s Kunst- und Biertour durch München“ (Peter & Deb’s Art and Beer tour of Munich). Today we went to Pinakothek der Moderne and Museum Brandhorst (Munich’s Museum of Modern Art and Design) and the Andy Warhol and Keith Haring “Party of Life” exhibit. What a great way to spend the day!

17/09/2024

So this post concludes the Munich traditional beer tour portion of “Peter & Deb’s Kunst - und Biertour durch München“ (Peter & Deb’s Art and Beer tour of Munich). Kunst (Art) portion to come… Over the past 2 days we’ve been to the rest of the “traditional” beer houses in Munich, as well as one place that serves German craft beer. We’ve been to Altes Hackerbräuhaus München, , Augustiner Bräu (no photos but we were there), and Löwenbräukeller. As well as .eu (for non traditional German craft beer).

16/09/2024

A couple days of modern art since its pouring rain… Yesterday we went to to the Damien Hurst exhibit and today we went to the exhibit (recreations of some of his work). The Banksy exhibit was AMAZING!!

15/09/2024

Ok, kind of touristy today, but not really… We are currently in Munich and will miss Oktoberfest by a few days (not that big of a deal to us), so we are trying to get to as many of the “Traditional“ Munich breweries as we can. Today we went to the Hofbräuhaus München - Das Original and Spaten München. We will try for as many of the others tomorrow.

14/09/2024

Ok, back to our comfort zone… On a self guided craft beer tour in Innsbruck. , & Bierfabrik Innsbruck. Notice how Deb held up the pretzel for the photo and not the skinny wurst (not what she’s used to, I guess). 😉

14/09/2024

I guess I can no longer say we aren’t tourists… On our way to the Hofburg in Innsbruck (it’s raining so not worth going hiking). .explores

13/09/2024

Holy s**t!!

We were right close to here a few days ago. And turned around on our last day (yesterday) in the snow!!

Val Gardena, coppia sorpresa da bufera di neve: 57enne muore assiderata, grave il marito https://www.adnkronos.com/cronaca/val-gardena-neve-alto-adige-alpinista-morta-assiderata_5BBTaoVenUFmGIQj8IxV5G

Sad news. They are saying a female Canadian “Alpinist” died of exposure yesterday Thu on the AV2 between Schlueter Hut and Puez. They alerted the local resuce at 20.45 and the hut keeper from the Puez with a mountain guide found them about 2 km from the hut but at that point she was already non-responsive. They tried several times swith a helicopter from Bozen und could not get in until this morning.

Il due erano in cammino verso il rifugio Puez quando sono stati investiti dalla forte nevicata

12/09/2024

Day 5. Finito! What a crazy day but such an incredible trek and experience!! We made the decision this morning to “go for it” and regretted it as soon as the snow started to fall (not captured in the photos). Today SUCKED!! Glad there is a wellness spa in our hotel 🥳

11/09/2024

Day 4 complete! Another mixed day. As you can see the day started out fairly clear in the alpine and finished socked in. (I guess we take the good with the bad 😋). Not sure what tomorrow will bring the forecast is for snow 😳 - so not sure what we will do 🤷🏼. Rufugio Capanna Passo Valles for the night. OnTop Mountain Guides

10/09/2024

Day 3 complete! A bit of a mixed bag today (we actually dipped into the AV1 world 🙄 - definitely a different vibe). An early very chilly start. If you look closely in the middle of the first photo you will see our first destination (a gondola station). From there we descend to a fairly busy section with a lot of day hikers and then the last 2 hours we hiked a gravel road (think Sunshine ski out). The 4th photo is of the highest peak in the Dolomites (Marmolada 3343 m). Rufugio Contrin for the night. OnTop Mountain Guides

09/09/2024

Day 2 complete!! Probably one of the most technically challenging hikes Deb and I have ever done. Not related to the distance (17 km) but the majority of elevation was gained in steep canyons with having to use cables and rebar steps (though not quite considered a via feratta). Took us almost 10 hrs (lunch stop included - at a restaurant en route 😋) OnTop Mountain Guides

08/09/2024

Just completed the first leg of our 5 day Dolomites trek. We might be getting soft as we don’t have to sleep in a tent at all and just had a beer in the Puez Rifugio. Thanks OnTop Mountain Guides for organizing this leg of the trip for us. 🤙🏻 😉

07/09/2024

After taking a chill day on Thursday to explore some of the local museums (as it was pi***ng rain) - Museo degli Alpini (Special Military Alpine Unit) and the Bassano del Grappa: Museo (Grappe liqueur Museum), yesterday was Medieval day. We went to the walled city Citadella and to a unique dramatic presentation in Marostica that only happens every 2 years. It tells the story of 2 young men that fight over a woman (naturally), except the law forbids them to duel to the death so they compete for her hand by playing a human chess match. It was quite the production (I’m sure the entire town participates - as you can see towards the last few photos).

04/09/2024

Ok back on track!.Today we a drove to the Mt. Grappe area (without incident 🥳) to visit an amazing, authentic, rustic restaurant called Tattoria da Massio (so authentic they don’t even have a social media presence) - another awesome reco from !! As well, we visited a local winery called Villa Angarano. There are too many wineries that we could visit, but we were able to walk to this one!! It was really good (despite the fact that they under pour 😋). We also visited a local craft beer establishment called Birretta? for some fine craft beers!

03/09/2024

Today was “Adventure Day” (actually every day traveling with Deb ends up being a bit of an adventure 🤪!)! We were trying to find this amazing outdoor modern art museum/installation called ArteSella. Quite stressful as we literally almost died - which totally added to the adventure (I guess). We almost had a head-on with a logging truck on the sketchiest gravel road I’ve ever driven on (I ended up having to back down a 100 ms or so with cliffs on either side). We were 2 valleys over (twice) as the GPS wasn’t at all accurate (as I teach in all my Avalanche courses, never rely on Electronic technology!! - 2 different GPS’ put us in 2 different valleys (yes lots of driving today). We eventually asked a librarian at a local library where this place was and he was super helpful (he even drew us a map) . Anyway, it was amazing (and was definitely worth the stress!)! The photos most likely won’t do it justice!!

02/09/2024

First things first… Thank you for the beta for today’s adventure (well for pretty much all the info for this part of the trip)! Today we explored the Asiago plateau (yes where the cheese comes from). We went up to the Monte Zebio - Il museo all’aperto (“They” recommended we not drive the road without a 4x4 - it was a winding yet straightforward gravel road 🙄). Super interesting World War I historical ruins that includes trenches and tunnels. It was a great way to spend the day (with some awesome cheese to take home).

01/09/2024

We are currently in Bassano del Grappe (famous for the liqueur) after a somewhat challenging night in Fiumicino. Had a bit of a Clark Griswold moment driving through the piazza looking for our AirBnB (pretty sure they don’t allow vehicles 😯) only a few tourists had to jump out of the way 🤣. We are the only ones that speak English - everyone else are Italian tourists. Horse meat is on the menu here and Deb is going to order it!! Day trips from here for the next few days. 💕

26/08/2024

I guess if you are only going to catch one fish (on a 4 wt fly rod no less ), it better be a big one (big enough to draw a crowd 😂).
And thanks Alberta Parks for having super accurate and up-to-date info on your trail reports website stating a specific trail was open when it was not!! 🤨 😡 🤬 🇨🇦