All Public Logs

First road bike of the year - out of shape and out of practice! Headed off from Eric's house with Eric, Romaine, Gilly and Padhraig via tibradden road to glencullen and back via Kilternan. 22km - felt a hell of a lot longer.

Lovely hike with Jules, Karen D, Dermot and Declan. Had a nice early start - cold and windy day but clear and beautiful views. Need to get a lot fitter if I'm to keep up with those guys!

Hiked up Brockagh with Rebecca - fairly miserable weather to be honest.

The end of the busy week at madesimo, with most of the Milanesi heading back home. Cloud covered for most of the day, and snowing a little on and off all day long. Perfect for reducing the crowds of people at the snow slopes. We had the place nearly to ourselves for the day :-)) Jeff, me, Serena, her Dad, and a guy called Natale. Gili was there for a short while too. Good snow conditions on piste, although off piste is sadly still very thin! Wonderful day skiing!!!

Strong winds up high with loads of fresh snow fall yesterday meant it was too dangerous to do a skitour today, and the pistes were to be crowded with Milanesi, and Val di Lei closed due to high winds, so Jeff and I headed to Maloja for a day of XC skiing. Really lovely day. We went up as far as possible in Valle del Forno, but turned around shortly after the trail stopped being packed because we would have had to go too close to the base of a dodgy looking slope, especially after hearing the whoompf of snow pack collapsing somewhere nearby. %-( We then took the trails past maloja to the lake and along that for a while. Tired legs at the end of it all. Happy days...

Spent the morning/afternoon with serena skiing in Val di Lei in pretty awful conditions, with such flat light making it impossible to see the terrain. Adventure skiing! There was almost nobody else there though, and the snow was pretty good so we had a great laugh and a good ski :-)

Wonderful day with Jeff, Mauro, Bizio, Seba, Serena, Davide, Gilli and Fabio. From Montespluga up to near the top of Tamborello. We turned around after just under 2,5 hrs because the conditions were dodgy and we heard a large collapse of snow pack somewhere nearby. We were able to follow a crest up and down to stay out of danger, but none of the gullies were safe to ski in which was a shame. I'm very slowly getting the hang of this ski-touring business...

Spent our first day back in Italy skiing at Madesimo. Not too crowded because the weather was bad. Lucky for us. The snow was pretty good so had a brilliant day skiing. Bumped into nearly everyone we know on the slopes today :-)

Nice hike with the family, the Flangans and a few others from the Pierce (?) gates to Lough Dan and back. Easy going, nothing very long, but enjoyable al the the same, with great company :-)

Jeff and I took a few hours in the middle of the work day to go skiing at Madesimo. Mid week, so very few people there :-) Pretty good snow, and a great few hours skiing :-)

After a pretty leisurely breakfast at Campodolcino we got back on the slope of Madesimo. The season is soo late this year it's crazy! Very little snow of the pistes!

First day skiing this year! Late!!!! But great to be back :-) Stayed the night up at Campodolcino with Pozzo and Cami.

Fun ride in the bitter cold with Serena and Davide Gili starting at Spino up to a couple of km past Maloja and back again. Very late in the year for road biking but the snow is so late this year!

An after lunch hike from the dogana up towards Passo del Turbine (until Preginal 1650m). A spectacularly beautiful hike, with lots of wide open views of the valley and the Badile mtns. It's a steep climb!

Nice Autumn/Winter walk with Jeff from Chiavenna up to Pianazzola to San Carlo and back to Chiavenna. Two tired beans after a long tiring week in Genova for my physio course...

A weekend out of town with jeff, spent up around Val Codera. After the steep path up to Codera (~1,30hr), it's pretty easy going until Rif Brasca (2hr). Then it's a steep climb up to Biv. dei Valli (1,30hr).No-one else up there -) fantastic views, with snow above the Biv. Cold, and at this time of year the Biv. is in shade for the whole day!

Lovely evening playing cards in the hut and drinking tea -) The hut doesn't have a stove but has comfy wide bunks with loads of covers. Water source right outside...

A gorgeous day with Cami hiking from Isola up to the lake and then looping back down the west side of the valley. Spectacular views all the way down the valley past Chiavenna. Met "the old man of the goats" our chatting to his goats :-) Snow at the level of the lake and above. Cardinello: Isola (mottaletta) - lago: 1,30 hr

A beautiful clear, cool, autumn day. Jeff was nursing a cold on the couch and everyone else was busy when I last minute headed up to montespluga at noon for a hike. There's a couple of inches of snow already on all the northern mountain faces, while the sunny sides remain clear. I took the usual trail up to Cecchini hut in Val Loga and had a late lunch at the top. Not a breath of wind :-) I came down on the trail in the next valley over to arrive at the damn and then walk around the lakeside trail back to the car. Lovely exposed trail with amazing views down Valle spluga.

Times: up to hut: 2hrs Hut to damn: 1,55hrs Damn to car: 35mins

With the lovely Marica :-)

Nice couple of slab routes with Mauro and Jeff up at Bianco before dinner. Getting dark at 7.30pm now!

Another gorgeous day- can't get over this weather! Spent the day up in Switzerland Mountainbiking with Jeff. Started at Celerina (free carpark) and cycled up for 2,15hrs to above Corviglia (dirt road). Then an amazing exposed traverse on single track trail to the Passo Suvretta (30mins) Followed by 45 mins of wonderful , often technical single track downhill until you hit another valley to take a dirt road cruising downhill the rest of the way to the road at Bever, and back to Celerina. Absolutely beautiful ride, exhausting, with a bit of everything for everyone!

Glorious weather. Can't believe it's the first of October! Went o lovely long hike with Jeff, Bizio and Fabio from Starleggia up to the summit of Pizzo Bardan, passing Pian dei Cavalli on the way up (our fist time there!). Wonderful hike. Starleggia to Lago Bianco :1,30hr

Lovely walk with Jeff from Gordona (left the car at the church and then follow yellow markers on buildings etc) up to the Torre. best not to go on a weekend day again because the go-cart track is in full swing and pretty noisy. Beautiful trail, flat at first then quite steep for the the rest. Fantastic views from the top.

Hike with Jeff from Cino up the the top of Monte Bassetta. Beautiful trail. Pretty consistently steep the whole way up and down. Lovely views, of the lake , and back towards val Codera and Valle dei Ratti.

Intended on going mountain biking with Dan up at maloja, but got as far as promontogno and saw that the pass was deep in snow after the rain over the weekend! So we went for a hike from Soglio up to the Plan Vest. Spectacular views of Badile etc covered in snow.

Loads of snow!!!! Dan and I headed up, dressed for the winter! A nice little adventure :-)

Jeff and I headed up from St Moritz biking in a clockwise direction this time, to cycle up the dirt road (circa 1hr) to the top (tough slog!), and then down the fantastic single track trails back to town. (45mins circa)

Jeff and I made our way up from the bivi at the dam to the base of Biopfeiler (circa 1hr15m). Beautiful weather. Fantastic route! Amazing rock and beautiful cracks. Bring cams. 250m (7/8 L) the guide topo is all messed up unfortunately.

Got first funivia up to the dam with Jeff and left our stuff at a bivi site, then made our way over the base of Balzetto. I for some reason was suffering from weird vertigo since waking up that morning, and probably shouldn't have gone climbing, but it had mostly gone by late morning. 8 pitches of really fun climbing (Via Spidi) on lovely rock, and then the guide says you can climb 400m of Grade 2/3 rock to the summit. We climbed the first 8 pitches pretty fast, and then things got a bit confusing. After about 100m of dodgy simul climbing on quite slippy rock (from moss) we got onto the ridge line proper. We simul climbed mostly, but did have to pitch some super exposed bits higher up (that were harder than grade 2/3). At one point there's a fantastic exposed knife edge ridge line to climb :-) Once you reach a summit (not the real summit!) you have to traverse down around the left side of it until you find a rap station on the other side of it. (We rappelled with 2 60m ropes, maybe one would do). Then scramble to the top of the real summit and over the other side to find a second rappel (very short- one rope). Walk across to a third smaller summit and around to the left of it to find a third rap station (30m). After this it's a scramble down a short gully (or a rappel of just less than 30m). And a hike down to the rifugio and down to the dam. (Times recorded are guesstimates:after the pitched climbing at the start it took longer than expected but can't remember exact times)