languish meet in Italy : 7 - 11 May

[PDH]

Hehe, that altitude is just a bit higher than where I live.  7220 feet altitude, even Katmai survived here.

[katmai]

Hehe, that altitude is just a bit higher than where I live.  7220 feet altitude, even Katmai survived here.

I was born in city at 5,281 ft./1,609 m and lived in Breckenridge 9,603 ft./ 2,927 m

[PDH]

I was born in city at 5,281 ft./1,609 m and lived in Breckenridge 9,603 ft./ 2,927 m

I can make up numbers too.

[Barrister]

The Euros have been ordered...

[Valmy]

The Euros have been ordered...

Finally got some of those Ukrainian mail order brides eh?

[Barrister]

The Euros have been ordered...

Finally got some of those Ukrainian mail order brides eh?

And don't you dare tell my wife about it.

[Syt]

I think that they were worried that we (my wife was with me) were going to attempt the Corno Grande without any proper gear or preparation. The alpinistes gathered round us and long conversations about the strong wind and other dangers ensued. We assured them that the refuge was the highest point for our day's walk and that our next destination was the Campo Imperatore (there is a hotel there where Mussolini was freed from back in WW2, the Skorzeny thing), but I think they still thought we were raving eccentrics of the first calibre 

I have to dig up a colleague's photos of a group of Chinese in the Alps at 2500 m in winter, at subzero temperatures, wearing nothing business suits and shirts, not even buttoning their jackets.

[Tamas]

Is there a way to buy austrian and/or italian highway tickets online?

[Barrister]

What is a highway ticket? 

[Syt]

What is a highway ticket?

Road charge. Mandatory on Austrian Autobahn; tourists can get tourist versions that are valid a couple weeks.

[Tamas]

Pedrito, do you have any info on how to reach this hotel of ours? I need intel about the number of beds in the 3-bed rooms (2 or 3), to see if I can take up RH's offer on joining them.

[Pedrito]

Is there a way to buy austrian and/or italian highway tickets online?

In Italy there are no highway tickets, but a toll booth system: you take the ticket while entering the highway, and give it back (usually with a load of cash) to the operator (or to the counter) while exiting. There are automated doors that accept credit card payments, too.

L.

[Pedrito]

Ok, I've got some news from my sister, who was in Cortina last week:

there's still a lot of snow, the ski areas are still open and will close after Sunday, 19 april. This means that around that date all the cableways, chairlifts and most of the huts will close for off-season.
In the Cinque Torri and Falzarego Pass area there's an open air WWI museum that's open year-round, so this should definitely be the most interesting area: http://www.dolomiti.org/dengl/Cortina/laga5torri/estate/index.html. it's about half an hour by car from the town centre.

I've made a couple of calls to restaurants I know, but they all will be closed during our visit  : i'll look for other dining places, and keep you posted.

L.

[Richard Hakluyt]

bugger!

Didn't realise it would be so snowy up there so late in the season 

[Pedrito]

Usually it isn't, but this year it's been extremely snowy. Like that only the elder remember a winter like this.  And all I've got was one measly day of skiing during all the winter... 

But I'm confident that a couple of weeks of fine weather will speed up the melting, and the hike paths will be accessible. Sure, we'll have to bring our "backpack food" and could not count on hut restaurants. Hut restaurants, mmmmmhhhhh....

L.