Day 3: WWI Bunkers, Mountain Goats and some bad Italian Today we awoke to perfectly clear blue skies. You can see for miles and there are mountains in every direction. We talked with the groomers and got everything all set for skiing the next couple of days. We are the only ones here for a few days cross country skiing, so we’ll have the track to ourselves. There are hundreds of downhill ski racers, though. Italy, Austria and a few other countries are having training camps for downhill ski training up on the glacier. For training today we decided to go on a hike/run. From our hotel you can see trails in every direction. We are well above tree line so you can see where all the trails zig-zag all of the peaks surrounding us. It is an adventurers dream. We found a trail that we could see winding it’s way up to the peak and set out on it. We made it to the peak to find a very large cross on top. Most peaks in Italy have crosses on top of them. Then we cut down the back side of the peak to another peak, we proceeded to go from ridge-line to ridge line and peak to peak. Along the way we would run into old World War One bunkers made out of rock. They were amazing. They blended in so well and were built really well too. They were all along the tops of the peaks and the ridges and some bunkers that run the length of them too. We found out later that there are even tunnels that were built from the valley floor into the mountain and all the way up to the top. Pretty amazing how they built everything. We also ran into some local wildlife. We don’t often see any wildlife in Europe, so when we do it’s a real treat. We saw mountain sheep that were different from anything that we have in the states. Their body and face looked similar to that of a Big Horn Sheep, but their horns looked like that of a gazelle. The horns were really thick and quite big. It was really impressive to see them scale the sides of the mountains. After our hike we went to lunch and had an amazing meal of pasta and meat. The pasta is always cooked to perfection. During the meal BethAnn decided to try out some Italian on the waiters who speak very little English. She has been carrying around a phrase book and has bravely tried a few things out here and there. She tried to say “The food is really good” but whatever she was saying they didn’t like so well, so they told us a more correct phrase and we all got a good laugh at the attempted Italian. In the afternoon we ran down to the little village and checked out the venders who were selling all types of nick-nacks. The worst of them was a “whistle pig” or rock chuck stuffed animal that would whistle when you went by it. After a while the whistling got really annoying. We also made our way to a small museum which outlined the history of the region during the war and it’s famous stage of the Tour d’Italia. Day 4: Palma-lifts, Glacier Skiing & Rally Car Roller-loops Today was our first day skiing on the glacier. We take the gondola up from our hotel to the base of the glacier. Then we take a palma-lift up midway up the downhill runs and then traverse the glacier to the back side where the Nordic trails are. Before the start of the day I knew this was going to be an adventure because just getting to the trails was going to be fun. I’d never been on a palma-lift before or what we like to call it- the “pummel lift”. For those Coloradans like myself who aren’t familiar with one it is a bar with a disk at the bottom with a retractable cord. The lift attendant grabs it and pulls it down and you place the disk between your legs and sit on it and it pulls you up the hill. When you get to the top you let go and it retracts back up to the overhead cable. It’s similar to a T-bar which I’d seen before, but nothing like a cushy chair lift I’m used to. We get up to the lift and put our skis on and I’m watching all these little kids grab the bar and then head off up the hill. Dave goes, then a small kid, then Lanny is up next in line. Lanny kept having to wait because the kid kept falling. It began to make me nervous. Maybe this wasn’t going to be so easy after all. So Lanny was then handed her bar and was off. I’m hoping the lift attendant waits a bar in between Lanny and I so I can get my bearings, but he grabs it shoves it between my legs and says “huppa” with a smile. I’m then jerked forward and am speeding downhill… downhill? I thought the lift was supposed to go uphill. My skis are gaining some speed and I look up in time to see Lanny splayed out on the ground. The lift attendant is yelling at her to let go of the bar and come back to get another one, but she’s determined to hang on. She quickly gathers her things and stands up before she gets dragged. Then it’s my turn to go on my butt. I had gained so much speed that the cable is far behind me and when it reaches the end of the line it pulls me abruptly backwards. I definitely wasn’t ready for that. So, after a quick recovery I’m up on my feet again and moving forward. This time I’m vowing to not get ahead of my cable. I spent the rest of the ride up the hill laughing at myself, what a blast. Too bad no one got a picture of Lanny and I on the ground. We then got up to the point where we cut across to the cross country trails. There were a few downhill runs between us and the trails and we had to cross them. There were racing gates set up on some of the runs with downhill skiers flying through them at blazing speeds. We mistakenly made it to a section where we can’t see the top of the downhill run to see the skiers start and they can’t see us. We are just over a rise. What a stupid mistake that was. So, we wait and wait to go right after a skier, but they don’t come, so we decide to just go for it. I go first with BethAnn right behind me. She’s just a few feet behind me but a downhill skier goes between us. What a close call that was. We finally make it over to the cross country trails, thankful that our adventure is over and start our ski. The trails are awesome. They wind back and forth across the glacier and there is 5 kilometers in all. We finished our ski and decided to go look at the view on the other side of the mountain. We are right near the top and there is a short trail and bench. We walk up to the top and are greeted with a very humbling view. There is no other side of this mountain, it drops straight down. When you see something like that it makes you feel very small in the world. We then gathered our things and skied down the downhill run getting in a lot of downhill turns, it was a blast. In the afternoon we drove down to the town of Bormio. The drive to Bormio is on the other side of the pass we arrived on the previous day, but it is no less windy. There are a total 38 switch backs on this side of the pass and numerous tunnels that are very dark and only wide enough for one car. We were driving through one of them with about 4 ski club vans behind us and came head to head with a car going the other directions. It turned into a stand off. The vans behind us started to honk and wave for the car to back up, but the car seemed unwilling. They did manage to move over to the side of the tunnel as far as they could while scraping the paint off of their Audi and Dave very carefully maneuvered our rental past with only and inch on either side to spare. We’re not sure how the vans were going to make it past. Quite an interesting road. In Bormio we met up with Nickola, our local contact, who we’ll be staying with next week. His cousin owns the hotel we are staying at on the top of the mountain. He’s a very nice Italian with crushing hand shake. After meeting with him we made our way to the biathlon venue, which consists of 8 biathlon targets and about 10 kilometers of paved rollerskiing that was designed by an Italian Indy car driver. There are a few downhill turns which are quite frightening on rollerskis without brakes. The track is a rollercoaster for sure. After the Rollerski we drove up the 38 switch backs to the top of the pass. Since we were later than 5 o’clock, the gondola was closed and we had to hike with our guns and backpacks up to the hotel.