Italy Finale

EvanSeptember 29, 2011
Our last day in Italy was upon us before we knew it: two weeks can really fly by. We decided to go big and go home, setting out on a 20 kilometer hike from Schlinig, Italy to Sur En, Switzerland. The hike took us through the infamous Uinaschlucht, a gorge with a smuggler’s route carved into the cliff walls.
Coach Beckwith has got map fever right now: here he plots out the route before our departure from Schlinig.
Confident that we know our way, he drives the van back out the valley. We’ll see you in Switzerland!

The peaks of the Ortler range were snow capped, but it was 70 and sunny down here in the valley.

Right before the major climb in the hike, we stopped for a “rock on” pose in front of the waterfall. It was somewhere around here that we decided that this was the best day ever.

It was great to have our favorite Frenchman back from training in Austria with the biathletes.

It’s tough to find words to describe how beautiful it was here.

Fitzy lugs her camera gear and extra clothes up the mountain. She took a lot of great photos on this trip. Some have made their way onto the blog, others are sure to debut on Facebook in the next few days.

Dev takes a moment to reflect on where he’s been.

Once we climbed up over the waterfall, it was all downhill to Switzerland in this high alpine valley. 

To the Uinaschulcht we go!

Toine is always an enthusiastic photo subject.

We tried to kill some time on the way to the Uinaschlucht, so we hiked up this ridge on the side of the trail. 

Looking down on Antoine from the ridge.

The Halvorsen siblings are interviewed by Antoine (not pictured) about the hike.

Heading into the gorge. The river is close to the trail at the top, then quickly drops deep into the slot canyon.

The group stayed together for the whole hike, up from Schlinig, down through the Uinaschlucht and out the other side: this was an awesome way to wrap up a fantastic camp.

Someone came into this valley and said, “I think i’ll cut a two-kilometer long path into the side of this cliff. By hand.”

The cliffs drop off close to 100 meters into the abyss below.

It was an unbelievable camp in Italy: we had fantastic weather, a variety of great training, awesome food, and hospitality that we can only hope to replicate in the spring. Thank you to everyone who made it possible for this trip to happen!

Evan





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