Italy Finale

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.

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.

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

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.