What a weather. Anyone who has spent this July in the Alps can tell you a thing or two about it: It rains, rains, rains. Instead of hiking and climbing mountains every day, I end up spending most of my time waiting for better weather. And the weather forecast turns out to be completely useless: … Continue reading “Rainy summer in the Eastern Alps”
The scramble over the ridge of the Watzmann is probably the most beautiful mountain tour in Germany.
My walks through the Triglav National Park in the Julian Alps in Slovenia led to impressive views of rugged limestone mountains and small mountain lakes and along the beautiful mountain river Soča.
On the Sentier Martel through the “Grand Canyon of the Alps”, one of the deepest and most beautiful gorges in Europe (France)
Many of the deep lakes in the Alps are known to fill valleys that were once carved out by the glaciers of the ice ages. However, this is not the case with the lakes in the Southern Alps. Where Lake Como, Lake Lugano, Lake Garda and Lake Maggiore are located today, there were already deep … Continue reading “Lake Como”
5-day hike in Switzerland: Kandersteg via Oeschinensee, Blümlisalphütte, Sefinafurgga to Mürren (cable car); Kleine Scheidegg, Eigertrek, Grindelwald (cable car), First to Schynige Platte
The Brenta, the continuation of the Dolomites beyond the Adige Valley, is famous for the via ferrata that leads across it: the Sentiero Bocchette. However the summits are consistently bypassed, but it is a beautifully exposed path, from hut to hut over rocky ledges and up and down ladders. It consists of several sections, each … Continue reading “Brenta: Via Ferrata Sentiero Bocchette”
Footprints of reptiles in the Southern Alps (Trentino, Italy)
Two-week long-distance trek across the Dolomites
Hike to the most beautiful folds of the Alps, which not only gives insights into the geology of the mountains (folds, overthrusts, nappes), but also beautiful views of the mountains.
Trekking around the Mont Blanc massif: the Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB) is justifiably one of the best-known treks in the Alps.
Short geological excursion in Switzerland
The rocks of the Zermatt-Saas zone are an ophiolite, i.e. originally oceanic lithosphere (of the Penninic Ocean, the deep-sea basin of the Alpine Tethys). However, the unit is highly deformed, so that the normal sequence of serpentinite (mantle), gabbro, basalt and sediments cannot be found in one piece. Furthermore, they were metamorphosed (eclogite facies, retrograde … Continue reading “Zermatt-Saas Ophiolite (excursion)”
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