Peaks and Chapels

A Trip to the Dolomites

Article

And

Photographs by John Nilsson

Chapel at the beginning of the trail to reach Tre Cime peaks and the Cimi Grand de Lavaredo Pass.

About a year ago I was paging through my emails and ran across a spectacular video prepared by DJI featuring their newest drone and an incredible flight through the peaks of the Italian Dolomites. I attached a link to the video and sent it off to my friend and fellow SCCC member Tom Loucks suggesting that we must do this trip. Tom told me he had taken a workshop in the Dolomites several years prior and was dying to go back. He raved about this program that was put together and guided by Hans Kruse, a resident of Copenhagen, who has made quite a name for himself for workshops throughout Europe. A couple of phone calls later we found ourselves booked on the May, 2024 Hans Kruse Photography Workshop to the Dolomites! Deposits were sent, tickets were purchased, and we started talking the trip up to our mutual friends – all SCCC members from the Denver area. Before we knew it we learned we would be joined by Wiebe Gortmaker and his wife Terri, and Basil Katsaros and Paula Vonlindern. The trip was comprehensively and minutely planned by Hans down to the hour and there was little for us to do but get to Italy.

I challenged myself to pack everything I needed for 14 days on the road in just one carry-on bag as I did not want to risk the chance of losing my stuff through checked luggage. With a little thought and creativity, I was able to get everything including a sturdy tripod into a bag that just barely fit in the overhead. That left me with only an underseat bag for my camera equipment – not an easy task. Something (almost everything) in my standard camera kit had to go. Finally, I found an acceptable solution: My Sony a1 body, with an old Sony backup body, my 1235mm Sony G Master wide angle and a new 50-400mm lens just introduced by Tamron. The lens is smaller, lighter, and sharper than my Sony 70-200 G Master and turned out to be the absolute perfect lens for landscape applications short of wide angle. That lens stayed on my camera 90% of the time. I’d venture a guess that 60% of that time the lens was set at 50mm. The Tamron is super sharp and very light, has great feel, and was had for a ridiculously low price. The whole kit including the two lenses and the two bodies fit easily into a SMedium Peak Design Camera Cube, which in turn fit into a small backpack, which in turn slid nicely under the seat in front of me in Economy Class. Problem solved. And, I came back with everything I left home with!

After what seemed an interminable wait filled with anticipation, I found myself on a Delta flight to JFK, connecting to Venice, Italy. I met Tom at the Venice airport the next day where we rented a car for the three-hour drive north. Tom had arranged for all six of us SCCC members to stay the first two nights at two high-mountain huts: Utia de Borz, and

Rifugio Fermeda Hutte. These were located an hour apart but very near the first meeting place of the workshop. As we were about a week before the mountain hut season, we enjoyed being some of the few guests at these rustic ski- in/ski-out facilities. Both huts were comfortable and modern, and the food was outstanding.

The Fermida Hutte at the top of the Col Raiser lift, was especially memorable. Alena, her husband, and their high-school aged son, live onsite year-round, and bent over backwards to be certain we were pampered beyond reproach. Unfortunately, our eagerness to photograph the experience was hampered by heavy low clouds and intermittent rain – a malady that plagued us the next few days.

After the hutte experience we were off to our first residence base. The Hotel Adler is a small, intimate lodge just outside of Nova

Levante, owned and operated by an older couple and their son, Werner. Werner attended to our every need and acted as waiter/busboy for all meals. If anyone had a question the answer was “Just ask Werner.” This delightful guy must have had a PhD in local geology and just about everything else. When the question was asked, “Werner, what kind of rock makes up all the jagged peaks we have seen,” he went on for almost half an hour. The guy knows his stuff!

Hans had been at the Hotel Adler many times with his workshops. The lodgings were firstclass and the food was world-class. As our stay at the Adler was paid by Hans through our workshop fees, we enjoyed copious wine at dinner and a wonderful five-course menu prepared by the 80-year-old owner and his wife. We never had to take out our billfolds or pull out a single Euro! The Hotel Adler was well located for the photo goals of the first half of our workshop. Each day we rose at 4-5 AM and stayed out most of the day, into sunset, seeing just about every photogenic spot within 50 miles of the lodge. Fortunately, the terrible rainy weather that kept us frustrated during the first few days of the trip yielded to sun and outrageously beautiful skies. The evening meals were served at 8:30, our wine glasses were constantly full, and great conversation with the other eleven members of our group kept us up until 11:00 each night. I think I got only 4- 5 hours of sleep each night of the nineday workshop!

Near the Hotel Adler our photo ops were mainly of small, picturesque towns, each with two to three dramatic churches, dairy land hosting thousands of goats and dairy cows, and rural mountain chalets, each with their own barns and farm equipment. A highlight of this part of the workshop was the opportunity to shoot stunning Lago di Carezza, a small alpine lake, located only a few miles from the hotel, in perfect late afternoon as well as perfect early morning light.

After five nights of absolute luxury we moved on to the Hotel Villa Argentina just outside of Cortina d’Ampezzo, the major ski facility in Italy sporting hundreds of ski lifts in an area many times the size of Mammoth and Vail put together. This was a larger hotel with many guests and the tourist season was just getting into full tilt.

The roads were full of traffic, accented by thousands of motorcycles and bicycles. Nowhere was there a straight road longer than 50 yards. Our efforts to reach our photo shoots were punctuated by interminable corkscrew two-lane switchbacks filled with roaring clusters of racing motorcyclists. I’m still amazed that we never witnessed the carnage

that I expected!

Over the next four days around Cortina d’Ampezzo we experienced high mountain passes with spectacularly rugged mountain scenery and mystically beautiful high mountain lakes. I confess that I saw so many incredible photo ops that I completely lost track of names and locations. Everything ran together in a mishmash of wonderful experiences.

Back at the hotel each night we continued to enjoy wonderful prepaid meals and, once again, the never-empty wine glass and very little sleep! Never once was I asked to come up with a nickel (Euro) while on Hans’ workshop. I was fearful of getting back to LA and finding I had gained ten pounds but it seems we were so active each day that I never added an ounce! This is indeed the way to

travel in Europe!

On the final morning of the workshop – after a final breakfast following a final 4 AM shoot we all said “good-bye” to Hans and our four foreign workshop friends on the expansive front lawn of the Hotel Villa Argentina.

Basil, Paula, Wiebe, Terri, Tom and I had one final adventure.

After a forty-five-minute drive we arrived at the base of the thrilling Funicular Lagazuoi which was to be our conveyance to the mountaintop Rifugio Lagazuoi. This cable car is literally straight up from the base terminal gaining over 3,000 feet to the clifftop Rifugio. There were no supporting towers – only a cable and a lot of air! I am told Lagazuoi, is the highest hutte in Europe and believe me, it’s impressive!

The mountain top was used as a defensive position for the Italian Army during WWI when they were trying to keep the Austrians from taking over the country. The top of the mountain is filled with memorials and pillbox caves where the Italians rained artillery shells on the Austrian invaders. Unfortunately, I don’t know much about the conflict except that the Italians were obviously successful in the defense of their homeland! The views were a hundred miles in all directions. The Rifugio was crowded but wonderful and the food was, once again, remarkable.

I have included only a few of my favorite photographs with this article. It was difficult to narrow my “selects” down to just these few. As I confessed earlier, I am unable to specify where most were taken as there were just so many photo ops. Generally speaking all photos were taken within a hundred squaremiles with Cortina d’Ampezzo at its center. These are generally in the order in which they were taken over the eleven-day workshop plus Rifugio experience. If you’d like to see more Dolomite photos, Hans has prepared a slide show featuring a selection of the photos taken by all participants in our group. The link to this slide show is https://www.dropbox.com/ scl/fi/f2l00xbt9gzbkb1qzh2mo/DolomitesJune-2024- slideshow.mp4? rlkey=tbg9vspk2hhltlxxkxltopgag&dl=0

This was the trip of a lifetime. Kudos to our leader Hans Kruse www. hanskrusephotography.com. He made sure through experience and careful planning that our trip would be comfortable and offer amazing photo opportunities. I’d recommend any of Hans’ trips which, in addition to being totally fool-proof, are priced to give full value. The cost of this trip to me was only $2,495 and included luxury lodging, fabulous meals, copious wine and, of course, Hans’ faultless experience and planning. My only additional cost was my plane fare and half the cost of a rental car. Better yet, there were no hidden or unexpected “surprises.” The weather, after the first few days was spectacular, and the general travel experience was truly memorable. The autostradas are remarkably smooth and wellmarked and signaled. Even the cork-screw secondary roads and unpaved single lane roads we visited were meticulously maintained. From Venice north to the Dolomites and back to Venice I failed to find a single errant piece of trash. The people we met were friendly and helpful and wouldn’t think of making us try to communicate in anything other than English. No one would take a tip. I don’t know how they make everything so perfect!