Month: January 2019

Today we got a bit of a late start, but what’s the rush when you’re warm and have breakfast waiting for you downstairs?! After breakfast I think it’s safe to say that the amount of food we ate in the past three meals would have sustained us for almost a week on trail. And of course we took some extra for the road…

We found the trail that we were to stay on for the rest of the day and began our ~1000 meter descent! This walk was an incredible relief after the past couple days. Even when there were no other footprints the snow was shallow and/or hard enough that we didn’t have to expend a ton of energy with every step. While we walked down we noticed the snow thinning, and this gave us that Spring-like feeling of survival, hope, and expectation of what is to come. This combined with the wonderful views of the mountains we were headed towards and the city in the valley below made today a very pleasant walk. Add to that the fact that we were going down instead of up and not even the cows giving us territorial stares could kill our vibe today.

Once we reached a level where the snow was sparse we changed from our boots into our sandals, giving us much relief. For myself it was particularly freeing as my achilles has been in a good amount of pain the past few days. The intensity was certainly lessened with the softness of the snow, but the pain was apparent on roads and even lying in bed at times. I hurt much less while wearing my sandals, and I think the fact that they are very minimalistic and allow my foot to take a near-natural stride is the key ( not to get too Born to Run on you 😉 ).

We strolled into town (Castiglione di Sicilia), which we had a view of most of the day. Our plan was to stock up on food before heading back up into the Peloritani mountains, where we will be unable to resupply for several days. We didn’t realize that the supermarkets here are closed after noon on Wednesdays. It was getting late, so once again we decided to get a room in order to get to the store first thing in the morning and hit the trail! We aren’t complaining about having to sleep in a bed before heading back out for another mountain adventure.

See more photos/videos on Facebook here

And even more on IG here: www.instagram.com/jaredturtlechip

Hiking stats.

We started this day a bit refreshed, with dry clothing and warm bones, due to our fortunate shelter for the night. But we knew that we still had at least one more tough day in front of us before getting off of the mountain. We typically get started walking around 7 am, but our game plan was to start at 6 in order to potentially utilize the frozen snow to walk on. We didn’t get started until 6:25 and were SOL as far as the snow went. We began our slow climb with headlamps on, post-holing every step of the way.

While we are following the official and way-marked E1 trail, the signs are sometimes hard to find. Get up high in the alpine environment, where all you see is snow-covered lava rock, and finding your way comes down to mostly intuition and experience. We had a hard time finding our way this morning, especially in the dark, and the idea was thrown out there to bail off the mountain into the nearest town. We put off discussing it until, with the help of Björn’s GPS, we finally found our way back on trail in the woods. There we discussed the pros and cons of heading down for the day, and we ultimately decided against it. Today was just one of those days you have to get through to get through, ya know?

I led most of the day, creating the footsteps for Björn to step in and save energy; Björn took over at times and gave me some relief. We climbed up to our highest point of the day at 1723 meters. On the way we had little water, so I scooped some of the snow that was actively falling and put it in my mouth every couple of minutes. My hamstrings had hints of cramping but I held them off. When we got to our high point, it was all worth it and we were both thankful that we pushed through.

Some relief came on our descent, and at times the snow was frozen so we could walk on top! Eventually we saw the first face we’d seen in two days: a man snowshoeing (how nice that would have been). He told us we were getting close to the refugio (a bar/hotel type) and even took a selfie with me when I told him what we were doing.

Around an hour later, at 1 pm, we finally reached “civilization”. Still at around 1400 meters, there were lots of skiers and cars, as well as a couple restaurants and refugios. We both ate an incredible amount and decided on getting a room instead of descending for the remaining 20 km to the next town. It felt nice to shower and we essentially just laid in bed until dinner time, where we gorged ourselves again.

If there is no other reason to hike long distances and deprive yourself of most modern comforts, the great appreciation for things like a warm meal or shower make it all worth it, even if just for a moment.

To check out some videos and pictures, see the Facebook photo album

See other pictures at www.instagram.com/jaredturtlechip

Hiking stats can be found here.

Zero-day @ hostel

Today we had a 21.5 km flat road-walk. It was a kinda not interesting. Luckily we found a short-cut into town, went to Decathlon to buy some stuff and checked in at the hostel we already stayed at last week. If you ever come and visit Catania, this hostel is the place to stay. Friendly staff and affordable prices in the center of town. Check it out: ostello degli elefanti

The first shower for a week was a blessing! Tomorrow we take a day off before we go and climb Etna.

Last night was cold, well below freezing. But we had to get out of our sleeping-bags and start walking. Our first 2.5 hrs was walking in the shade of the mountains around us in the valley. It was beautiful but as there was no sunshine it was cold all morning, even the water in my drinking bottle froze. At around 10 a.m. we hit the 100 km mark of our adventure and we were pretty excited about it. Afterwards we had some uphill hiking and finally got out of the shade into the warming sun. After climbing to the highest point south of Etna we walked for about another 10 km to find our home for the night in an abandoned locker-room at an abandoned sports-park. We enter the building through a hole in the wall; a bit creepy but that’s just how livin’ is done!

As always, for pictures visit www.instagram.com/jaredturtlechip #thatshowlivinisdone

And for all you stat-freaks, click here.

Today we started at 7:15 a.m. and had a nice morning walking in the woods with beautiful scenery. After walking through the old town of Noto yesterday we passed through Ancient Noto this morning, a town dating back all the way to the 11th century but was destroyed in an earthquake in the 17th.

We had some river-crossings in ice-cold water and we handled them like men 😀

After 34 km we pitched our tents between some orange trees a little offside the road.

For pictures click here. #thatshowlivinisdone

Hiking stats can be found here.