No Mints Adventures

This is really special hiking, unlike any you will find in our country. This particular region has trails through spectacular limestone towers and spires made possible by the use of wire ropes, rungs, pegs, and ladders which have been placed with great effort and skill on difficult, sometimes vertical rock, enabling even non-climbers to do routes which formerly were the domain of trained mountain climbers. For those of you who have never climbed mountains because you had neither the training or ability to do so ….. Well guys, here is your chance. The "Via Ferrata" routes were established close to a century ago to make the approach to many climbs possible. With the advent of WWI & WWII additional routes were established to facilitate the movement of troops through the mountains. We will base ourselves at a decent hotel in Cortina, rent a car, and head out each day to a different route.

Physical & Skill Level Requirements: (Moderate) The reason this is not considered an arduous or strenuous affair is because we will not have to carry any heavy packs due to the fact that we are staying in a nice hotel in Cortina. We will be carrying a day pack and some of the terrain will be quite steep and demanding. Anyone considering joining us on this trip should have a normal tolerance for heights. Even though we will be clipped into the various cables and ladders on the "Via Ferrata", some of the exposure can be quite substantial. If you have any kind of climbing experience at all, then you will find these routes quite doable. If you have any concerns about your ability to do this trip, get a hold of us, and we'll talk it over a bit.

What You Get for Your Money:

-- Our Charges: Your money pays for all the various expenses involved in running our web-site, mailing, printing, and phone costs, etc. In addition, we tend to act as guides ….although to consider us as professional guides is a bit of an exaggeration.

-- Your Other Expenses: The BIG one is flying to and from Europe from your hometown. Beyond that, you need to pay for your food, lodging, maps, and incidentals. Our car rental will add a bit to the cost of the trip. I would estimate that our daily costs will range between $100 & $150 depending on your appetite for fine or basic foods.

Sign Up Maximum and Minimum: The maximum number of hikers we can have for this trip is 10 including Margy and myself. When you sign up, indicate if you want to be placed on a stand-by list if the trip is full. For those of you who have never been on one of our trips, we would like to talk to you on the phone somewhere along the line before you are officially accepted.

Food: The food situation is pretty straight forward. Our hotel will provide us with breakfast as part of what we pay for lodging. Our lunches can be obtained at the super market down the street from the hotel or possibly at various huts that we will find along our "Via Ferrata" routes. For dinner, Cortina has a large array of restaurants as well as the super market for those on a budget. We will, of course always have some food in our day packs when we are hiking.

Information About You and Us! As a final word, participants must understand that this is not a commercial trip; you will not be supplied with the hand holding care that is generally given on "higher end" trips and therefore I expect most of our participants to be somewhat self-reliant individuals. Most of the trips tend to be of a unique nature that I seldom have done before and, sometimes, things go awry. Often these mishaps are my fault, sometimes they are beyond control. At any rate, I expect you to accept whatever unexpected and adverse conditions we meet with good humor and grace. Complaining to me about trivial annoyances is not acceptable. If you want and expect a trip that is tightly scheduled with little or no surprises or discomforts ….. this trip is not for you.

Credit and Debit Cards. When traveling, particularly overseas, we recommend that you carry both a credit card and debit card to pay for things and get cash. Changing cash overseas can be an expensive affair, but by using a debit or credit card, your rates are generally better when making currency conversions. You should have two cards, hopefully with different financial institutions, in case you have a problem with one of the cards. Credit and Debit card machines are found just about everywhere now days, with Visa having the better geographic coverage. Italy is on the Euro.

Travel and Medical Insurance: These are two items that some folks consider a necessity, others an unnecessary expense. If you cannot afford to have a change in your travel plans or cannot afford medical expenses outside the US, you might consider checking into both options. Diseases exist everywhere and accidents can happen at anytime. Keep in mind that we are usually not in much of a position to help you when it comes to serious accidents and medical problems. The following web site has a listing of several insurance companies, good for quick comparison shopping:

www.insuremytrip.com

-- 1. Email or Phone Us: - You can use the "Sign Up For A Trip !" or call 1-760-872-7630.

-- 2. Our Reply: - We will then reply, either to accept you on the trip, or possibly we might have a question or two for you first. If you have not traveled with us before, we will need to talk to you, so we'll give you a call.

-- 3. Money! After we have accepted you for the trip, we will ask that you send us a check for $200 U.S plus another $200 as a deposit on the car/van that we need to reserve well in advance.

Cancellations: It would be nice if you didn't cancel, but if you must, let me know as soon as you can. I will refund you the full $200 for running the trip. As for the $200 car deposit, I may or may not be able to give you a refund ….. But probably not.

Maps & Guide Books : To the side are recommended sources for the various maps and guide books that we might ask you to obtain for any of our trips. For this trip, you really don't need to obtain anything other than possibly a map to show you how to get to Cortina. I have already purchased a complete set of detailed maps for our Via Ferrata routes as well as a guide book. However, for those of you who simply must have your own, I've listed what you need. All these maps can be obtained from Omni Resources However it takes them about two months to get them all together and shipped to you. So order early if you plan to get your own.

Guide Book (Cicerone Press)

64-82961VF Via Ferratas of the Italian Dolomites: Vol 1

Hiking & Trail Maps (Tabacco):

64-8275-01 #1 Sappada-- S. Stefano

64-8275-03 #3 Cortina d'Ampezzo

64-8275-05 #5 Val Gardena

64-8275-06 #6 Val di Fassa

64-8275-07 #7 Alta Badia

64-8275-10 #10 Dolomiti di Sesto

64-8275-16 #16 Dolomiti del Centro Cadore

64-8275-17 #17 Dolomiti di Auronzo

Road Map: (Touring Club Italiano)

64-8271-04 Friuli/Venice (From Venice to Cortina)

Web Sites: Following is a list of various websites that we feel can help you in providing additional information for planning your trip with us.

-- Cortina Region Information: An excellent website with all sorts of information concerning Cortina and the surrounding area.

-- Hotel Montana: Our hotel for the duration of our stay in Cortina.

-- Personal Via Ferrata Guide: This is an excellent website by an individual that has done many of the Via Ferrata routes in the Cortina area. Good descriptions with pictures.

-- Ground Transportation to Cortina: I am assuming that most of you will fly into Venice as it has the fastest and shortest connection to Cortina from the airport. This site gives you all your options. I would recommend that you take the Cortina Express bus service as it will take you directly to Cortina without any confusing transfers. Other options are to take the train with one transfer by bus to Cortina.

Lodging Options: This will be one of the easier and more luxurious trips we have ever put on because we will simply stay in one hotel for the entire two weeks. Cortina is a pretty expensive little town to hang out in, so we have picked a somewhat affordable two star establishment located in the walking district in the center of town. The rooms will come with breakfast, so our other meals can be obtained by simply walking down the street to a store or restaurant. Details about the hotel and location will be found in the Itinerary near the bottom of this page. If any of you want to save money by camping, there is a campground at the edge of town ….. However for group cohesiveness, I would recommend staying at the hotel.

Equipment:

-- Normal Hiking Gear: Our requirements for the various days hikes are pretty simple; you will need a day pack, boots, and clothing for mountain conditions which can vary from bright warm days to rain and sleet conditions with high winds. You will also need a first aid kit, lunch, camera, etc.

-- Specialized Via Ferrata Equipment: This is the stuff that you really need to be able to transition from a trail hiker to a cliff scrambler. The items in order: ( 1 ) Rock Helmet, ( 2 ) Seat Harness, ( 3 ) Leather Gloves, and ( 4 ) a specialized Via Ferrata Lanyard. This lanyard is basically two pieces of webbing or rope that you attach to your seat harness. The lanyard is equipped with two over-sized carabineers that allow you to safely clip into the various cables and ladders that are attached to the various mountain sides and cliffs that we will be scaling. The lanyard can be home made or you can buy a ready made one similar to the picture to the right. I would recommend getting a ready made one that costs anywhere from $80 to $150. You can buy all this specialized gear in Cortina at the start of the trip or buy it in advance from Eastern Mountain Sports. Here is the link: Eastern Mountain Sports

No Mints Adventures

(Wayne Martin & Margy Marshall)

1335 Rocking W Dr. #390

Bishop, CA 93514

Phone: 1-760-872-7630

E-mail: nomints@opriusmail.com

Web : http://www.nomints.com

July 2 (Fri.) Cortina Tourist Day. We'll use today for snooping around town and planning. Margy and I will need to travel to the nearest large town to pick up our rental car/cars. We may need one of you to go with us as the rental agency has indicated that they will not rent me a car due to my advanced age. Quite a contrast, I can climb mountains and cliffs, but can't rent a car?

July 3 - 13 Via Ferrata Routes. We will spend the next 12 days driving to various Via Ferrata sites. I don't have a detailed daily itinerary as I feel it better to determine our routes after we have gotten together and get a feel for what most of you would like to do. Weather will have a bit to do with our choice of routes as well as the overall abilities of everyone in the group. I have personally done a few of the routes in the Cortina area , so will probably do some of them again.

July 14 (Wed.) Head for Home. This is the official end of the trip. Most of you should have time to catch a bus/train to Venice to catch an afternoon/evening flight home …… or possibly you might want to spend some extra time in Venice. Margy and I will be catching our own flight out of Innsbruck, Austria as we want to do a little extra sight-seeing.

July 1 (Thur.) Meet in Cortina d'Ampezzo . We will meet at 6:00 pm at the Hotel Meuble' Montana. You will have to make your own reservations for staying at this hotel, which can easily be done from their website. To save on costs, I would recommend that you share rooms by contacting others on the roster that I will send you. For most of you, this journey to Cortina will be the biggest challenge of the trip as Cortina is a relatively small town not served by airlines. Your best option to get there will be to fly into Venice's Marco Polo Airport and then take either a bus or a train/bus combination to get to Cortina which is located about 170 km north of Venice. My recommendation at this time is to catch a bus from the airport called the Cortina Express. Below are internet links to the information that you will need to get to Cortina. Once you get to Cortina, it is a 5 minute hike to the hotel, located next to the town's very large bell tower.