New Unit of Measure - The Dolomiti

Those of you that have visited glaciated valleys understand the basic U-shape.  Flattish valley floors, with steeply rising, near vertical walls.  Created by glaciers grinding downvalley scouring out the walls and flattening the valley floors. Not lots of these in Colorado, but then can be found.  Glacier Gorge (well duh) behind Longs Peak is a great example of a glaciated gorge.  One of my favorite stomping grounds.  The valleys around Riva del Garda are glaciated valleys as well. Flat valley floors with sidewalls rising ~2000m (~6600ft) on either side of the valley.

Having spent the last few days going up and down the sidewalls, today mt bike ride, I'm proposing a new unit of measure for adventure enthusiasts, the Dolomiti.  Basically one Dolomiti is 1500 m (4950 ft) of elevation gain.  Why 1500 m and not 1000 or 2000 m?  Fifteen hundred meters seems a reasonable amount of vertical to the reasonable ( I do mean reasonable, but others might substitute words like "sane" or "rational" but who is anyone to judge?) adventure enthusiast.  Good day running, road cycling (roughly a lap to Ward, maybe Brainard Lake) or enjoyable mt bike ride in Crested Butte (riding to 401 from Old CB).  Think of the interesting new conversations or more data driven friends could have.  :Wow, early season and I got a Dolomiti in.  Feeling kinda spanked though."  Later they may say, yeah, one Dolomiti seemed hard early season, but it's mid summer and I cranked two Dolomiti out today like it was nothing.  Then there are the fringe elements that think perhaps 3 Dolomiti is just the right event.  Counseling might be cheaper than all the sports drinks, bars, special shoes, packs, support crew, travel comes with said events.  Again, who's to judge?

Today's update is the outcome of good route guidance from locals (even thought they keep the best shit to themselves) and cool technology.  Based on Bill's research on local mt Bike web sites, we picked a route, downloaded the GPS GPX file to my phone and headed out for a day with a big climb and big descent, a 4 star ride in this area.

Not sure how long this ride would take us, guide say 4-6 hours, we left early, 8am (ok , not so early in mountaineering terms, but it is vacation)  to have plenty of daylight (nope no headlamps) and be off the mountain before it got to hot.  Casual 10km along the flat valley floor to Arco where we stopped to energize with croissants and cappuccino.  (Too early for Cafe's in Riva.)  

Bill and Holly ready for the day, minus the capucchino and croissant. 

You can't go anywhere without seeing some ancient castle thing hanging off a precipice. Jesse. 

Pretty great system of bike paths around here.  After a little topping off, we settled in for the long climb, one Dolomiti.

So how long does it take one to my bike up a Dolomiti?  Depends on road conditions, fitness, picturesque scenery, reading roadside historical markers :) etc. We figured were in it for 2 hrs. Some sights along the way include:

Casual rides through olive groves, vineyards, open forests and deep dark forests. 

Maybe a quint village with narrow streets. 

With postcard perfect homes. 

With a mix of the old (right) with the new ( left)

Halfway point. 

Two track through peaceful forests. 

Was the scenary mentioned?

Eventually reaching the high meadow at one Dolomiti. The ringing of cowbells in our ears. 

Not totally alone, a few riders were making there way through passes from valley to valley. 

After much climbing it was time to start the one Dolomiti (4950ft if you lost the conversion).  Let's' say it was a rockin decent. As in lots of rocks. Not sure but we were pretty certain the rocks were cobbles from an ancient route over the pass we stopped under. Needless to say, the photos slowed down do to hand fatigue and general giddiness of bouncing down. 

In the end it's all about the grapes here. Holly and Bill glad to be down. 

Like I said, it's all about the grapes here. 

By the way the day ended up 1.2 Dolomiti, you do the math.