“Nur die harten kommen in den garten” (only tough guys get into the garden). With this Teutonic exhortation the guide leads us – a group of “soft Scottish mens” – up into the mountains of the South Tirol for a week-long trek around the Sarntal (or Sarentino) Valley.
Our collective mountaineering level amounts, approximately, to the endurance required to huff and puff up a few munros. But we have previously undertaken one Alpine trek together. That was six years ago in the North Tirol – on the Austrian side of the border – when our average age was 40 and we took to the hills to shake off a collective midlife crisis.
Now we’re back, this time on the south side, technically in Italy, but still noticeably Austrian in its mountain culture. National distinctions are only a part of the complexity. The Tirol is a mosaic of valleys, self-enclosed with their individual dialects; worlds unto themselves.
The Tirolean Alps are young mountains – a mere 160 million years old – which is why their peaks are high. They are pimply adolescents next to the Grampians of Scotland, which are geologically ancient at 470m years old, worn down by eons of deep time.
As we inch round a shoulder of the Penser Joch Pass and reach Rifugio Santa Croce Di Lazfons, a mountain hut whose small chapel was built in 1860 on the ruins of a 16th-century pilgrim church. To our left, we look out on what must be one of the most impressive geographical sights in Europe: the Dolomites, rising like the spikes of a grey geological eruption from green surrounding hills.
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I am Jeff Clark, founder of Internet Brothers, producer of this blog, and passionate about hiking. I live in Western NC near the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains. Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests are just out my door, so the content will focus on these areas, but let me know what you would like to see on the site. 
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