Trekking LAB

From Madonna di Campiglio you can take the cable car to reach Predalago, here you’ll find the pointer to Cima Zeledria, you need one hour to reach the peak and the route is hard enough, at the end of the trail there are some metal cables and a little ladder, harnesses are not mandatory however be careful!
Once reached the peak, where there’s an Italian flag, you can enjoy the landscape and four small lakes.

Now you can come back to the start and follow the pointer to “giro dei cinque laghi“, after an half hour of normal walk the trail becomes hard because is on landslides’ boulders, once again: be careful!

After ten minutes you will reach a crossroads, one path, with the pointer “giro dei cinque laghi“, rise the other one goes down, there is not pointer but is the correct way to the lake.

Again twenty minutes of hard trail and then the path becomes easy, after one hour
you will come in the wood, ten minutes an you’ll reach the Nambino Lake.
Here start the path that in forty minutes leads you to Madonno di Campiglio in front of the cable car start.

This is an hard hike, very hard the hike to Cima Zeledria, I suggest you to avoid the last one if you are not good hikers.

I’m very sorry for my bad English, every comment is welcome, if you need any advice to hiking in Italy contact me.

La Cima Zeledria e il Lago Nambino

Tent is the hiker’s home, the choice of this must be done carefully to avoid disagreeable situations.

Usually they are catalogued based on the employment for which they have been thoughts.
Here a list of main categories of tents you can found, I’ve omitted from this list tents not thoughts for hiking and trekking (like family tents ):

• Three-seasons tents, designed for mountain activities in summer, spring and fall seasons, not useful in winter.
• Four-seasons tents, usually they differ form three-seasons for more resistant poles designed to support the heavy snow and high winds
• Expedition tents, are designed for extreme conditions and base camps
• Lightweight tent, the best of engineering, are light but resistant to every weathers
• Bivy tents, minimalist, practically a cover for your sleeping bag

Once understood in which category will be our future tent, we will start to compare all models on the market, our choice will be based on several characteristics, the more important are: weight, dimensions, waterproof and, why not, the price.

Weight: remember that the tent will be on your shoulders for all the time you’ll walk, tents with separable shelters are better because you can divide it with who walks with you.

Dimensions: don’t care what says manufacturers,they are very generous when they have to declare how many people a tent contains. Vestibules can be usefuls to store the backpack, mountain boot, trekking poles and other things.

Waterproof: it comes measured in milimeter millimeter of water column the fabric resists, usually we have two values, one for the fly and one for the floor. I suggest you, if you are an hiker, at least 3000 mm for the fly and 4000 mm for the floor.

Price: the only way to safe money is choose a tent that you really need, don’t buy an expensive expedition tent to play in the garden with your childrens!

Ad ogni trekking la sua tenda

In 1969 W.L. Gore made for the first time this material.
Starting from the PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) aka Teflon, with a process similar to the ironing he obtained a material with a billion and four hundred million microscopical pores (diameter of approximately 0,0002 milimeter) for squared centimeter, these dimensions do not allow the molecule of the water to penetrate but allow watery vapor’s molecule ( seven hundred times smaller) to evaporate.

Gore-Tex is extremely delicate, it is usually coupled to an external material and one inner lining; this is the reason why on the market we find outdoor activity clothing made with Gore-Tex 2 layers, where the membrane comes only coupled to the external material and not to the inner lining, and made with Gore-Tex 3 layers, where the three materials are joined one with the other.
Gore-Tex 2 layers is lighter and softer, it’s the better choice for the city and sport activities.
Gore-Tex 3 layers is stronger and preferred in hard sport activities (like mountaineering).

Gore-Tex is waterproof and breathable fabric, is a good protection for the rain but not, as many erroneously believe, for the cold.

Gore-Tex

In May 2004 my companion and I started with Trekking LAB, an Italian web site about hiking and trekking, in January 2006 we switched Trekking LAB from web site to blog. Now the new challenge is to do the english version of our blog.