avatarAnne Bonfert

Summary

Anne Bonfert documents a week-long high alpine hiking trip in the Alps through a photo-a-day challenge, capturing the beauty of nature and the challenges of the terrain.

Abstract

In a personal essay, Anne Bonfert shares her experiences from a week spent hiking in the high alpine terrain of the Alps. She details the journey from her early morning flight to the various mountain cottages she and her husband visited. Alongside her husband and parents, Bonfert encounters marmots, captures the elusive Edelweiss, and endures challenging trails, all while taking over 100 photos a day, selecting one per day for the essay. The narrative is interwoven with reflections on the sounds of rain, the relief of reaching a destination, and the joy of rare natural sightings. The essay culminates in an invitation for others to join the photo-a-day challenge, emphasizing the transformative power of photography and nature.

Opinions

  • Bonfert expresses a sense of peace and contentment while drinking wine and listening to her husband study amidst the sound of rain.
  • She conveys a deep appreciation for the alpine environment, noting the beauty of the landscape and the wildlife they encountered, such as marmots and the Edelweiss flower.
  • The author holds a reverence for the Edelweiss, viewing it as a symbol of alpinism and a sign of the effectiveness of conservation efforts.
  • There is a sense of accomplishment and relief when reaching destinations after long and sometimes treacherous hikes.
  • Bonfert's mother's skepticism about the frequency of Edelweiss sightings adds a personal family dynamic to the adventure.
  • The author describes the night sky photography experience as enchanting, despite the initial challenge of navigating through rocky terrain and steep descents
Credit: Anne Bonfert

PHOTO-A-DAY CHALLENGE

One Week of Living in High Alpine Terrain

Week 109 of the photographic documentary of my daily life

It’s raining. I’m drinking a glass of white wine while writing this past week’s photo essay. My husband is sitting next to me at the table, reading out loud the questions for his German test tomorrow morning.

His words are mixing up with the sound of the raindrops falling onto the trailer roof.

It’s been an amazing week. Last week Thursday, we flew to the Alps to spend a week above the tree line. Hiking from one mountain cottage to the next one, we enjoyed our days in high alpine terrain together with our parents.

But let me take you through this week day by day. And even though I took every day over 100 pictures, I will make a point of only sharing one a day in this essay. The other photographs will find a place in separate posts.

Our day started very early as we got up at 4 am to catch the flight at 7 am in Berlin. A few hours later, we landed in Austria and got picked up by my parents who drove down from Stuttgart. We had two more hours of driving ahead before we reached the city of Dobbiaco in South Tyrol.

This is where our hiking journey would start. But for the first day, we just wandered through town and did a short walk to the Lake of Toblach, or what it is called in Italian “Lago di Dobbiaco”.

I used the long exposure feature of my husband’s iPhone to get the flowing effect of the water.

© Bonfert — 01/09/2022 — FLOWING

On Friday our day started with a short bus ride that took us up to Lake Braies (Pragser Wildsee) where we started our 5-day hiking excursion. We wouldn’t get down to the valley within those days but stay above the tree line in high alpine terrain.

On our first day, it meant we had to do a lot of climbing in order to get to altitude. Our first cottage was sighted as we finally reached the mountain saddle.

This was about the last time I saw my husband. Just after he spotted the cottage (in the image on the left side), he basically ran down those last few meters.

He was more than relieved to finally get his well-deserved beer.

© Bonfert — 02/09/2022 — RELIEF

On the next day, we first climbed up to the peak next to our cottage and then put back on our backpacks to hike to our next cabin. It was just about an hour's walk away, but it was a lovely hike.

We spotted countless marmots on this hike through the hills as I called it. These large ground squirrels were rather fat, which is a good sign since they are soon facing hibernation as the first snow sets in.

Marmots are the heaviest members of the squirrel family.

© Bonfert — 03/09/2022 — FEEDING

Another day of sunshine in the mountains. While we were first worried we’d have to hike a lot in the rain, we were more than lucky with the weather. We had mostly sunny days and it rained either once we got to the next destination or only late at night.

Below you can see the Edelweiss, a symbolic flower of the German mountain troops. But this flower is more than just a symbol. The flower is also being used in traditional medicine for different diseases. It stands for alpinism, rugged beauty, and purity associated with the Alps and Carpathians, my other home.

The Edelweiss is scarce to be found these days due to overcollection and is now protected by the law.

You can find the Alpen-Edelweiss in remote mountain areas at altitudes between 1,800 to 3,000 meters (5,900–9,800 ft). According to folk tradition, giving this flower to a loved one is a promise of dedication (Source: Wikipedia).

My mom mentioned on this trip she had only seen once an Edelweiss in the alps in 30 years of walking up and down the mountains. I denied her sentence, saying I’m convinced I had seen some of them on hikes with her. She did not agree.

Only minutes later, I pointed out the first blooming flowers. We’d see a lot more of them on this trip. Which I am glad about. Not just for my mom but seeing it as a sign their protection is letting them multiply again.

© Bonfert — 04/09/2022 — RARE

Day five was known to be the longest of all of our hikes. We knew it, we were prepared, we enjoyed the trail but were still exhausted when we reached the cabin after 9 hours on our feet.

Clouds were rolling in as we settled in our rooms and it was raining while we were devouring dinner. However, soon after the sky cleared and I got outside to capture the night sky.

The moon was shining, which is something that usually puts me off from night photography, but this time I simply decided to capture the sky on the other side of the moon and got this lovely scene of the valley lit up by the moon’s light.

My mom said it almost looks like it was a picture taken in the daytime. But it wasn’t. It was 10 pm and the stars were out already.

© Bonfert — 05/09/2022 — SHINING

We spoke to the lady from the cabin about our planned trail for day number six and she mentioned some dodgy situations about rock fields we’d had to cross but was convinced it wasn’t an issue for us.

Well, we made it through but took two hours longer than written out for this stretch of the trail. It was more than just challenging. All those rocks were loose and it was like walking on tiny balls. One wrong step and you’d slide the mountain down. All the way.

Also, those canyons we had to cross were steeper than it seems in this picture and were made of sand. No solid ground to stand on.

After finally making it around the mountain, we were more exhausted than expected and decided to change the planned route. Instead of continuing up on the mountain ridge for longer, we chose a shortcut into the valley and back to the town of Dobbiaco, where we had started just a few days earlier.

This trail we took down was the worst of all of the ones we took on this trip. It was actually a gravel road but so steep and with no turns, our knees, toes, and legs were burning once we reached the bottom of the valley. In just over two hours, we had descended over 1000 meters (3300 feet) in altitude.

© Bonfert — 06/09/2022 — CROSSING

That night we slept like rocks in our bed in the guesthouse in town. We woke up to some rain but soon after breakfast the clouds were lifting and only low-hanging fog was still covering the valley.

Just as we were leaving our accommodation, I took the image below. It’s the same mountain I captured on day one arriving in Dobbiaco. It’s just mostly hidden.

We didn’t have any plans for the last day of our holiday since we first wanted to see how we felt in the morning and still had to drive to Innsbruck that day.

Since we were all still a bit broken, we opted for taking a cable car up a mountain and doing a relaxed panoramic route at altitude.

© Bonfert — 07/09/2022 — HIDDEN

This has been my week in photographs. 7 days. 7 photographs. Anyone can join. Once. Or weekly. It doesn’t matter. We welcome everyone! Dennett started this photography challenge in 2020 and many have participated ever since.

Erika / Eileen / K. Barrett / Juan / David / Mia / Susan / LensAfield / Kim / Barbara / Diana / Barb / Sandra / Shruthi / Ellie / Pene / Olive / Gustavo / Jane / Penny / Jillian / Shell / Ivy

And these are the previous weekly photo essays:

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Travel
Hiking
Photo Essay
Mountains
Photography
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