Map Googling Wichita Falls - 20 years later

Now I am going to take a walk into the small town ( Wichita Falls, TX, USA ) where I lived during my childwood...
Loads of memories here...thanks to google streetview this is possible without crossing the ocean.

Some of the memories :
Rider High School, playing basketball at the University Stadium, cruising on Kemp on Saturday night, riding motorkike with other friends (on and off-road), going to the airport for flying lessons....then Amdreas, Michael, Nick, Lisa, Torsten, Ron some of the friends I would hang out with..

My first home in Texas:



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And this is where I lived 2 years:


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Now here is the Rider High School ...lots of memories here:


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The Midwestern State University with the Basketball Stadium, I would often go there on Sundays to play Basketball ...


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US 287 Hwy..the long road to Dallas...it would take about 3 hours to reach Dallas by car and the road is all like this ...boaring but still fascinating (to me at least)...


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....enough for the memories...

I will post a few pics as soon as I find them.



Bye

Trip to San Francisco

Last week I went to San Francisco for a Conference. Here are a few pics:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Pierpaolo.Bellillo/SanFrancisco2008#

During the time left after the conference I went for a little bike tour



bye

My first bike ride to the office

I 've been thinking about this for a while now, but everytime it was time to jump on the bike I always found a logical reason not to do so.
Yesterday I finally decided I should give it a try. I woke up very early (6,30 am), drunk my espresso, dressed up with my bike trousers and started my ride.

Riding a bike from my home to my office means crossing the whole city (Rome) from north to south mainly using the Tiber river bank, where the main Rome's bike path lays.

It took me a little more then an hour to cover the 25 km for the morning leg and then almost two hours going back to home in the afternoon using a different and longer path (35km).

All in all has been a good experience, I think I will do it again as often as my job will let to do so....

Here is the morning leg



Pp

Marturanum and Canale Monterano

Last two week-ends I 've been riding into the natural parks some 50 miles north of Rome: Riserva di Marturanum and Riserva di Canale Monterano.

Here are the reports:

Marturanum

Canale Monterano

New Mtb blog

The 2008 mtb biking season has now started...my biking pal Raoul has decided to start a new blog, bit&bike, where we will post all of our mtb treks.

Yesterday I went to Genzano  to meet Fabio, another member of the team, for a nice ride around the Colli Albani. We went from Genzano (473mt.) to Monte Cavo (949mt.) then all the way down to the beautyful Nemi lake (316mt.) using the Via Sacra and finally back to Genzano.

All in all a very good trek, here is the map



I also took a few pics.

A few pics from paradise

Here are a few pics from yesterday's freeride session at Campo Imperatore. One year has gone by since our last session here...






This is what paradise looks like...















Here is another pic from paradise




















look a this pic...the white's the best color, isn't it?



















And now, some old known friends

The Corno Grande:

The Pizzo Intermesoli:

Here I come:









After the hard work the Tanganella Team gets its prize...


Finally a few videos (1,2,3,4) and two pics albums (1,2)

See ya

Way to go!!!

Here are the 11-most-bike-friendly-cities in the world.

Of course none of them is in Italy...

...ops!!!

This is what happens when stupidity kicks in... :)



Pp

A quick ride into the Simbruini Mountains

Here we go again, another bike ride this time just me and the Jeko (my riding pal).
















here is "The Jeko"














Once again we followed Paola & Gino's track (track number 84). The ride goes right into the wonderful Simbruini Mountains Regional Park.

Here are a few pics...





















































And finally here I am...








Bye Bye

Cycling the Ceriti Hills

Last week end I went for a short cycling session to the Ceriti hills, close to Cerveteri. Those hills, very close to Rome (about 50 Km), are still very much unspoiled and did offer us a chance to feel in touch with the beautiful nature surrounding Rome.





The cycling by itself has not been a remarkable one, but the trip was still worthed doing it.




The best part of the trip of course has been going down to the waterfalls, nothing huge but very nice to look at. Reaching the falls required us to walk down the trail wih our bike on our back since the trail was not rideble.

Ski trip to CORVARA

This year has not been an happy one for those of us that love to ski/snowboard/snowball-fight or whatever on the white mountains! not enough snow...actually in Italy it has been a very weird winter with summer like weather. But even with these bad conditions I could not stop myself from going to the Dolomiti (Corvara) for a brief (too brief actually) ski trip. Well we were quite lucky and found that the day before leaving Rome it had snowed on the Dolomiti.
So here are a few pics ...

Myself with my two and a half years old son (his first snow trip)... I can't wait to see him on the skies!!!




A view of the Marmolada from the top of Piz la Villa.





Here is the Sassongher...the couloir you can (barely) see between the two leftmost peaks is one of the most beautiful extreme off-piste you'll find around here (but not the only one).





And finally a small video from the marmolada main slope ...





Seeya

Powder Hunting

A few pics from my latest powder hunting session (Gran Sasso) just before Christmas....



Pizzo Intermesoli (2635 mt.)

waiting



here I come

Going back up



almost on top

Lake Martignano - MTB roundtrip

Here are a few pics from the trip around this beautiful small lake close to Rome. Again I used Paola & Gino's site (Itinerario 24) in order to get the details (map, gps track and other useful infos).
































And finally the lake's beach..

More infos about the lake can be found here:

http://www.lagodimartignano.org/

Bye

Veio's Park - MTB

Last sunday I decided it was time to have a better look at Veio's Park which is very close from my home. So I called up a friend, got the bike ready and I met the guy at Isola Farnese.

Here is the the tour:


We were able to follow the tour thanks to the GPS and the track downloaded from this site.
Beside the fact that this was the first biking session for this season so I had a fair share of trouble finishing the tour (actually less then 35 KM, 50% of which off road), it has been quite a nice ride into the park. The park by itself it isn't that nice, but it still gives you a chance to get good fresh air still being very close to Rome.
Well that's it for now
Pp

Traversata Alta - Gran Sasso

Backcountry ski/Snowboard

This is probably the best backcountry ski trip I have ever been up to now.
The trek starts at 8,30 am, we took a ride on the Funivia del Gran Sasso. The cable way takes you from Fonte Cerreto (1120mt.) up to Campo Imperatore (2150mt.).


Once we have reached Campo Imperatore the real trek starts...All of the equipment is put inside the backpack, the ARVA is turned on and checked.
Up we go..

The first leg takes us up to the Sella di Monte Aquila (2335mt.).
From here you can see the Corno Grande (west peak 2912 mt.). To reach its top you can either take the direttissima or the via normale. The first trail takes you up on top directly, it's the fastest and technically demanding way. The second will take you on top easily even tough normally takes you about half an hour longer.


We decided for the Direttissima: this is the main and more direct way to the the top of Gran Sasso (Corno Grande - 2912mt.). It offers us the chance to use our ice-axe and crampons in order to go through its 45-50 degree climb.









and


Nice view from the Direttisima



Finally on top


And ...here I am on top ....

We took a brief break to recharge our batteries and to have a look at the best view of the Appenini...from here you can actually see both the adriatic sea and the tirrenean sea.

Now it's time to ski down ....the way down follows the Calderone Glacier (actually not a glacier now...its mass is much smaller lately).











Once out of the Calderone we head toward the Rifugio Carlo Franchetti (2433mt.).
We leave the Rifugio Franchetti on our right heading to the last part of the downhill.





This last leg that will take us down to about 1200 meters through a small, long snow strip.





















At this point we have to take off our ski/snowboard and walk another hour to reach San Nicola where a bus is waiting for us.

This is it!!!
seeya

Ski trip to Colfosco - Dolomiti

Follows a brief report of the short (too short sigh!!) trip to Colfosco from which I came back last week.

I have been there with my wife and another two couples, we arranged our staying there in a small pension called Diamant quite inexpensive but nice and at 5 minutes walking from the slopes.

Colfosco is sited in a unique scenary Alta Badia one of most beautiful mountain scenary of the world which is the Dolomiti. Colfosco is a very small village that still has that old charm lost by many other mountain villages now invaded by heavy tourism. Still Colfosco is a perfect place to go if you want to ski in one of the best Italian Ski Arena, the wonderful DolomitiSuperSki Carosello.
From Colfosco with your ski/snowboard on (that has been a tough decision to take every morning) you can go to places such as:

Val Gardena (view from Ciampinoi)
The Val Gardena is one of most famous valley in the area, it hosts the well known World Championship Race known as the Libera della Val Gardena on the Sasslong slope.

Marmolada (view form Porta Vescovo). The Marmolada is the highest mountain of the Dolomiti Group with its peak of 3342 mt. Skiing on this mountain is just magic...you go on top from Malga Ciapela (1476 mt) with three new cableways (funivie) that will take you up to Punta Rocca (3260 mt). So you have almost 2000 mt (6000 feet) to go down ....almost 12 km!!!!!Get your legs ready pal!!!
If you are lucky enough, we were not, from the top you can have the best view of the Dolomiti.



Other places that you may wonna go (and we of course did) while in Alta Badia are:

• Canazei
• Lagazuoi
• La Gran Risa, La Villa (Where one of the best the Giant Slalom world cup race is held every year). In the picture you can see me carving down the Gran Risa..
  
• Arabba and Porta Vescovo... another incredible long and beautiful slope...
• Corvara...La Vallon is another black slope with an awesome view..

Then If you have time, skills and the weather is good you should not miss the Val de Mezdi...its an off-pista that crosses the Sella Group from Canazei to Colfosco. Too bad when we where there the snow conditions were not good enough (high avalanche risk). But I am gonna come back soon or later and....

All in all we found perfect snow conditions, sun for six days ...it was not too cold...












The only bad part has been ......coming back to work!!!!!

See ya!!
Pp