South Tyrol: Dolomiti

This day, which will forever be known as the Great Underpants Hike of 2019, started off like most of the others on our trip: We set off in search of the Adolf Munkel Trail, described as an easy 9k loop at the base of the iconic Geisler peaks in the Dolomite range. But, after a few wrong turns which added about forty extra minutes to our drive on a twisty, turning, one and a half (at the most) lane mountain road, Ben declared himself carsick immediately before projectile vomiting all over himself and the backseat. He managed to hit everything including our bag of snacks and the extra layers of clothes I had packed for the day.

Using only two remaining wipes I had stashed in my backpack, I managed to mostly clean up the mess and everyone filed into the car. No sooner had we closed the door though, Norah let out a wretch and went running for the ditch because the smell triggered her own gag reflex and created a true barf-a-rama.

Eventually, with the windows down and a bag of nasty sealed tight in the trunk, we made it to the trailhead at Zanser Alm. And, Ben, in only underpants and the few pieces of clothing that weren’t soiled, hit the trail.

The hike was beautiful, but a bit harder than I expected and not especially well marked. My Type-A self is officially forever ruined by the beauty of Swiss efficiency and their incredible attention to detail. On the first part of our trip, it was almost impossible to get lost. In Italy, I spent a fair bit of time hoping we were going the right way!

 In truth, anxiety got the best of me on this day. I spent the first half of this hike anxious that we were on the wrong trail. Then, I spent the second half of the hike worried that we’d be stuck on the mountain in a thunderstorm with Ben wearing only underpants. But, we did it, all went fine (though we did get very wet) and we will forever have the lasting family memories – and inevitable in-jokes that come from getting through a day like this as a team.