Photo Journal & Trip Reports (Alps & europe)

Please enjoy these photo journals and trip reports from some of my outdoor photography adventures, starting with the most recent. You can subscribe to follow my latest blog posts (and any other blogs as well) by using a feed reader such as Inoreader, Feedly, or a Mac app like NetNewsWire.

Winter in Tyrol
January - March 2024  |  Tyrol, Austria

In the winter of 2024 my wife Claudia and I are spending three months in the mountains of the Tyrol region of Austria! This is an ongoing stream of posts from our time here; I am challenging myself to try to post a photo each day (or at least every few days)...

Wildkogel
September 2022  |  Austria

After our 8-day trek through the Hohe Tauern in Austria, we still had two days to kill before heading to Munich for our flight back home. What to do? We thought about squeezing in another short hut trek, but the logistics would have been hectic and besides we knew we'd be too tired anyways after our big trek...

Hut to Hut in the Hohe Tauern
September 2022  |  Austria

In early September we headed south to Alps for an 8-day hut-to-hut trek through the Hohe Tauern National Park in Austria. A north to south crossing of the Hohe Tauern range, our route started from near the town of Kaprun, took us right past Grossglockner (the tallest mountain in Austria), and ended in the town of Mörtschach – while staying at alpine huts for seven nights along the way.

Figments of Albrechtsburg
August 2022  |  Meissen, Germany

While visiting family in Dresden, Germany recently, one day we made a trip with Claudia's mom and sister to Albrechtsburg Castle in nearby Meissen. This beautiful Gothic castle perched atop a hill above the Elbe River was built starting in 1471 on the site of a fortress castle that was originally built in 929...

Autumn in the Dolomites
October-November 2019  |  Dolomites, Italy

In late October and early November, Claudia and I traveled to the Dolomites in northern Italy for two weeks of hiking amongst jagged peaks and golden larch trees. I've spent time the Dolomites in the summer and winter before but was excited to visit during the autumn when the larch trees turn yellow and orange...

Valldemossa
October 2019  |  Mallorca, Spain

In mid-October we traveled to the Mediterranean island of Mallorca, Spain, for a week of holiday with some of Claudia's family. Though Mallorca is most known for its beaches, we opted to stay in Valldemossa, a quaint old village full of narrow cobblestoned streets nestled in a valley at the foot of the mountains...

Hut Tour around Grindelwald
September 2018  |  Switzerland

In mid-September after our treks in the Bernina Range and Val Masino in southeast Switzerland and north Italy, Claudia and I traveled north to the famous Jungfrau region near Interlaken in Switzerland...

Val Masino
September 2018  |  Bernina Range, Italy

Eight days into our trek around the Bernina Range, we took a little train and bus detour and visited Val Masino in Italy on the southern end of the same greater range. The mountains around here are sometimes referred to as the Val Masino Alps, or the backside of the Bergell or Bregaglia Range...

Around the Bernina Range
September 2018  |  Switzerland/Italy

In early September we flew to Zurich, Switzerland, took a train to St. Moritz, then embarked on a 9-day trek around the Bernina Range in the Rhaetian Alps. Named after the tallest peak in the range, Piz Bernina, the Bernina Range is a rugged and heavily glaciated mountain range along the border of southeast Switzerland and Italy...

Over the Dachstein
July 2017  |  Austria

The final destination of our three-week northern limestone Alps tour was the Dachstein mountain range of Austria. Starting from near the Südwandhütte, above the lovely village of Ramsau on the south side of the range, we hiked for three days around and over the Dachstein to the famous village of Hallstatt on the north side, via the Hofpürglhütte, Adamek-Hütte, and Simony Hütte...

Trek Around Watzmann
July 2017  |  Berchtesgaden, Germany

Berchtesgaden is a famous Bavarian mountain resort town in southeast Germany. If you look at a map of Germany, the Berchtesgaden area is the little protrusion at the bottom that’s almost totally surrounded by Austria...

Wilder Kaiser
July 2017  |  Austria

After our trek in the Karwendel we took a bus and train to the town of Kufstein, stocked up on some snacks, and started hiking into the Kaisergebirge, a small but incredibly rugged mountain range that rivals just about anything in the Dolomites as far as sheer jaggedness goes...

Hut Trekking through the Karwendel
July 2017  |  Austria

Over the course of 5 days in early July, we hiked from west to east below the jagged spine of the Karwendel range just north of Innsbruck, Austria - from the villages of Scharnitz to Pertisau, via the Karwendelhaus, Falkenhütte, Eng Alm, and Lamsenjochhaus...

Along the Adriatic Coast
August 2015  |  Montenegro & Croatia

After our treks in the mountains of Montenegro, we were feeling pretty trekked-out and looking forward to a more relaxing stretch of travels along the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Yes, we knew it would be hot, crowded, touristy, and expensive compared to the mountains, but we wanted to visit there anyways; no trip to Montenegro would be complete without a visit to the coast...

The Cursed Mountains - a trek through the Prokletije
July 2015  |  Montenegro and Albania

Forming a natural border between Montenegro and Albania is a jagged spine of mountains called the Prokletije in Montenegran and the Bjeshkët e Namuna in Albanian. Both names translate to “cursed mountains”, likely due to their foreboding vertical spires, deep winter snows, and inhospitable ruggedness...

Rafting the Tara River
July 2015  |  Montenegro

One of the highlights of a trip in Montenegro which is already full of highlights has been rafting down the Tara River. With its crystal clear turquoise spring-fed waters, the Tara is easily the most beautiful river I’ve ever seen...

Durmitor Loop Trek
July 2015  |  Montenegro

Durmitor National Park is certainly the most famous and beloved mountain range in Montenegro. The mountains here aren’t the biggest or baddest ever, but they have an undeniably wonderful and unique character, like a combination of the rugged might of the Alps with the wild solitude of the Rockies...

Maglič & Trnovacko Jezero
July 2015  |  Bosnia and Montenegro

For the first mountain adventure of our Bosnia/Montenegro trip, Claudia and I went backpacking for two nights at Trnovacko Lake along the border of Bosnia and Montenegro. The lake itself is located on the Montenegro side of the border, but is only accessible via Sutjeska National Park on the Bosnian side...

Tough Luck in the Pyrenees
September 2013  |  France/Spain

On the first day of September Claudia and I started walking into the Pyrenees, the great mountain range that forms a natural border between France and Spain. Our plan was to trek along the Pyrenean Haute Route as far eastward through the range as we could in the next three weeks, staying in mountain huts and occasional small towns along the way...

Climbing the Zugspitze
August 2013  |  Germany

At 2962m (9717 ft), Zugspitze is the tallest mountain in Germany. The white limestone massif of Wetterstein (of which Zugspitze is the summit) rockets out of the green hills below, towering above all surrounding peaks and dominating the landscape in this part of southern Bavaria near the towns of Garmish and Erwald...

Ferrata Trek through the Rosengarten
August 2013  |  Dolomites, Italy

The Rosengarten is a group of mountains in the Dolomites with a dense cluster of exceptionally jagged peaks. 10 years ago I did two hikes through this range, and since then I’ve longed to return for some better photography and more challenging via ferrata climbing...

Via Ferrate in the Dolomites
August 2013  |  Dolomites, Italy

Last week Claudia’s father and brother drove down from Dresden to join us in the Dolomites in northern Italy for a fun week of hiking and climbing via ferrata routes together. The via ferrate are climbing routes with fixed cables and ladders, and by using a climbing harness with two short ropes with locking carabiners, it’s possible to safely climb exposed routes without technical climbing skills...

Lechtal Alps
July 2013  |  Austria

Our latest adventure in the Alps was an 8-day trek through the Lechtal Alps in Austria, the neighboring range just south of the Allgäuer Alps of our previous trek. In fact on many days of our trek we could look across the valley and see the peaks and ridges which we had just hiked and climbed over the previous week...

Allgäuer Alps
July 2013  |  Germany

We are relaxing in the lovely Bavarian town of Oberstdorf in southern Germany after having trekked for the last 7 days through the Allgäuer Alps, a fantastic mountain range which runs along the border of Germany and Austria...

Bernese Oberland Ski Hut Tour
April 2011  |  Switzerland

In early April I went on a ski hut tour in the Bernese Oberland mountains of Switzerland. This is the heart of the Swiss Alps, and during the course of 6 days we skied a variety of routes across the largest glacier system in the Alps...

A Winter in the Alps
Winter 2010-11  |  Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Germany

This gallery is a compilation of my favorite photos taken from the 2010-2011 winter season in the Alps, from November through April, in roughly chronological order. I spent most of the season in Engelberg, Switzerland but also did trips to Zermatt, Grindelwald, Mürren, and the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland; the Dolomites in Italy; Obergurgl and Mayrhofen in Austria; and the Black Forest in Germany...

Autumn in Freiburg
November 2010  |  Germany

Photos of colorful autumn colors at the foot of the Black Forest near Freiburg, Germany.

Six Weeks in Norway
July/August 2009  |  Norway

During the summer of 2009, I devoted six weeks to photographing the amazing mountains and fjords of Norway. During that time I traveled more than 8500 km (5300 miles), from the capital city of Oslo in the south, as far north as Tromsø, far above the Arctic Circle...

Shaken in the Julian Alps
July 2004  |  Slovenia

Based out of the village of Kranjska Gora, in mid-July of 2004 I did a couple treks in the rugged Julian Alps in Slovenia. For the first hike I ventured up to the Triglavski dom hut below the summit of Triglav, the highest peak in Slovenia...

Via Ferrate in the Dolomites
June/July 2004  |  Dolomites, Italy

In June and July I met my buddy Kevin and his brother Kyle in Venice, Italy and we headed into the Dolomites for three weeks of hiking and climbing the famous via ferrate routes through these incredible mountains...