Jonathan Lemkin and Frankie Paige, both from the Los Angeles area, joined Mark for a week's skiing in the Silvretta and Dolomites of Austria and Italy.

Our original plan had only included the Silvretta, with a hut-to-hut trip tagging attractive ski summits along the way. But a rather poor weather forecast, rather difficult off-piste snow, some nasty blisters, and some thinking outside the box suggested we should, perhaps, venture further afield.

We began innocently enough in the Silvretta, in the ski resort of Ischgl.

On our first day, in deteriorating weather we skinned up to the Heidelberger hut, seen here. The hut, though large, was remarkably busy.

The ski room.

The weather the following day was also rather poor, and did not permit a crossing of the high pass between us and our next planned destination, the Jamtal hut. So a thorough re-evaluation of our situation suggested that we might be better exiting back to Ischgl. And we did. We skied the Ischgl ski area (a huge resort!) the following day, then hopped in the car and drove to Selva Gardena, in the Dolomites.

The following day, one of the best of the trip, we skied the Sella Ronda, a famous on-piste circumnavigation of the celebrated Sella Group.

The following morning, we rode the snow cat into the Fanes hut.

Jonathan and Mark went on a "short" tour up the Ciastel de Fanes.

On the summit of the Ciastel with the Sasso Delle Nove behind.

The Fanes hut is a great place to spend several days.

Besides the standard brew on tap, behind the bar there are quite a range of strange and wonderful concoctions to sample.

...and an interesting assortment of local characters.

A Buddha totem?

We had two nights at the Fanes hut. On the intervening day we toured up into the Valun Blanch, beneath Monte Ciaval. Unfortunately, the weather was rather cloudy and the views limited.

Under the cliffs of Pizes de Ciampestrin.

And on our last day of the trip we did a short tour above the hut in 20 centimeters of new snow before heading back down to the car and home.