Dad and I get into the mountains a few times a year. Last winter we did an epic glacier crossing in Patagonia near Mom and Dad's winter refuge in El Chalten. This year, a few days after returning from El Chalten, Dad grabbed his new Manaslu skis and shlepped to Italy to join me in the Ortler Mountains.

One of my two heroes. Dave Stock is a retired mechanical engineering professor at Washington State University. My other hero is my mom Molly Stock.

We skied lifts for a day in Sulden then toured to the Marteller Hut for Easter morning.

Whiteout and snowing all day as we toured from the Marteller Hut to the Casati Hut and down to Sulden. Easter weekend is the region's busiest, but the mountains were deserted. Just us in the quiet, falling snow.

We stopped at Tre Cannoni, where WWI cannons line the ridge on the former Austrian - Italian front.

Zero viz. Zero people!

Remnants of the summer glacier ski area below the Casati Hut. A siren was blaring from the hut. Maybe for us? The lost Americans? They turned it off when we arrived. Hmmm....

Rifugio Casati. We considered staying the night, but the 250-person building seemed cavernous and the hosts were too busy reminiscing about their ski racing days to fix us endless cafe doppios.

From the Casati Hut Dad and I climbed Suldenspitze and dropped down to Janinger Scharte pass and skied thigh-deep snow down to the Schaubach Hut.

Back for beers at the Schaubach Hut where we stayed above Sulden.

We missed the show. Sauguat does a mean YMCA cover.