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Tom Isitt

@tomisitt.bsky.social

1.2K followers 220 following 1K posts

Author, historian, cyclist, hiker, occasional climber, idiot adventurer with unrealistic goals and expectations.

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Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 2d

The very first sentence of the article uses emotive language to demonise tourists. “Rising numbers of visitors are swamping the locals, making housing scarce, increasing pollution and even emptying churches.”

Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 2d

It’s interesting how the tourists are demonised, not the locals who have turned their own neighbourhoods into B&B wastelands.

Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 2d

I’ve been wondering how those journalists who drank the Adams Kool-Aid back in 2020 feel now. Some of the puff pieces were 🤮

Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 5d

It’s the hi-viz requirement that put me off. How can people admire my ££££ Rapha kit when it’s covered up?

Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 5d

Possibly a WW1 bunker converted into a bivacco. It’s well situated on the reverse slope of Italian positions on Monte Palon (Grappa sector), so quite likely.

Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 5d

Wow, that’s some puff piece by the FT. And complete fantasy. Getting the Emiratis and ex-pats out of their AMGs will only happen if Colnago produce a $300,000 gold-plated, diamond-encrusted C68.

Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 5d

Definitely. And better than sleeping outside…just.

Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 5d

Bivacco…Italian for “mistake” (to paraphrase a popular saying in the hiking/climbing community).

A cold and dingy shelter in the Italian mountains

Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 6d

He wrote a book about how he did all the right things, and everybody else messed it up. But he was let down by several of his generals, and did get a few things right.

Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 6d

Toilet paper bound into an easily portable form 😉

Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 7d

The “hiking essentials” they never tell you about.

Large assortment of braces, bandages, and medical equipment

Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 8d

😂

Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 8d

The Italians launched more than 90 unsuccessful infantry attacks on Col di Lana, before resorting to blowing the top off it with a mine.

Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 10d

I suspect most experienced practitioners are already doing this. We spent a week hiking in the Italian Alps this July and barely saw another person, because we planned it that way.

Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 11d

Bah, and indeed, humbug!

Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 12d

👍

Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 13d

I’m afraid it will be stuck in US customs until December 😉

Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 13d

🙏

Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 13d

🙏

Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 13d

🙏

Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 13d

It’s available for pre-order on Amazon, so it must be real.

(It’s been six years in the making, and I still can’t quite believe it’s actually a thing)

Thunder in The Mountains, available for pre-order

336 pages, full colour, large format paperback, a hefty 454g

Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 15d

If I wasn’t so busy, I’d try to make a Pro Cycling ethics league table, based on Amnesty International and Friends of the Earth rankings, and the number of ex-dopers employed by the team. We should know what we’re cheering for. Maybe the cycling media could…oh, wait…

Pro cyclists sports-washing oppressive regimes

The victim of one of those oppressive regimes

Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 16d

As observation posts go, this is a belter.

Soldiers on a very pointy rock tower.

Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 19d

Surprising, considering he died 10 years ago. Still, it occasioned a pleasant trip down memory lane. He was an absolute maniac (a common character trait among my dead friends).

Facebook friend request

Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 20d

Gollum saying what we all think