Hiking in the Dolomites

The Dolomites

Rome

Delirious from flights, waiting for our train in Rome. It’s like 90 degrees outside

Padua

Hung out with my friend Laura while we tried to recover from jet lag before the hike. Tried and failed to avoid afternoon naps.

Alta Via

Day 1

Starting point after 5 hours of bus!

View of Lago di Briaes, traditional starting point of Alta Via 1.

In disbelief that it starts off this good.

Dusk vibes from the first rifugio. Showers were not working but there were plenty of full water bottles in the shower to use.

Day 2

A short day with very steep downhill.

First of many mountainous coffee stops of the trip.

Pony and cows!

Day 3

By far our longest day. About 16 miles, so many passes…

Loved how every corner seemed to hide a new pass or meadow or pasture unlike any we’d seen before.

We don’t quite believe we’re gonna go down from this pass

Two photos looking back at the pass we descended from.

Day 4

After such a hard day yesterday, we took today easy. Instead of the 9 mile hike into cortina, we took the cable car up to Rifugio Lagazuoi so we could explore the WWI tunnels. Yes we did rent helmets and did bonk our heads on the top of the tunnels many times.

Got some really good spinach dumplings at the rifugio. Also espresso. The views were incredible but I guess I didn’t take a photo.

The hotel was nice, though I was briefly convinced that I had lost my wallet on the bus. Spent all of dinner pausing my bank cards and figuring out where to go for bus lost and found. Got back to the hotel and found my wallet under my laundry, which I had placed on my bedside table.

WWI trench with the best view?

Day 5

The day did start with a bus from Cortina and a chairlift up to Cinque Torri. This is how they do hiking in Italy, and we’re into it.

Another day meandering up and down among towering peaks through meadow after meadow. Some cows along the way.

Cinque Torri!!

Cows!!

We started the day riiiiiight there!

This rifugio had weird vibes, but the cutest doggos

Day 6

I feel like by this day we were in a good rhythm. Tried to stay on brand and be the last people to leave because we so meticulously packed for the day.

Started with some easy down and up the steeeep up. Saw our first rifugio “served by cable” where there’s a cable car just for supplies.

The sinks were really big at the rifugio so everyone did laundry, but as clothes were drying an evening thunderstorm came through. Pretty much everyone had clothes hanging off their backpacks the next day.

Flowers were popping of the whole way. This was the first time I thought to photograph it :3

This was the first day we had a good amount of time to play guitar. Our friend Carlos sang some 70s hits with us. A lady requested John Denver so we played Country Roads. We were told later that everyone who could hear us sang along.

We ordered a Skiwasser and Bombardino from the menu since we didn’t know what they were. Our server told us it was a weird combo but we stayed the course. They did indeed not go together. Skiwasser was a raspberry flavored water. Bombardino was an egg nog, though very different than I’m used to. Bombardino apparently means “little bomb”.

Reserved for doggo

Day 7

Whîe this wasn’t going to be a long day, we did anticipate a good amount of elevation and steep at that! There were at least three good passed for us to go over. I was looking forward to another day where we’d get in at a decent hour and get to play guitar and maybe some cards.

About half way through the day, however, I realized I forgot my sleeping bag liner at the rifugio! Though they do sell liners at many rifugios, mine is particularly lightweight and not too warm. So I stashed my stuff at the next rifugio on our path, double checked that we had good weather in the forecast, and ran back to that morning’s rifugio.

I did try to be conservative in estimating how long the run would take but I definitely underestimated–forgetting that the elevation and terrain ahead of me would mean that rather than running, I would be fast hiking. I did my best to keep Sam informed of where I was but today I had some of the worst cell coverage of the trip.

In any case, I managed to get to the rifugio in time for dinner!

Cows!

These cows were right outside our rifugio so we got to hear them all night!

Day 8

We were happy to have a chiller day ahead of us this morning. I’ll admit I was growing a bit tired of all the rocks and steep ups and downs, though this is what I signed up for choosing to do an Alta Via.

Today was yet another gorgeous day with many cows and views to be had.

This specific location was not a rifugio but rather a “Malga”, which, from what I understand, is a summer mountain farm. Farmers bring their cows up in the summer, and they go back down to the lowlands for the winter.

This specific location was an “Agrotourismo” destination, which seem to be a way to keep farming tradition alive in a time when it is less relevant. Lucky for us it meant some really amazing dairy. The location was run by a family and our milk and yogurt and cheese had clearly just come from the cows.

What was even better, our trail family were the only ones there so we had the run of the place. This meant a hilarious tournament of Uno wherein ruled were made up and the winner of the round had to sing a song. Everyone was fond of my rendition of Father and Son, but when I won a second time everyone was less thrilled when I tested the limits of my vocal range to sing “Red Wine Supernova”.

Day 9

We went into this trip expecting afternoon thunderstorms most days, but managed to avoid thunderstorms except for a few evenings when we were already safely in the comfort of our rifugio. Today, however, the weather decided to be much moodier.

Today also turned out to have some of the sketchiest, most knife edge hiking of the whole trip, along with some impossibly steep descents. Unfortunately, maybe an hour ahead of us someone slipped and fell a good distance along this descent. Fortunately there was a Caribinieri officer who witnessed this happen and was able to perform CPR and call for a helicopter.

Hearing about this made for rather solemn hiking for the second half of the day. This hike was, however, stunning as we hiked in and out of thunder showers, over spectacular passes and through grassy meadows (forever my favorite). Down and down and down we hiked, so much down we never thought it would end…

One of the few animals we spotted on the trip, probably since the trail is so popular…

Arrived at the rifugio and found out showers cost 7 euros!! Decided to take a sponge bath instead…

Once that was through it was time to celebrate a birthday in our trail family. I think we re-sang happy birthday since the first time we forgot to film everything. A lively dinner was had, followed by another legendary game of uno as well as a game that involved choosing an animal sound and flipping over cards to see whose animal sound you had to try to make.

During the second round of uno I stepped outside to watch an epic thunderstorm roll through. Our friends thought it was funny that I was so interested in a thunderstorm, but maybe didn’t realize how rare they were for me.

Day 10

Our final day! We were looking forward to a short and gradual downhill. The hike turned out to be a pretty novel day as most of it was in the woods, while other days were very much exposed. After ten days of long and arduous hiking, Sam and I were both looking forward to a nice shower and some rest.

As usual we moseyed out without too much of a timeline and somehow managed to reach the bus stop right as the bus was pulling in. It was a beautiful ride and a nice time to reflect on the adventure with our fellow hikers and exchange photos.

Bye bye Alta Via!