Italy - Dolomites - Day #6

Tuesday, August 11th

Refugio Sennes to Refugio Fanes

1,836’ vertical

6.2 miles

It’s 4:40pm - I’m resting in the bottom bunk of a 11-bed dormitory in Refugio Fanes. Today has been sort of like a Nero - a shorter hiking day followed by chores, then rest/recovery.  I really like these days. 

Today’s hike was much easier than yesterday.  6.2 miles - which involved a 3-mile descent this morning (completed in about 1hr-20min), followed by an 1,800’ ascent.  We had breakfast at the Refugio from 7:30-8am - and hit the trail soon after.  We walked most of the descent with a couple from Boston (Nat & Colby).  

At the bottom of the descent - we rested in some Adirondack chairs at Refugio Pederu.  This was awesome - looking out at the mountain we would soon be climbing.  Even though we could have stayed in the chairs for hours - we knocked out the ascent.  We ended up getting to Refugio Fanes - our stop point for the day - at 11:45am.  Nice!

We then had “dirty drinks/lunch” on the outside deck of the Refugio. This simply means not getting showered or cleaned up first before having some drinks - which is pretty common place on trail. 

We could only check-in to the Refugio at 2pm - so we ate some lunch then rested for an hour in some outside Adirondack chairs.  We checked in right at 2pm - so we could get the bottom bunks in our dormitory room.  We were successful in doing that.  Dormitory rooms in a Refugio could easily be a topic for a book series - so just think about 11 random people sleeping in very close quarters - both men/women - with very few people knowing each other.  Interesting to say the least. 

I washed out my clothes and hung them outside on the deck. And that brings me up to date - getting caught up on the blog for the past 2 hours.  Dinner is at 6:30pm.  Tomorrow is another big vertical day - so bedtime will come soon tonight. 

Italy - Dolomites - Day #5

 Monday, August 10th

Cortina to Refugio Sennes

5,000 vertical

8.5 miles

Wow - what a 1st day on trail!!  We were told the Alta Via 1 is steep and can be very technical at times - it certainly lived up to its billing today.   Tough - but absolutely stunning!

We started the day by getting a direct shuttle at 6am from Cortina to Lago di Braies (Pragser Wildsee) - the official start of the Alta Via 1.  We could have taken a 2-bus connection to get to the start for a bit less (30 euro) - but that option would only get us to the start around 10:30-11:00am.  We knew there was a chance of afternoon thunderstorms and we had a big day ahead of us - so we paid the 90 euro for an early morning start/transfer.  

The day started at Lago di Braies - a truly stunning lake at the base of the Dolomites.  This lake reminded me of Lake Louise in Banff - very similar as a hotel stands at one end of the lake.  There was a wedding taking place when we arrived as well - at 7am.  

To get it started - we walked 1/2 way around the lake - then the climbing began.  We had a 3,000’ climb - in just 4-1/2 miles.  There were some sections with cables to hang onto to help from falling as the grade was steep and technical.  We made it to Refugio Bella at the top of the climb around 11am.  It was here we had a decision to make. The trek today offered us an option to do a bonus 2.2 mile out/back to the summit of Croda del Becco - another 1,500’ vertical.  We decided to go for it. But - we weren’t doing it with our 30-pound bags.  We decided to hide the bags behind some rocks and do the climb as light as possible.  This climb was super steep - but the footing was pretty solid - which made it possible.  It was totally worth it!!  The scenery at the summit was the top scenery of the trip to date. Unreal!  We could see the lake where we started our hike this morning. 

We completed our descent after a 20-30 minute break at the summit - just taking it in.  Once down from the mountain, we rested a bit at Refugio Bella — then walked the 1.8 miles to our final destination for the day - Refugio Sennes.  Greg and I were both pretty exhausted by this time.  We had a nice room to ourselves with a bunk bed.  The Refugio offered a shower - which was a nice bonus at the end of the day. 

The night ended with a great dinner at the Refugio - with an actual menu offering several options (this is unique - as most Refugios have a base dinner for everyone staying for the night).  

Early to bed. Sleeping was tough - as our small room was pretty hot - forcing us to open the windows (and me wearing earplugs). This Refugio is surrounded by cows - and these cows have bells around their necks to help with location.  It was like a musical melody of cow bells throughout the night. 

A really solid Day - #1.   The expectations of the Dolomites coming into the trip were met - and even exceeded.  Can’t wait to see what else is out there for us!