Italy - Dolomites - Day #8

Thursday, August 13th

Refugio Lagazuoi to Refugio Averau

1,500’ vertical

6 miles

It’s 3:45pm - I’m standing in the washing room - in the basement of Refugio Averau.  We’ve hand-washed our clothes thus far on the trip - but we decided to do a load of laundry this evening.  I’m just praying my clothes don’t get damaged - because the instructions are in Italian and a bit complicated.  We based our settings on what another hiker had used earlier.  Greg and I are taking turns monitoring the clothes - as there’s only 1 washer/dryer in the Refugio - and others are waiting.  

Today was another really good day.  Again - not too tough (as we were completed with our hiking by 1:30pm) - even with an add-on we did this afternoon.  

The day started early - 5:30am.  We got up to catch the sunrise and look for meteors - as we were informed a meteor shower was going to follow the eclipse last night into the early morning.   I got some great sunrise pictures - but no meteors.  Because we were up early, we were the first few people at breakfast.  We shared a table with a family from New Zealand - good conversation and a good start to the day.  

We started hiking about 7:30am.  The first part of the hike was actually going down the same hillside we walked yesterday - through the World War 1 bunker area.  We had time - so we walked around inside a few of the bunkers that overlooked the mountainside.  Interesting for sure.  There was an area setup with a chair and machine-gun —- you could close your eyes and almost bring yourself back to the early 1900s.  

The morning started with a 3-mile, 2,500’ descent.  It was not overly technical - but did drain the legs.   At the bottom of the descent we came into a small town where we stopped at a cafe and had a soda/snack and a nice 30-minute break.  The last part of the hike was a grueling 1,200’ climb to our Refugio (Averau).  This section involved some Class 2 hand climbing. We arrived at 11:50am.  There was another Refugio about 3/4 mile up another 300-400’ climb - where we saw hundreds of people hiking.  We decided to make the climb to see the sites.  So glad we did this - as the heightened viewpoint offered incredible scenery.  

We got back to our Refugio about 2pm and grabbed a late lunch.  Following a shower - it was time for laundry.  That brings we up to date right now - I’ll check-in later after dinner.