Hiking the Alta Via 1: Coldai to Belluno

January 31, 2026January 30, 2026 / Maria / Leave a comment

After 6 days of hiking the Alta Via 1, we still had 1.5 days to go, but it definitely started to feel like the trip was winding down. We had 6 days of incredible sunny weather, but it was due to shift and there was a rainstorm moving in on Day 7. This caused me and Kristine to have to re-assess how we wanted to finish the trail.

At this point, it was late September and the rifugios were starting to shut down for the season. Our biggest issue on Day 7 was related to poor planning on behalf of the third party, Mac’s Adventure, which we used to book our hike. They didn’t realize that some of the rifugios would be closing earlier than expected that season and our planned stay at Rifugio Vazzoler was cancelled. In order to save the trip, we decided to combine the distance we’d do in two days into one and continue on to Rifugio San Sebastiano, which meant we had a 21km day with over 1300m of elevation gain (and 2000m of loss). We knew it would be a big day and the incoming rain storm put a dampener on our plans.

Most of the Alta Via 1 trail is located in the alpine, hence why the trail is known as the “high route”. Because it receives so many visitors every year, the trail along exposed rock is very eroded, meaning that it becomes very slick when wet. We were concerned about potentially dangerous wet conditions while having to cover so much ground, so we opted to take another alternate route to get to the next rifugio. (note: because of the rain, I don’t have a lot of photos from the last 2 days on trail, so enjoy some more photos of Lago Coldai first).

Instead of trekking 21km through the alpine, we opted to take a 5km detour down to the town of Pecol. This meant that we had to backtrack along the switchbacks from the previous day, and then take an alternate route through a ski resort to get to town. It wasn’t raining yet, but it was very cloudy and ominous, so I was glad we’d taken the opportunity to visit Lago Coldai the previous evening. After an uneventful hike down to the village, we treated ourselves to hot drinks and a sweet treat at a cafe while waiting for a bus.

Fortunately, Rifugio San Sebastiano is located right off the road, so we had to navigate two highways in order to get there. The first road was passable by bus, which saved us 8km of road-walking. But the second road didn’t have any transit options, so we were prepared to hike the remaining 8km and hope for a hitch along the way. We figured 8km of road walking in the rain was preferable to 21km of slippery trail walking.

It turns out that we’d be saved the entire road-walk. As we were waiting for the bus, two hikers saw us and asked where we were headed. Turns out, we were all headed to the same place. They were two parents hiking the trail with their adult children. The woman had injured herself the previous day and they had come to the same conclusion as us about bypassing the trail (though their children were still hiking it). They had already paid for a taxi all the way to San Sebastiano and generously offered for us to join them! So instead of spending all day road-walking, we ended up with a pretty easy drop off to the rifugio before noon. (a few more photos of Coldai below)

It was too early for us to check in, so we decided to head out for a little walk to see a bit of what we’d missed. It’s approximately 2.5km between Rifugio San Sebastiano and Rifugio Bruto Carestiano, which was also closed for the season. We had a pretty leisurely walk along the trail to the Refugio, which took about 2 hours, but of course, it started raining right when we got to the rifugio and continued for most of the hike back to San Sebastiano. Kristine had a few last moments with the cows in the area and then we had a late lunch while we waited to get into our room.

San Sebastiano had a different vibe than the other rifugios since it was located right on the road, but it was a nice place and we at least had spacious rooms and free showers. Kristine had a nap and I headed down to the bar to journal and enjoy an aperol spritz. There was one other hiker in our room and she joined me and we had a great chat for a few hours. She was visiting from Australia on her own and doing the entire trail, so we swapped stories about our travels and our experiences in our home countries.

We had a nice last night on the trail, but a very chaotic final hike out. The trail actually continues for another 35km to Belluno, which most hikers do over 2 more nights. But our plan had always been to do a shortened version of the trail, so our itinerary had us hiking out to the town of Agordo and then taking a bus to Belluno for the night. The challenge was that hikers that go to Agordo generally hike out via either Rifugio Vazzoler or Bruto Carestiano. In retrospect, the best way out for us would have been to hike the 2.5km back to Bruto Carestiano and go from there. But Mac’s didn’t provide us with any directions for this part of the hike my GPS showed a route further down the highway that looked like the shortest option, so we did that.

This was the first of two mistakes. I thought we were in for 1km of road walking to get to the trail, but when we arrived at the trail, it looked like it had been logged in previous years and we couldn’t find the trail. It looked like there was another junction further down, so we did another 3km of road walking to the village of Casen, where my GPS showed another shortcut to Agordo. This was where we made the second mistake, which wasn’t really a mistake, but caused us a lot of anxiety due to a very creepy dude on the trail.

In order to get down to the trail, we had to cross through a farm and then down through a narrow wooded trail before popping out on an old forestry road. This road was pretty wide and fairly easy walking, but before we got to that road, we passed an Italian guy in the woods. He passed by me and didn’t say anything, but then when he got to Kristine, he tried to explain to her in broken english that he would take her to Agordo in his car and then got fairly aggressive trying to turn her around to go with him (he lied to her and said he’d already talked to me and that I was following). She called out to me through the forest and I quickly backtracked and explained to the man that we were fine. He kept insisting that we didn’t want to hike the trail and I tried to clarify if the trail wasn’t passable. He said the trail was passable but too hard for us (wow, dude). He was giving off really bad vibes, so we managed to ditch him, but we were both feeling a bit shaken once we got to the forestry road.

Neither of us wanted to backtrack, but nor did we really want to keep going. I was really nervous about the condition of the trail further on. It was all downhill, so I didn’t want to have to backtrack again later. The trail ended up being totally fine, it was wide and a gentle downhill for 90% of it. It definitely saved us time from walking the winding road to Agordo, but I think the road would have been better for our sanity. It was like we were both waiting for this guy to pop back out of the woods and abduct us. I was seriously concerned that he knew where we were headed and I was worried he might be waiting for us at the end of the trail (the joys of being a woman).

We didn’t encounter a single other person on the trail, so it appeared to not be in frequent use, but it also had a ton of signs on it advertising the direction of a trail race that had occurred at some point in the past, so it’s clearly used for something. The trail did get narrower (and creepier) towards the end, the closer we got to town, but we eventually popped out of the woods onto one of Agordo’s town roads and immediately felt 100% better. So terrain-wise, the trail wasn’t a bad idea, it wasn’t hard (especially in comparison to the rest of the Alta Via 1), and it saved us time, but it wasn’t a nice way to end an 8 day trek, to which I’d really like to tell that man, F-you for ruining our final kilometres.

We walked into town and had the most delicious cheap gas station style pizza I’ve ever had, before walking to the bus station to catch a ride to Belluno. Things got a bit hilarious at this point because we didn’t realize we’d be taking the bus at the same time as approximately 500 high school kids. When the bus finally showed up, they all rushed it and Kristine and I were left feeling very overwhelmed. We did manage to get on the bus, but it was a long and crowded ride with our backpacks. The whole thing felt surreal and we had a good laugh that after escaping a potential abduction, we were going to die in a stampede of sweaty teenagers.

And that pretty much concluded our trek on the Alta Via 1! We had a nice hotel room in Belluno and treated ourselves to more pizza for dinner. I must profusely thank Kristine for inviting me to join her on this hike because I honestly loved the experience. I’m a bit of a sucker for punishment and love roughing it on a good wilderness hike, but I could definitely get on board with the hut to hut European experience every now and then! The trail was incredibly scenic and varied and overall, the huts were phenomenal. I feel like every experience on the Alta Via is different. In total, we hiked 100km of trail, with ~80km of AV1 trail and ~60km of the traditional route. It was such a cool experience and I would definitely do it again to add on some of the original route that I missed and to tag the last section of trail to Belluno. In conclusion, it was a 5-star experience for me and I feel so grateful to have had the opportunity!

Hiking the Alta Via 1: Fanes to Averau

January 10, 2026January 30, 2026 / Maria / 3 Comments

Welcome back to my trail report series on the week I spent hiking the Alta Via 1 in the Italian Dolomites. Last week I posted about the start of the trail and the first 20km of hiking between Lago di Braies and Rifugio Fanes. On Day 3, we left Fanes in the early morning to start our hike up to the top of Forcella dl Lech, one of the largest passes on the trail. This section of trail can sometimes be difficult to access if there’s poor weather due to exposure, but we had great condition and no concerns as we made our approach!

This was probably my favourite day on the trail. We were among the last hikers to leave the rifugio in the morning, but we only had 10km and 500m of elevation gain ahead of us, so we were feeling positive. It was quite chilly when we started off, but we started off with a short, but steep, climb up to the alpine plateau, which really warmed us up. The sun came out soon after and there were lots of horses grazing in the meadows, so Kristine spent some time with them, while I continued on to a small lake called Lago di Lemo. There’s no big lakes on the Alta Via 1, aside from Lago di Braies, so the opportunities for swimming were limited, but I was determined to swim in as many as possible.

There was no one around, so I hurried off to the lake and was able to get in a quick skinny dip before any other hikers showed up. A lot of the “lakes” are really just tarns, so some are quite shallow or don’t have the best water quality, but this one was really nice. We’d barely started hiking though, so we didn’t linger and continued on to a small cafe located in the valley. We debated stopping for a snack, but it was still quite early and neither of us were hungry, so we continued on through the valley.

There were lots of cows hanging out in the meadows, which Kristine loved, but we kept our distance because one of the mama’s was getting a bit worked up over her calf running off without her. For the most part, the livestock is harmless, but you should still respect them and maintain a safe distance. A man was trampled to death by a cow on a nearby hike previous to our trip, so accidents do happen.

Once we reached the end of the valley, the trail started to get a lot more crowded. The Pass is a popular day hike that can be done from the small town of Sciare, so we encountered a lot more hikers. When you reach the end of the valley, the trail starts to climb and you gain 400m of elevation over ~2.5km. At first it’s a more gentle ascent, but it gets steeper as you go. While we were hiking through the valley, we spotted the pass off in the distance and joked about what a brutal hike that would be. Then we started hiking up the mountainside and quickly realized it’s where we were headed!

Honestly, I loved this part of the hike. It was tiring, but the views were phenomenal! In my opinion, the trail up to the top of the pass had some of the best views of the trip. Plus, we really lucked out with the weather and it was a gorgeous sunny day. It made it a bit hot for hiking, but there was a nice breeze from the ridge. We stopped partway up for a snack and to enjoy the view, then continued on for another section of trail before stopping for lunch. I’d been planning to eat my sandwich at the top of the pass, but I got pretty hungry as we hiked and decided to just enjoy the view and eat it on the side of the mountain. There are no bad decisions on when to stop because the entire trail is stunning!

The last push to the top is quite steep and has lots of loose rock, but eventually you reach the gap in the mountain that forms the pass. The trail down the other side appears to disappear into nothing, so we hung out for a little bit, but didn’t stay too long because it was cold and windy at the top.

All I can really say about this pass is – thank goodness we were hiking this trail south! While the hike up the pass felt steep, it’s really nothing compared to the hike down. The downhill portion of the hike is almost vertical through engineered switchbacks that were built up into staircases at some point in the region’s history. I’d guess during one of the world wars, as there was lots of war infrastructure and tunnel systems around this part of the trail.

The backside of the pass involves hiking down 300m over less than a kilometre, making it twice as steep as the hike up. I was worried about my knees, which are sensitive to downhill, but the elevation loss is over such a short period of time, that they held up pretty well. Though we caught up with our American friend from Fanes and she was definitely struggling.

The views across to the other side of the trail were just as stunning as the hike up in the morning. From the pass, you can see straight across to Rifugio Lagazuoi, which is one of the most iconic Rifugios on the trail. We weren’t lucky enough to score reservations at Lagazuoi, which was disappointing, but a bit of a relief when we realized we didn’t have to hike up the other side that day.

The real reward of this part of the trail was that there’s another small lake at the base of the pass. Kristine doesn’t like cold water, so she didn’t participate in any of my swims, but there was no way I was hiking down that pass, staring at the lake the entire time, without swimming in it at the bottom! Especially because it was so warm in the afternoon. It was a really small water body and it wasn’t very deep, but it was still refreshing.

It was after my swim that we realized our next hut, Rifugio Scotoni, required hiking downhill another 150m. It doesn’t sound like a lot of elevation after everything else we’d already done, but it was disappointing because it was located off the trail, so we were going to have to start the next morning with a 150m climb uphill, before doing another 550m of uphill to Lagazuoi. At first, we were a bit disappointed with Rifugio Scotoni, mostly because we had wanted to be staying at the iconic Lagazuoi hut, but it grew on us. It was much less busy than Lagazuoi, and it had alpacas, which Kristine quickly befriended.

We were assigned a 4-bed dorm, which we shared with two German guys. We enjoyed the afternoon hanging out at the bar and soaking in the sun, although the experience was slightly ruined by a very loud French group, who we avoided all evening because one of the guys was wearing a shirt that said “51st State”, with the American flag inside a maple leaf. So we stewed and gave them mean glares like the non-confrontational Canadians we are (well, I am, Kristine can be pretty confrontational, lol, but there were at least 8 people in the group, so we were too intimidated to say anything).

It was super hot in the room overnight, so we didn’t sleep well, though it was freezing when we set off the next morning. We trudged our way back up the 150m to the trail junction, which Kristine was really not feeling, but the hike across the alpine to Lagazuoi was more enjoyable than expected. We were able to keep to the shade for a while, which was nice, because once the sun hits you, it’s really hot.

It was Day 4 for us and we’d yet to experience any bad weather, so we considered ourselves extremely lucky. In the summer, it’s very common for it to be hot in the morning, but then have a rainstorm roll in in the afternoon. We didn’t experience that at all. In fact, it was nice for 6 days straight, so I would say that from my experience, late September isn’t the worst time to visit.

It’s a little under 3km from the Scotoni junction to the Lagazuoi junction. Rifugio Lagazuoi is located off the main trail as well, so you don’t actually have to hike up there if you’re not staying at the hut. It’s another ~150m of gain over a little more than 1km, so you are adding a fair bit of elevation gain to hike to the top. I was determined to do it, with or without Kristine. Honestly, I thought she was going to skip it because she doesn’t like hiking uphill in the heat (who does?), but she was having a good morning, so she decided to hike up there with me. It helped that the sun was behind the mountain, so the hike up was mostly in the shade.

I’m really glad we did because there is so much history along the side of the mountain in this area. There’s all kinds of defensive infrastructure from the war, including a very extensive tunnel network. The tunnels are easy to visit on the way up to Lagazuoi, so we took our time and dipped in and out of the tunnels, which run along the ridge. So you can hike in from one side of the mountain, and then look out through windows down onto the other side of the mountain. It’s very cool!

You can take a gondola from the base all the way up to the top of Lagazoui, so there were a lot of people around when we reached the top at lunchtime. We stopped for a sweet treat and a drink and I finally tried kaiserschmarrn, which is a big German pancake. It looks a bit like a funnel cake, and it’s basically just scrambled pancakes covered in applesauce and icing sugar. It’s pretty tasty, but honestly, it could have used a bit of maple syrup (lol, I know). It was a cloudless day and the views from the top of the peak are absolutely stunning, so we enjoyed the experience, but were a bit apprehensive about our remaining mileage for the day.

We still only had 12km of hiking on day 4, but unlike the two previous days, we also had over 1000m of elevation gain. When we left Lagazuoi, we had to immediately hike down 600m to the highway, just to hike back up 350m on the other side of the road. I can’t lie, the hike downhill was rough. One of the biggest differences I noticed between Italian and Canadian trails was ease of terrain. Canadian trails usually try and take the path of least resistance to the top. If that involves switchbacking back and forth across the mountain, no problem. In Italy, switchbacks only seem to be used when absolutely necessary, like when coming down Forcella dl Lech, which is too steep for anything but switchbacks. The hike down Lagazuoi was brutal, mostly because the trail went straight down the mountain. It’s all lose rock and it’s hard to maintain your speed on the way down. It’s exhausting on the knees and our legs were like jelly by the time we finally made it to the bottom. It didn’t take too long because of the direct route, but no part of it was fun.

This area is called Passo Falzarego and we made a beeline to the local tourist shop and cafe for a bathroom break and another sweet treat. Kristine didn’t eat at the top of Lagazuoi, so she had her dessert, while I had a popsicle to cool down. It was pretty much just us and a bunch of biker dudes on the side of the highway, so we had a good laugh at ourselves while perched on the curb with burly men walking all around us.

We had ~4km of hiking left for the afternoon and we ended up splitting up for part of it. Kristine wanted to go direct to our hut at Rifugio Averau, but I was keen to fit in another swim, which involved a small detour. It was very hot, so Kristine continued on the main road, while I diverted to Lago di Limedes. From afar, this lake looks really cute, but it was probably one of the worst swims I had on the trail. At this point, I was trying to maintain a trend of swimming every day, so I wasn’t picky. Even up close, the lake looks nice, but it’s tiny and once you start to wade into it, you notice that it’s completely filled with slimy green algae that just floats around in the shallows. It was the warmest water of the trip, but I could easily understand why I was the only one swimming.

Kristine had a bit of a diabetic crash out while we were apart, so I ended up catching up to her again where she took a break to eat some sugar. Before you get to Averau, you have to hike to the top of Forcella Averau, which has more technical section that involves climbing up a chimney before you reach the top. Kristine was cursing at the chimney, but we both had to admit that the views were pretty stellar once we reached the top! You cross over the back of Mount Averau and then arrive at the Rifugio, which is nestled in the pass at the base of Mount Nuvolao.

Rifugio Nuvolao is the other iconic hut on the Alta Via 1. It’s the oldest hut on the trail and it’s serviced only by a cable car, so it’s pretty small. We didn’t score reservations at Nuvolao either because Mac’s Adventure Travels really let us down on the bookings, but I didn’t mind like I did with Scotoni, because the views from Averau were breathtaking! Overall, day 4 was my second favourite day on the trail (after day 3), but Rifugio Averau was my favourite hut of the trip.

This was the first day that we weren’t the first people to arrive to our dorm room – instead we were the last to arrive in our room of 6. It was one of the smallest rooms we stayed in, but our dormmates were all very nice and we be-friended two hikers from Singapore. We also had a balcony with an amazing view, which we marred by hanging all our sweaty clothes from it.

We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting out on the patio with a couple of beers, enjoying the view. As the sun went down, we got the most stunning sunset, which we enjoyed over supper. In my opinion, Averau had the best food on the trail and I couldn’t resist breaking my one-drink rule with a second glass of wine.

We sat next to a large group of older men, who were giggling over a photo of a phallic shaped rock that some other hikers had sent them. We saw it from across the table and started giggling too, much to their chagrin because they thought they’d offended our “young” sensibilities. We all ended up having a good laugh over it and learned that a bunch of them had recently travelled to Newfoundland, so we swapped a few stories.

We took in the stars while burning off a bit of energy after dinner to conclude what was really a perfect day on the trail. At this point, I felt like I was hitting my stride on the trail and I was honestly loving every second of it. It was unlike any trail I’ve ever hiked and the luxury of being able to hike with a light pack, eat a full meal every night, have a shower, and sleep in a real bed, were all such treats. More of the second half of the trail coming next week!

Hiking Tre Cime di Lavaredo

December 27, 2025December 10, 2025 / Maria / 2 Comments

Now that I’ve finally gotten caught up on writing about all of my summer adventures in BC, it’s time to loop you in on an exciting holiday I took in late September! If you follow me on instagram, you probably already know that I spent two weeks exploring around the Dolomites. If you’re not following me on instagram, do it! I post so many photos and reels there @mariaadey.

The Dolomites is a mountainous region in Northern Italy. If you follow many outdoor influencers, you’ve probably already seen photos of them because the area has become increasingly popular among hiking enthusiasts. To be honest, it wasn’t really on my radar or bucket list. I was more intrigued by the Tour du Mont Blanc in France, but when an opportunity came up to join my friend Kristine on a trip to the Dolomites to hike the Alta Via 1, I couldn’t pass up the chance! The Alta Via 1 is a popular hut-to-hut thru-hike that extends for 120km through many popular hiking areas in the region. But more on that later, first I want to focus on a very well known hike called Tre Cime di Lavaredo.

I flew into Venice in mid-September and immediately jumped on a bus to meet Kristine in Cortina D’Ampezzo. You may have heard a lot about it recently because it’s one of the main host cities for the 2026 Winter Olympics. We had two days in Cortina to prepare for the Alta Via 1, but while there, we couldn’t miss the opportunity to hike Tre Cime di Lavaredo, which is located just east of Cortina. I landed in Venice at 4pm, was on a bus to Cortina by 6pm, and by 8am the following morning, we were waiting to catch a bus to the trailhead. So I certainly didn’t waste any time hitting the mountains!

If you’ve been to the Dolomites, or follow anyone who hikes there, chances are, you’ve seen photos of this hike. Tre Cime is to the Dolomites, what Joffres Lakes is to Vancouver. It’s an incredibly scenic hike that is fairly easy to hike and reasonably accessible. Every tourist in the Dolomites seems to have heard of this hike and plans to do it. That might make it a little bit unattractive to some – I definitely prefer to avoid these kinds of hikes at home – but when in Italy, I don’t mind sampling the main attractions!

It is possible to transit to most places in Italy, but it is definitely a confusing system to navigate. Most visitors drive through the Dolomites, but even that has its challenges because crowded parking lots have led to new tolls and restrictions (not unlike at Joffre Lakes). If you want to visit by bus, you need to reserve a ticket in advance, as they will sell out. It took me a crazy amount of time to figure out the bus system and I’m hesitant to even share because the routes are constantly changing.

In the summer, I believe you can take a bus direct from Cortina to Misurina, then pick up the shuttle to the trailhead from there. If you’re travelling in the Fall (like us), then you have to take the 445 bus to Dobbiaco, and then double back on the 444 shuttle (which goes through Misurina) to the trailhead. The 445 bus is a city bus and can be booked through the Sued Tirol Mobil app and the 444 is also a city bus, but it’s been contracted to a third party. This is the most important one to book and the bus that most often sells out. It’s called the 3 peaks hike and can be booked through Drei Zinnen https://www.drei-zinnen.bz/en/ticket.

Both buses travel the same route along highway SS51, so we decided to get off at Lago di Landry instead of going all the way to Dobbiaco. We had a bit of time waiting for connections, but it was a really beautiful stop next to the lake and there’s a little cafe there, so we were able to grab coffee while we waited. The 444 bus picked us up on time and we were able to bypass a lot of confused looking tourists who had parked at the lower lot and we’re looking for a shuttle up to the top of the road where the trail starts.

The trailhead is located next to Rifugio Aurenzo, so it’s a good landmark for planning your day. It’s actually the trailhead to two different hikes: Tre Cime di Lavaredo and Cadini di Misurina. I would say that Cadini di Misurina is just as popular as Tre Cime and I would have loved to do both, but I read that Misurina is a shorter hike with a popular viewpoint that gets extremely crowded with a line to the summit. Tre Cime is also crowded, but due to the longer trail, people get somewhat dispersed. So we just did Tre Cime, but maybe one day I’ll go back for Misurina.

Like I said, we visited in mid-September, but we did this hike on a Sunday, so it was still extremely busy. We got some excellent views as we were driving up the road to the trailhead, but it was quite cloudy when we arrived at the top. The nice thing about this hike is that it’s a loop, so you don’t have to re-do any of the terrain. You can hike in either direction, but more people like to do the route counter-clockwise – it’s supposed to make the elevation gain easier.

The hike is certainly forgiving when you start, as you walk along a wide road that looks down over the valley. We didn’t get many views on the way out due to the clouds, but Kristine is a huge livestock enthusiast and there were lots of cows, so she was running around trying to photograph them all. It’s ~1km of easy walking to a small church that looks out over the valley, and then another ~600m to the first hut of the trail: Rifugio Lavaredo. In total there are 4 huts along the route (including Aurenzo at the trailhead), but Lavaredo was my favourite one. Kristine was immediately distracted by the hut’s pet goats, while I purchased our first sweet treat of the trip!

One thing I quickly discovered about Italy is to enjoy the opportunities for sweet treats and coffee. Unfortunately I am not a coffee drinker, which was too bad because there’s a huge coffee culture there, but Kristine would always grab a cappuccino and we quickly started making our way through as many of Italy’s sweet treats as possible. The first one was a cannolo, which was a chimney cake filled with cream. It was delicious, but rarer than we thought, as I didn’t encounter any more hut cannolo’s until the end of the trip! We hung out for a while at the hut in order to give the clouds some time to clear off. It didn’t really work, but we still enjoyed the break.

After Lavaredo, you head up towards Tre Cime, which translates to “three peaks”. It’s ~1km to hike up to the top of the pass. You can follow the road, or take the shortcut along the mountainside. We just followed the road because it’s less steep. It was very busy at the top of the pass and from there, a lot of people branch off to explore via ferratas and other routes. I would say that the top of the pass is one of the best views on the trail, so take the time to enjoy it. We had a great view looking down the other side of the pass to the next rifugio, but the peaks were still shrouded in cloud. Personally, I think this just added to the experience and we got cool misty photos of the huge rock monoliths.

At this point, we’d hiked less than 3km at a very slow pace, so we decided we had to try and pick things up a bit. This was easier said than done as the views are so incredible along the entire route and we were constantly taking photos. I took 500 photos over the course of the day, which I thought was a bit extreme for one hike, but Kristine took over 800, so I finally found someone even more enthusiastic!

It’s a pretty easy walk down from the pass, but there is a short climb to get up to the next rifugio, which is known as the Dreiszinnenhutte. It was the biggest hut on the trail and a popular place to stop for lunch. The hut looks down on a small lake and there’s another little chapel next to the hut. One of the first things I was surprised to learn was how heavy the German influence is in the Dolomites. The hut architecture throughout the region is very Bavarian, as is the cuisine. I was expecting to see lots of pizza and pasta, and while there was pasta, I didn’t see a lot of pizza. Instead, there was lots of bratwurst and schnitzel on the menus.

Kristine ordered a bratwurst for lunch and I ordered a “split pea soup with dough balls”. If you’re from Newfoundland, you can definitely guess what I was envisioning for this meal. A thick, pureed split pea soup with balls of cooked bread. What I actually got was a thin and greasy vegetable broth with green peas that had been battered and deep fried. Honestly, it wasn’t a bad meal, but it definitely didn’t sit well in my stomach after so much traveling. But at the time, we enjoyed a nice lunch break with some German beer.

Dreizinnenhutte marks the halfway point of the hike, so we continued on after lunch with some downhill switchbacks through the alpine. I think this section of trail is why it’s recommended to hike counter clockwise – the switchbacks make for a tiring hike if you walk the other direction. We still stopped a lot for photos along the way. It was our first introduction to the Italian alpine environment, which is very barren. I’m sure it’s not helped by the fact that we were heading into Fall and everything was dying, but it did surprise me how accessible the alpine is in Italy. I’m used to hiking all day through the trees to get to the alpine in Canada, but in Italy, you can easily start and finish in the alpine. It makes for a scenic hike, but it can also be very tiring with the lack of shade. Fall seemed to be the perfect time for us. It was still warm enough to wear shorts most of the time, without having to deal with summer levels of heat. Although it was still hotter than we’d anticipated.

What was disappointing to see was all the people not following leave no trace principles. In the same way that people like to stack rocks in North America, people have gotten into the habit of re-arranging rocks in the alpine to spell out names and messages. There’s a large flat valley at the bottom of the switchbacks and the entire meadow was filled with rock signs, which really mar the landscape – it was sad to see.

After crossing the valley, we were rewarded with a big climb up the other side. It was a struggle as it was getting warmer, but we crawled our way up to the top and continued on to the last hut of the day. The clouds had lifted a lot since we’d started the hike and we got a great view of the three peaks along the last section of trail. We stopped at the final hut and got some photos hear a little pond that made for a nice viewpoint. After the hut, you crest the top of the pass and you get a view out towards Cadini di Misurina, so we stopped here for a while to admire the jagged peaks, and then concluded the hike at Rifugio Auronzo.

We celebrated with an apple strudel and boarded our bus back to Cortina. We stopped again at Lago di Landry, but the cafe was closed for the day. I temporarily freaked Kristine out with a malfunctioning bus ticket for the last segment of our trip. This was my first time using an e-sim while traveling (usually I buy a sim card locally or just go without). The e-sim was a really cheap and an easy way to use data while traveling and I’ll definitely be using it again, but sometimes my phone would get confused choosing between networks and we weren’t able to load our bus ticket at the lake because there was limited service. The bus driver let us ride anyways and I eventually figured it out, but overall, the bus system is really not very intuitive.

Either way, I felt that Tre Cime was a great introduction to the Dolomites! I’m glad we did it before the Alta Via, because I think it wouldn’t have been quite as impressive after a week on that trail, but I really did enjoy the experience, in spite of the large crowds. If you want to visit, make sure you do take the time to plan out your trip and how you will get there, because you won’t necessarily be able to visit on the fly. Be prepared to do the hike with 5000 other people, but fortunately, the views will outshine the crowds!