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: Averau to Coldai

January 24, 2026January 30, 2026 / Maria / 1 Comment

After a fun night at Averau, we decided to start Day 5 with a hike up to Rifugio Nuvolau, which is the oldest rifugio on the Alta Via 1. You can see Nuvolau from Averau, so it’s only an extra 1km of hiking, though it does add an extra 175m of elevation gain. We left our packs at Averau and hiked up to the top to enjoy the view and a sweet treat. Nuvolau doesn’t have any road access, so while the other huts can get their supplies delivered by car, Nuvolau uses a cable system to haul supplies up and down the mountain. As a result, it’s a much smaller hut, so I didn’t mind that we stayed at Averau.

Since it was early morning, it wasn’t crowded at Nuvolau, but it was a weekend, so the rest of the trail was very busy. The main attraction in this area is Cinque Torri, which is a small collection of 5 peaks that seem to be popular among both day hikers and climbers. We were a little bit surprised by Cinque Torri, which we could see from the top of Nuvolau. It’s a cool collection of rock features, but it’s so small in comparison to Tre Cime, that it kind of failed to impress us. Which goes to show how quickly you can get used to the stunning scenery. Less than a week in the Dolomites, and we were already minimalizing the views!

As we hiked back down to Averau to pick up our bags, there were quite a few day hikers starting their hike. From Averau, you hike downhill for approximately 1.5km to get to Rifugio Scoiattoli. This rifugio is serviced by a gondola that goes back to the main highway, so this is how most of the day hikers were accessing the area. It’s a pretty concentrated area for attractions – in addition to Rifugio Scoiattoli, Averau, and Nuvolau, there’s also Rifugio Cinque Torri, which is located right underneath Cinque Torri (less than 1km from Scoiattoli). Combined with the nice weekend weather, the area was very crowded.

We opted not to spend very much time at Cinque Torri, instead we just watched some of the climbers for a bit before continuing on. The crowds almost immediately dissipated as we continued our hike towards our next rifugio: Rifugio Croda da Lago. At the time, I didn’t realize that we were actually diverging from the traditional Alta Via 1 trail at this point (as well as on the previous day). While we had accessed Averau through Passo Falzarego, the traditional trail actually continued through Forcella col dei Bos on the north side of the highway, eventually crossing back over and passing through Cinque Torri on the way to Averau. From Averau, the traditional trail then continued south through Passo Giau on onwards.

Rifugio Croda da Lago wasn’t on the traditional trail route, so it would have added distance for us to go through Passo Giau, so I don’t mind that we took a more direct route to get there. Over the years, the trail has developed lots of alternative sections. From what I understand – these trails are still considered the Alta Via 1, they’re just not the original route. All the trails in the region are beautiful, so I wouldn’t worry too much about following the traditional route.

One of the benefits of our route for Day 5 was that we finally got to do a bit of forest walking. It was another hot and sunny day, so it was nice to have a bit of shade for a change. Once we left Cinque Torri, the trail hikes east down to highway SP638. There weren’t a lot of people on the trail down to the highway, but there was a lot of cars parked on the road and more hikers on the trail towards Croda da Lago, so that seemed to be a popular trail for day hiking as well.

The trail is mostly through the woods – it’s a gentle uphill along the river for the first section, but then it gets steeper as you ascend to a viewpoint that looks out towards Cortina. We stopped for a few breaks along the way and I had a set back when I realized I had lost the mouthpiece to my water bladder somewhere along the trail. I backtracked one section of the trail to look for it, but I didn’t have any luck, so I had to switch to using a water bottle for the rest of the trip.

It was a hot climb up to the viewpoint, but then we had a nice meandering walk through a larch forest to get to Croda da Lago, which is located on Lago Federa. It’s a really pretty lake, surrounded by steep mountains on the west side, with the rifugio at the far south end. It was incredibly busy with day hikers when we arrived at the lake. Terrain-wise, it was a pretty reasonable day on the trail, as we’d only hiked 12km and 600m of elevation, so we arrived early in the afternoon.

Kristine was really keen to just get to the rifugio, but I wanted to go for a swim, so she continued on while I looked for somewhere to get in the water. The problem is that the lake is a bit swampy along the edges and it was really hard to find anywhere that looked appealing to walk in (even though the water itself looked very inviting). Eventually, I was able to bushwack down to a big rock that I could jump off, but I had to swim quickly because I was losing the sun behind the mountains and it cools off a lot once the sun goes down. I managed to slip in for a dip just before losing the light, but like many of the other lakes, it wasn’t the nicest swim as it had a very mucky bottom.

Croda da Lago was definitely not our favourite rifugio. In fact, the accommodations definitely went downhill after leaving Averau and we learned how spoiled we’d really been earlier in the trip. It was still much nicer than the camping I do in Canada, but apparently we’d quickly gotten used to the amenities and we were a bit bummed to lose them. We were in a 6 person dorm for the evening, but there ended up only being 3 of us for the night. It could have been great, but this was the first time we had an un-friendly dormmate and we were annoyed to discover that there were no chargers inside the bedrooms, nor were there free showers.

There was however, a sauna! I signed up for a spot before suppertime and enjoyed some relaxation time in the heat. I was a little bit unsure about the norms for sauna in Italy though. Most of my sauna experience was in Finland, which definitely loves sauna. I’d only done wet sauna in Finland and everyone at this sauna was doing dry sauna, which I didn’t really like. I’m not sure if this is standard for the area or if it was user error, as everyone in there was a tourist. There was a cold plunge pool outside as well, so I went back and forth between both.

Dinner was nice, but overall we noted that the owners of this rifugio just didn’t seem to care about the little details as much as the other rifugios. For example, in addition to not having chargers in the room or free showers, they skipped out on other amenities, like a boot room and drying racks, which meant if you have any wet gear, it’s going to stay wet (and smelly). Overall, the little things add up to detract from the overall experience, so it wasn’t our favourite hut, but I do feel a bit silly to be complaining about it.

Day 6 was a bit of a mixed bag. It was the last day of nice weather, but we had one of our longer days on the trail, needing to cover 17km and 800m of elevation. Like I mentioned in my last post, I was really feeling great on this hike and I was still enjoying the terrain, but I think Kristine started to hit a wall on Day 6. She did fine with the trail, but overall seemed ready to be done with the hike, which I can get when you’re 6 days in. We started with a hike up Forcella Ambrizzola, which was about 2km of uphill from the lake, but fortunately, not too steep. After that, we had a lot of downhill to get to Rifugio Citta di Fiume and Rifugio Staulanza, which is located at Passo Staulanza along the highway.

I really loved this section of trail. We were back in the alpine and wandered along wide trail through the mountains before heading back into the trees to get to Citta di Fiume. Kristine continued on ahead of me through this section, while I took a lot of photos along the way. We decided to skip Citta di Fiume and instead, continued hiking another few kilometres to get down to the highway. The big attraction along this part of the trail is Mount Pelmo, which is a huge monolith of a mountain that dominates the skyline. There’s a really cool section of the trail after Citta di Fiume where you hike across the base of Mount Pelmo, but we could also see all the way back to where we’d started the trail earlier that morning. It’s neat to be able to look back on how far you’ve come!

Passo Staulanza is really more of a roadside stop, so I’m glad we didn’t stay at that rifugio. I’d read somewhere online that Staulanza had the best hot chocolate, but I have no idea where I read it or how old the information was, because it didn’t seem to be a thing. It was the main reason we’d pushed through to Staulanza, so we decided to stop for lunch instead. We’d knocked out 10.5km of our 17km day, so we were feeling pretty good, although apprehensive about a big climb in the afternoon.

The first section of trail after Staulanza really sucks because you have to hike along the road for 1km and there’s no trail and very little shoulder, so make sure you hike on the opposite side of the road and exercise caution. Eventually you hit a junction and have to hike along an old dirt road to a cafe before you can meet up with the trail again. This is where the trail starts to go uphill again and there’s a lot of elevation gain before we arrived at our final destination at Refugio Coldai.

The hike up from the cafe is particularly steep, though it was the first section of trail where I was reminded that Fall would soon be here. Some of the trees and shrubs were starting to change colour and there was a beautiful view back toward Mount Pelmo. Eventually you crest the first hill and you have a small bit of downhill before the final push to Coldai. There’s a small lake next to the refugio, Lago di Coldai, that also seemed to be a popular day hiking destination, so there were a lot of people along the trail.

The last push to Coldai is pretty rough. It’s very steep, although it is possible to switchback up the mountain. Europeans really are built differently because even though the trail provided a rare opportunity to switchback (making the ascent easier), there was still so much erosion where people have created shortcuts to bypass the switchbacks and hike directly up the mountain. We didn’t take any of the shortcuts, as the switchbacks were still steep enough in my opinion!

The other thing that surprised me is the seeming lack of any kind of trail etiquette on crowded trails. At home, it’s pretty well accepted that when passing on narrow trails, you always give the right of way to the person hiking uphill, and when on flat terrain, you always give the right of way to the person with the bigger pack. Given that we were backpacking uphill, we should have always had the right of way, but I’m not exaggerating when I say that I don’t think a single one of the hundreds of day hikers I passed (who were coming down the trail) gave me the right of way. When you’re already struggling uphill, it gets really annoying when there’s a constant stream of people pushing their way past you. I’m not sure if this is just a cultural difference and I needed to get over it… I could overlook it on most sections of the trail, but it really bothered me at this point.

Eventually we made it to the top and discovered that Coldai had a similar approach to management as Croda da Lago, but I was more accepting of it because Coldai was a very remote hut. Similar to Nuvolau, it didn’t have any roads and was only serviced by a small cable trolley, so I was understand that it would be more challenging to provide services. We were again assigned to a 6-person dorm with only 3 people, but our dormmate was much more friendly. He was visiting from Germany to hike the via ferrata’s and we had a nice chat about our respective trips and the differences between hiking in Europe and Canada.

Suppertime was a bit later at Coldai and the weather was supposed to change the following day, so we decided to hike the 500m up to Lago di Coldai before dinner. It was such a great decision because the conditions at the lake were phenomenal! It was around 6pm, so almost all of the day hikers had left and the lake was pretty empty. You could tell the weather was starting to change for the first time in 6 days because the clouds started to roll in, which made for the most dramatic formations around the mountain peaks. The lake was really beautiful and it ended up being one of my favourite views of the entire trip, so of course, I had to go for one last swim!

We returned to the Rifugio feeling pretty satisfied with the views and the weather over the past week. We enjoyed dinner before heading to bed early before our last full day on the trail. We’d have to make some difficult decisions the following day about what to do about an incoming rainstorm, but more on that in my final post next week!

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!