Italian Dolomites Hut-to-Hut Trek

Ever wish you could travel somewhere that's so spectacular, so overwhelmingly gorgeous, that it makes all of life's worries seem small?

The Alta Via 1 [AV1] trek in the Italian Dolomites is that kind of place.

The past two weeks, a bunch of GOers spent their days trekking in the Dolomites followed by sightseeing in Venice including kayaking the Venice canals.

The Alta Via 1 is a walking trail through the Italian Dolomites, for 75 miles from Dobbiaco in the North to Belluno in the South. The highest point reached by the standard route is 9,029ft and the height gain on the route is around 21,833ft. It took us 8 days to complete the trek. Life on the AV1 quickly fell into a relaxing pattern. The huts were welcoming and the food excellent.

It's impossible to put into words just how breathtaking this beauty is...

So we'd like to do our best to show you. See our sample of our pictures below! We will have more pictures uploaded into our SmugMug Photo Gallery in the near future and will provide a link to it here and in an upcoming newsletter.

From soaring rock towers to grassy alpine meadows the Italian Dolomites offered us some of the most dramatic, exciting and challenging hiking areas in the Alps. Strikingly different from the French or Swiss Alps, the limestone Dolomites rise dramatically from narrow valleys to form impressive spires, canyons, sheer rock walls rising 3,000′ and huge limestone plateaus. Beginning in the Italian Sud Tirol, the hike brought us south along the high route, Alta Via 1, through the Pragser, Tofana, and Civetta mountain groups. The impressiveness of the scenery and the variety of terrain on this route is matched only by the warmth and hospitality offered by the mountain huts. The unusual contrasts in landscapes, changing colors and textures of the mountains and curious mix of Italian and Austrian influences meant fantastic hiking, stunning scenery and plenty of pasta. 
 

We could hardly believe the breathtaking views that greeted us each morning.

We started out trekking with beautiful sunny days and cool mornings. We had to cut short the trek at the end due to inclement weather. Here is a summary of our itinerary with comments:

Arrive in Dobbiaco [Nice small village with great views for the overnight stay at the start; Peter found a great restaurant specializing in Austrian cuisine.]

Stage 1: Bus to Lago di Braies. Walk to Rifugio Sennes, (8 miles), 4,419 feet ascent [We added a breathtaking climb to snowy Croda del Broco at 9,219 feet; we could hardly eat all the food that was served at dinner in the Rifugio. The cooler temperatures resulted with the Dolomites dusted with snow!]

Stage 2: Walk to Garni Ai Pini Hotel in the village of San Cassiano, (11.4 miles), 1995 feet ascent [A laidback stroll along former military roads and across undulating stony pasture uplands, became, little by little, more enthralling as all manner of Dolomites are approached!]

Stage 3: Walk to Rifugio Lagazuoi with a stay in Hotel Ambra in the village of Cortina d’Ampezzo, (5miles), 3,366 feet ascent [We entered the dramatic and breathtaking Cortina Dolomites not that it’s been too bad thus far! A tiring climb concluded at the highest point on the AV1 Rifugio Lagazuoi with an elevation of 9,028 feet that has an unrivalled vantage point; lunch at the Rifugio was delicious and our descent down the semi-dark wartime rock tunnels with our headlamps was one of the highlights of our trek. It was fun exploring the village of Cortina d’Ampezzo.]  

Stage 4: Walk to Rifugio Nuvolau, (8.7 miles), 2,952 feet ascent [We embarked on a memorable traverse below the awesome Tofana di Rozes, dropped to Cortina-Passo Falzerego and then climbed through forest to the fascinating, renowed Cinque Torri area, with a magnificent conclusion at lookout par excellence Rifugio Nuvolau. Viewing the sunrise with an undercast in the morning was one of the highlights of our trek!]

Stage 5: Walk to Rifugio Citta' di Fiume, (9.5 miles), 1,312 ascent [We started with a nerve wracking short via ferrata to get us over the rocky realms of the Nuvolau, crossed the road pass Passo Giau and then had a few moderate climbs that lead to a magnificent open pasture basin, once the hunting ground of Mesolithic men. Panoramas were non-stop as a brilliant line-up of Dolomites came into view!]

Stage 6: Walk to Rifugio Vazzoler, (11 miles), 2,460 feet ascent [A spectacular traverse gave us ample time to appreciate the Pelmo from close quarters with a straightforward way via a road pass for a stiff climb to a superbly run alpine hut, Rifugio Coldai where we had an excellent lunch. We then had an absolutely brilliant stage spent appreciating the phenomenal Civetta, one of the most impressive Dolomite formations!]

Stage 7: Walk to Rifugio Sommariva al Pramperet, (12.5 miles) [Due to pouring rain, we decided not to hike this stage and spent another night at Rifugio Vazzoler.]

Stage 8: Walk to La Stanga. Bus to Belluno, (11 miles) [We took the exit route to Listolade from Rifugio Vazzoler by following a jeep track and then a surfaced road. We then hopped on a bus to Belluno. We enjoyed the pleasant alpine village of Belluno and submitted our rifugi stamps collected en route at the Tourist Office to obtain our well-earned AV1 badge!]

Depart from Belluno to Venice. [Jon and I included some pictures of our Venice kayaking adventure exploring the canals of Venice.]

We had a brilliant time and we can’t thank enough the GOers spirit and adventure for making this a memorable trip!!! Thanks to: Rob, Jim, Peter, Richard and Bob.  

We invite you to see the adventure we've had by viewing a sample of our pictures below. We will have more pictures uploaded into our SmugMug Photo Gallery in the near future and will provide a link to it here and in an upcoming newsletter. 

~ Mike and Jon

The Alta Via 1 is a walking trail through the Italian Dolomites, for 75 miles from Dobbiaco in the North to Belluno in the South. The highest point reached by the standard route is 9,029ft and the height gain on the route is around 21,833ft. It will take us 8 days to complete the trek. Life on the AV1 quickly falls into a relaxing pattern. The huts are welcoming and the food excellent.

From soaring rock towers to grassy alpine meadows the Italian Dolomites offers some of the most dramatic, exciting and challenging hiking areas in the Alps. Strikingly different from the French or Swiss Alps, the limestone Dolomites rise dramatically from narrow valleys to form impressive spires, canyons, sheer rock walls rising 3,000′ and huge limestone plateaus. Beginning in the Italian Sud Tirol, the hike leads south along the high route, Alta Via 1, through the Pragser, Tofana, and Civetta mountain groups. The impressiveness of the scenery and the variety of terrain on this route is matched only by the warmth and hospitality offered by the mountain huts. The unusual contrasts in landscapes, changing colors and textures of the mountains and curious mix of Italian and Austrian influences means fantastic hiking, stunning scenery and plenty of pasta. This YouTube video will give you flavor of the trek. 

Jon and I have decided to do the entire Alta Via 1 trek for our vacation flying over Saturday, September 2nd on a ‘red-eye’ flight from Boston and flying back Thursday, September 14th. We’ve been working with Alpine Exploratory to contact all of the hotels and huts we would need to stay in. You have the option to stay in Venice for a couple of days after the trek and we can share with you the hotel we are staying in if you’d like to hang out with us. [The Thursday return is based upon spending an additional two nights in Venice.]

THIS IS A MODERATE TO STRENUOUS TREK. Because this is a moderate to strenuous hike, we will not accept everyone who signs up. We’ll be asking you a series of questions as to your hiking experience and fitness level. For example, if you’ve recently climbed a peak like with Mt. Washington that requires climbing up 4,000 feet in one day, you would probably qualify. If not, we would need a history of mountains you’ve climbed in 2016 that makes you think you qualify.

Here is the trekking itinerary:

Arrive in Dobbiaco

Stage 1: Bus to Lago di Braies. Walk to Rifugio Sennes, (6 miles), 925m ascent, 270m descent

Stage 2: Walk to Rifugio Fanes, (6 miles), 530m ascent, 580m descent

Stage 3: Walk to Rifugio Lagazuoi, (7 miles), 1215m ascent, 565m descent

Stage 4: Walk to Rifugio Nuvolau, (9 miles), 870m ascent, 1050m descent

Stage 5: Walk to Rifugio Citta' di Fiume, (9.5 miles), 490m ascent, 1130m descent

Stage 6: Walk to Rifugio Vazzoler, (11 miles), 750m ascent, 950m descent

Stage 7: Walk to Rifugio Sommariva al Pramperet, (12.5 miles), 1110m ascent, 965m descent

Stage 8: Walk to La Stanga. Bus to Belluno, (11 miles), 815m ascent, 2230m descent

Depart from Belluno

This is a self-guided trip but they book all the transportation to and from the trek, hotels/huts along the way, and provide us with maps/route maps [and assistance if we run into any issues during the trek]. Jon and I have trekked the Tour Du Mont Blanc, Alta Via II and Haute Route so we are quite familiar with trekking in Europe. That said, we don’t consider ourselves experts, especially since we’ve never trekked the Alta Via I before so incidents may happen such as missing a bus/train, making a wrong turn on the trek itself and encountering bad weather.  

Since we are not returning to the start, we will be using our backpack to carry everything. No luggage transfers…we carry everything in our pack. We did this for previous treks and did not have any problems. Basically we wore the same clothes often but made sure we had a set of clothes for travelling/relaxing at the hut. It made travelling so much easier in the airports and travelling to/from the trek. The packs should weigh between 20-25 pounds.     

Price per person: $890 Euro (based on double occupancy) Exchange rate as of 12/20/16 makes the price at $925. For a single supplement it’s an additional $60 Euro.

What’s included:

• 9 nights’ accommodations at two small hotels and 7 mountain huts
• Meals included are all breakfasts plus evening meals as all the mountain huts

Travel to Dobbiaco and from Belluno is not included in the price – it’s up to us to make the arrangements that suit us best. Our arrival and departure will be from the Venice airport. For lunches there is lots of opportunity to stock up on ingredients along the route. We will often find huts and cafés during the walking, useful for lunch stops.

The mountain huts provide showers and beer/wine for purchase. You’ll be sharing a room with another person in the hotels. While 4 of these huts have to be in dormitories with bunk beds, at the other 3 huts we have the chance to book smaller rooms and the outfitter is often successful on 2, 3 of these. We could get lucky and have private rooms with only two people. We could end up being a large group and the huts normally only have a couple of private rooms but they will try their best to get them when they can. 

Then the trek itself with huts/hotels, dinner and breakfast will run about $925. In addition, we’ll need extra money for lunches, travel to and from starting point/ending point, beverages [wine/beer], shower tokens, laundry, etc. so allow roughly $200-$350 for these costs. Then if you add the airfare, we are looking around $1,780 per person. I’m not including spending a couple of nights with meals in Venice should you choose to do this.  

We would need $200 deposit at the end of February if you wish to join us. Please note that this is NON-REFUNDABLE! I’ll provide the outfitter with all the names but you’ll be booking with them separately as to making payments. The balance would be due nine weeks prior to our departure. If you are single and would like to partner with someone contact another member who signed up and let us know.