Alta Via 4: Trails, Tales and Via Ferrata
Alta Via 4: Trails, Tales and Via Ferrata
The Full Length Blog, our 60 mile hike in the Italian Dolomites
Day One was beautiful… a decent 9-mile hike day with 4,000 feet of elevation gain. We parked our rental car near San Candido and jumped on a local bus to get over to the trailhead, my wife spent countless hours planning every move on this trek and it paid off immensely. It felt funny to me to get off a bus with our heavy packs on our backs and approach a trail that we would be walking on for the next week. My climbing helmet hung from the outside of my Shimoda Action X50 and my camera bounced on my shoulder strap… I felt good, we felt good and mostly due to the peaceful night we spent at Silentium the night before. A wellness retreat that was perfect to prep our minds and bodies for what lie ahead… 60 miles of some of the hardest hiking and climbing we’ve ever encountered.
We entered the first valley and looked to the peaks that surround us… not another soul in sight, the faint sounds of cow bells rang in the distance as we approached our first Refugio, this was to be a quick stop for an espresso, bathroom break 💩 and back to the trail. We met a cat there, he purred as Ashley pet him… I sipped espresso with a big grin on my face about the adventure that lie ahead. It was a big one… I felt connected to my adventure partner, my wife, and my rock; we would need each other every step of the way.
The first valley was filled with some fluffy cloud inversion which reminded me of the lattes we had been drinking the days before. We hiked thru a large skree field and I could see the switchbacks up ahead. Trekking poles in hand… we approached this first climb with speed and tenacity… Ashley leading the way as she always does, smiling down at me from the top picking out a perfect adventure photo spot. The scenery felt like a mix of the Sawtooths, Colorado’s Rockies, and the Wind River Range. We stopped at a roaring alpine stream, to fill up our bottles…eat a piece of candy (Hi Chew) and keep charging ahead. After every climb, I seem to ask Ashley “Can you see it… do you see the Refugio..?” It took a few hours of uphill trekking to reach Rifugio Locatelli but when the Tre Cime came into view I knew we were getting close. My stomach rumbled, but I knew a warm meal and hot coffee await us at the First Rifugio. If I remember correctly we opt for brunch and Ashley got us a delicious pancake and I ordered eggs, spec, and potatoes. A storm loomed and this rifugio was buzzing with people… Locatelli sees about 2,000 visitors as day.
One obstacle that we faced on the first day was due to our steady hiking pace we arrived early and couldn’t get into our bunks until about 4pm. We patiently wait it out, with cold beers and endless views of the Tre Cime. It was a funny process to me, mostly because things were handwritten (no wifi) and the check-in process went smoothly as long as you were on top of it and in line on time. We made our way to our bunk house, a tiny building that sat next to Locatelli… like a spillover for when the main Refugio is at capacity. After getting situated, we decided to give the nearby Via Feratta a try: Torre di Toblin, a challenging via feratta and honestly it was our first time EVER clipping into a v-f line. We scrambled around and made it up a few pitches, trying to get comfortable with the process of clipping into the iron cables, shimming along skinny rock legends and climbing up rusty, sketchy ladders that had likely been in place for hundreds of years. We didn’t make it very far when I heard thunder rumbling behind us. I made a tough decision for both of us, that we should turn back to avoid being caught on a challenging via feratta while in a thunderstorm. Sometimes turning around and going backward, on a via feratta route can be more dangerous than proceeding up and out. In the end, we were glad we did so, and made it back to the Rifugio just before the skies opened up and a storm rolled through.
Dinner was up next, as I sat peeking out the window of our bunkhouse wondering if the clouds would clear enough for an epic sunset next to Tre Cime. We were assigned a table and sat across from a friendly couple from the Netherlands… it was super unique to be here among such a mix of cultures, listening to different languages being spoke all around me. The Dolomites act as a hiking and vacation destination for people from Europe, Asia and beyond..
I remember ordering all the wrong things, Ashley smiled at my choices but hunger took over and I ate everything that was placed in front of me, including being fooled by the desert selection “A delicious Green Apple..” thinking it was some type of fruit pastry or desert, when in actuality it was just an apple. We sat around after dinner cheers-ing beers with our new friends, talking about where we were heading the next day, and what it’s like to hike in Colorado. Many of the people in that dining hall we would never see again, but felt connected to this group of people who shared one common interest: enjoying exceptional hiking in Italy’s Dolomites. Day 1 in the books…
[ To be continued… stay tuned for more from our Alta Via Adventure… Day 2 coming soon! ]
Trip intelligence gathered from In A Far Away Land Blog - Alta Via 4 Guide
Day Two: From Rifugio Locatelli to Rifugio Fonda Savio
Hiking Distance: 8 miles with 2,250 vertical feet of elevation gain and a via feratta section.
We awoke early on day two to chase sunrise with a couple of our bunkmates, who were from the UK (shout out to Rosi and Tabi if you’re reading this…). The night before they explained to us that one of the staff members at the rifugio would be taking them to a secret alpine lake for sunrise, once Ashley heard this, I knew she would not be able to resist a freezing cold morning dip to start our second day in the Dolomites. Our alarms went off and I’m sure we pissed off the other people in our bunk room, but sometimes the majority rules, and sometimes you have to get up early to chase sunrise when in the Dolomites. We set off on what we thought would be a short hike, but thinking back to it I’m pretty sure this added about three more miles of hiking to an already big day. We made it to the Secret Lake after skree field skiing down a massive couloir of scrappy rocks. I stayed above to survey the scene from a higher vantage point as the rest of the group took a freezing cold dip in a magical alpine lake that even had a few pieces of glacial ice floating in it. They tapped the glacier with their hands and I could hear the excitement from my vantage point up above. What a way to start our day…
We made our way back up to Locatelli to have a traditional cold breakfast, which consisted of cold cuts, bread (which we stuffed into our packs) cheese, coffee and sweet pastry bread. Breakfast of champions, we went back to our dorm, and packed our gear, but also made sure to leave our via Ferrara equipment close to the top of our packs, as we would encounter our first via feratta on the second day of our Alta via 4 hike.
The first part of day two was stunning, with crystal clear views of the Tri Cime and ample opportunities for me to trail behind the group and capture our new friends, hiking in a line, looking like ants with these legendary Triple Peaks in the distance. We were excited to have good conditions because we knew one of the more iconic viewpoints lie ahead of us. After hiking for a few miles path number 105 cruises past Rifugio Auronzo, which would be a great place to stop for breakfast or lunch, if you needed some more fuel to finish the hiking day. We decided to mostly skip this stop, and continue hiking to begin our via feratta. Just past Rifugio Auronzo is one of the more legendary viewpoints in the Dolomites, made famous thanks to IG. We spent some time snapping photos here and then took to the side of the trail to eat our lunch (bread, spec, cheese, and chocolate). The via feratta after lunch was filled with excitement, and fear, and overall was a lot of fun to tackle this part of the trail with that group mentality. I disliked the feeling of going backwards down a mountain with a heavy pack on my back, unable to see my footings below me. We watched each other navigate tricky sections and made sure to give each other space as a small creek had started to run down one section, making the ladders, incredibly slippery under our hiking boots. Not an area where you want to slip and fall on a fellow hiker, luckily we made it out safely and started our ascent to the that night's rifugio.
As we got closer to our rifugio for that night, the trail climbs steeply and throughout the day you gain over 2000 vertical feet, while also descending another 2300 vertical feet. I kept looking up ahead, and finally perched in between the mountain peaks I caught my first glimpse of Rifugio Fonda Savio. A stunning Rifugio to spend the night in, as it’s perched right on the saddle of the majestic Dolomites. (Oh yeah, one big tip: try to avoid reserving this one last minute or you’ll be stuck on the bunk room in the attic.) We even read this in the blog we got our intell from.. it's a very cramped space, throughout the night we heard fellow bunkmates bump their heads trying to navigate the space in the dark. A less-than-ideal sleeping situation, we got settled in our bunk room, ate another delicious meal, including some homemade ravioli, and tucked ourselves into bed early, listening to a rain storm pound against the metal roof a foot above our heads. It was always difficult for me to fall asleep, knowing what views and adventure lie just outside the front door of the rifugio...
Check back soon for Day Three of our Alta Via 4 trek… stay tuned!