Alta Via 1: Trekking the Dolomites - Lago di Braies to Rifugio Fodara Vedla

Alta Via 1: Trekking the Dolomites
Day 1 - Lago de Braies to Rifugio Fodara Vedla

8/8/23 - 8 miles

This morning’s pre-hike jitters on a scale of 1 to 10: about 15. It’s the same for every multi-day hike I’ve ever endeavored…and they all turned out okay, so this must be a good sign.

After loading up on the generous hotel breakfast, Jim and I hurried to the bus stop for our final ride to the Alta Via 1 starting point. At 7:30 a.m., we were the first people there (no tickets, first come, first served). Local Bus 442 filled up and we were on our way.

Lago di Braies (Pragser Wildsee in German) is an enchanting, picture-postcard destination. There’s a fancy resort hotel and crystal clear reflections in the serene alpine lake, which of course is encircled by a meandering 2.5-mile trail. August is holiday month in Europe and the resort was quite busy. Oh, look, they’re still serving brunch - could we just hang out here?

The first signpost is a reminder that the Alta Via 1 is a route through the Dolomites on existing trails. Red-and-white markings are common for many routes in Europe and the key is the trail number. Jim and I started our trek on #1 and our first waypoint was Rifugio Biella, a 3-hour hike (notice no distances listed). I was pretty sure this bit was gonna be more than 3 hours.

The gentle warmup quickly turned away from the lakeshore onto a broad path
headed towards the mountains.

Our friends Chris and Andy hiked the AV1 a few weeks earlier and told us about their adventure. Chris’s description of this “brutal” first day had me quite worried. They had a later morning start, nearly 3,000 feet of elevation gain in just 3.5km, a hot day above tree line, each factor adding to the difficulty. With all this in mind, I lowered my expectations to a long hard slog at 1mph or less.

Fortunately, Jim and I had an earlier start (more shade) and 37 degrees F, which made a world of difference. Still, the hike up to the pass Forcella Sora Forno was intense. I stuck to my 1mph plan, stopping often to look back, take photos, breathe and marvel. We’re really here!

Views down at Lago di Braies, backed by green mountains and massive slopes
of talus/scree/rock pounded by time

Still looking back, Lago di Braies just outside the left side of the photo
Grande Apostolo dominates the scene

A sturdy (?) staircase with a helpful cable handrail

Up ahead, rounded rocky mountain tops and severe triangle points. Near the middle of the photo below, you can faintly see the trail on the scree slope. The big rock hump is a tiny bit of Croda del Beco. The deep notch to its left is where we are headed – Forcella Sora Forno – then continue around the back side.

As we climbed higher, the grade got steeper. Above the tree line, talus and scree (I’ll call it rubble) was crazy slippery, so I was extra careful. I mean, I was s-l-o-w! Jim was great about staying within sight.

Cable assists – would you want to walk up this crack in the rock without something to hold onto?
Don’t look down!

Hikers moving up slow and steady on the last push to Forcella Sora Forno

Looking back from the pass: stunning. How fortunate we are to be in this place!

There was a brief unexpected climb beyond the pass (I hate when that happens) but I kept my turtle pace and pushed on. The reward was the Bovine Welcome Committee.

Around the back side, looking down at Grande Apostolo’s green slope
and our zigzag up through the valley

A short steep descent to rustic, old fashioned Rifugio Biella

I had tried to book accommodations here to make our first day short, but without success. Having met our first big challenge (in 3.75 hours, not bad after all), it was time for a break. We went inside the rifugio looking for water. A sign was posted “nonpotable water” (there was bottled water for sale) but the toilets were not working because no water – ugh! Glad we weren’t staying here after all. Lesson: don’t be shy about peeing behind a rock.

We were carrying snacks, as always, but the idea of a meat/cheese sandwich appealed to Jim. I had other ideas. How about strudel with ice cream and a Fanta Orange?

Leaving Biella behind, we followed mountain bikers on a jeep track along
the southeast face of Croda del Beco

All signs point to the next rifugios on different route numbers, so be sure you know where
you want to go. Our next waypoint on 6A is Rifugio Sennes, 3km/40 minutes

This section was chill, a pleasant walk through grassy boulder fields

Entering Parco Naturale Delle Dolomiti D'Ampezzo, similar to our national forests
that border each other

Rifugio Sennes

More modern than Biella – the beer was flowing and so were the toilets! Hikers and mountain bikers were scattered everywhere, people lying in the grass, filling every seat at the outdoor bar area, sharing beers and stories and enjoying the exceptionally fine weather. I didn’t begrudge them the frat party atmosphere. (I had also tried to book accommodations here, but they were full.) Jim and I stopped to use the toilets and look over our maps, then moved on.

The last leg of our first day was another 3km to Rifugio Fodara Vedla. Leaving Sennes, we crossed the main road in the photo above and took Route 7, a less-traveled trail descending down through the forest to a small, secluded valley.

Rifugio Fodara Vedla

Fodara Vedla has an adults/family resort vibe, pricey but our only choice after striking out with the two rifugios we had passed. With its inviting outdoor deck, Tyrolean décor, huge dining room and bar, we were impressed and ready for some comfort.

We checked into our private room with a private bath and shower and this amazing view
from our balcony. Heaven!

After dropping our gear, we went back outside to enjoy the feeling of NOT hiking. Jim had a beer and, since ciders are scarce, my new standard celebratory beverage is an Aperol spritz. Such an immense feeling of relief/release – the anticipation of the first day is over and we are doing this!  

Cheers to a GREAT DAY in the DOLOMITES!

Next, showers and clean clothes were in order before dinner at 7pm. While Jim was getting ready, I stepped onto our balcony. I noticed we shared the balcony with the adjacent room and its door was open. Suddenly, a man stepped out onto the deck in his underwear! As we exchanged hellos and what-a-nice-day-it-is, his grown son joined us, wearing boxer shorts. Next, another adult son emerged (fully clothed) to join the conversation. A lovely family from Germany, riding mountain bikes in the Dolomites for 5 days. One of the charms of multi-day adventuring is encounters with fellow travelers (clothed or not…)

Fodara Vedla, our balcony at top right

 Distance hiked: 8 miles/13km  Elevation gain: 3,060 ft

"The difference between try
and triumph is a little umph."
 Author Unknown

Alta Via 1: Trekking the Dolomites - Arrival in Italy

Alta Via 1: Trekking the Dolomites - Arrival In Italy 8/6-8/7/23

Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy

What are the Dolomites? A mountain range in northeastern Italy, on the border of Austria (but not part of Austria), mainly composed of dolomite rock (calcium magnesium carbonate) and featuring jagged sharp spires. Yes, this will be on the test.

Thumbs up: our flights from Charlotte to Munich and then to Venice were on time and non-dramatic. Thumbs down: every year the seats shrink and rows squeeze closer together. How many internation flights do I have left in my life? Next time I’ll pay up for the big girl seats.

We landed in Venice early in the morning, quickly passed through customs and settled in for our 2-hour wait for the express bus to Cortina d’ Ampezzo (aka Cortina). Jim noticed an itchy insect bite on the back of his leg (this will become a “thing” later on). During the bus ride, we both nodded off as we passed through the dramatic mountains.

History lesson: Cortina d’ Ampezzo was part of the Austrian Empire known as Tyrol until the end of World War I, when the area was divided into two parts. Italy annexed what is known as South Tyrol and Austria kept North Tyrol. Communities in the northernmost part of the Dolomites are bilingual.

Upon arrival in Cortina, we took a taxi to our hotel because we had two rolling suitcases and weren’t sure what the walk was like. The taxi driver charged us tourists 13 Euro to go one mile! Lesson learned about distances and honest taxis.

Hotel Menardi was built as a private home in 1836 and eventually upgraded to become the hotel. During World War I it served as barracks for Austrian troops, then as living quarters for Italian troops when they occupied the territory. I found the hotel by dumb luck, and it was lovely. We didn’t have time to appreciate all the cozy spaces (a reading room!) Our little room opened onto a balcony bursting with geraniums. If you’re going to Cortina, we recommend Hotel Menardi.

The town center was buzzing with people and every building was postcard-adorable. (Do Europeans think our grocery stores are adorable?) 

We stopped at La Cooperativa department store to buy Tabacco topo maps for our hike. They are more detailed than the little guidebook maps. Will we need them? Better safe than sorry if our mobile phone apps fail us. (Hint: We used them every day.) 

Tourists are we, so we had a sandwich and adult beverages at the most touristy spot on the most touristy street in Cortina. We soaked in the atmosphere with one eye open: people everywhere, lots of dogs, lots of smokers, lots of super cute, well-behaved small children. 

Jim’s beer and my Aperol spritz, the first of a nightly ritual

After a wandering walk on a greenway/bike path back to our hotel, Jim and I sorted our gear for the next 9 days. We both carried 24L daypacks to be as lightweight as possible. Each one was stuffed fuller than a tick with the barest of essentials and minimal clothing that we hand washed when we got the chance. The heaviest items were our portable power banks. Packing ultralight was the key to a successful hike.

The rest of our stuff went into our suitcases, to be picked up by a company to store and deliver our hotel in Belluno at the end of our hike nine days from now. Jim was asleep by 8:30 pm, me soon after, but still waking up intermittently to worry and check the time. Pre-hike jitters.

I awoke with a Tylenol PM hangover. Jim had cold symptoms, felt sick enough to go to a pharmacy for COVID tests – negative! As he moved around he felt better, but bought lots of meds for the trek.

Hotel Menardi's breakfast buffet was fantastic, a good sendoff. This was the first time I’d seen a full honeycomb at a restaurant, cut off a chunk and put it on yogurt, bread – delicious and now spoiled! We left our bags at the front desk and walked to Cortina's town center and bus station.

We took an afternoon bus to the small village of Dobbacio/Toblach, where we’d spend another night and then catch an even smaller bus to the start of the AV1. Remember the history lesson about bilingual villages? Dobbacio (Italian) and Toblach (German).

Today’s bus ride went higher into the mountains, passing through Parc Natural delle Dolomiti (and others I can’t name). The small roads looked like the NC Smokies or DuPont Forest on a weekend, very crowded, cars parked all along the road’s shoulders to access hiking and biking trails. The first stop in Dobbacio/Toblach happened to be right in front of our home for the night: Casa Alpina, a well-worn ski lodge type place with dorm-like rooms (ours had a double bed, a set of bunkbeds and a private bath.) Not fancy like Cortina, but comfortable for a night.

Priorities: find our bus stop for tomorrow morning and then eat! Dobbacio/Toblach is small but resort-y, in a beautiful valley with low green mountains on the northern side and high Dolomites looming on the southern side. The entire length of the town is just a few blocks.

The main square featuring the prominent church
Chiesa Parrocchiale Dobbiacio/Pfarrkirch Toblach

Dinner!

It’s 37 degrees out tonight. Did I pack my puffy jacket?

“Life for two weeks on the mountain tops would show us many things about life during the other
 fifty weeks down below.”

~Benton MacKaye

Alta Via 1: Trekking the Dolomites - The Plan

Alta Via 1: Trekking the Dolomites – The Plan

On the Tour du Mont Blanc - July 2016

In 2016, Jim and I celebrated 35 years of (mostly) wedded bliss by hiking the Tour du Mont Blanc route through France, Italy and Switzerland. (Read about it starting here.) With our skills and experience, we thought we knew what we were getting into, but it was harder than we expected and more beautiful than we’d imagined. Wait…are we talking about marriage or…

In 2023, we faced another life milestone: age 65. Selective memory whispered seductively, “That TMB hike was fun and invigorating! We survived, right? We're still strong, right? Let’s do another challenging hike somewhere.” 

Welcome to our adventure on the Alta Via 1 in the Italian Dolomites.

Sunset in the Dolomites

Both the Tour du Mont Blanc and the Alta Via 1 are classic multi-day hikes in the European Alps. The TMB hiker goes home in a euphoric daze and (after a brief recovery period) begins researching the AV1 in the wee hours. Trekking company websites offer both guided and self-guided trips, travel bloggers feature breathtaking visuals, and people like me write about our personal Alta Via 1 experiences. Who can resist?

This blog post is for information purposes only and not intended to be a solo guide source for hiking these routes.

Lake Coldai on the Alta Via 1

Differences and similarities of the Tour du Mont Blanc and the Alta Via 1:

The TMB is 165 km (105 miles) and the AV1 is 120km (75 miles.) The “normal” time frame to hike each route is 8-11 days. (Our TMB hike was 115 miles in 10 days.) Why are the estimated times the same but the total mileages are different? We’ll get to that.

The TMB passes through France, Italy, and Switzerland. The AV1 stays entirely within Italy.

The TMB is a loop route which can begin/end at various points. (We started and ended in Les Houches, France.) The AV1 is a linear trek which most hikers begin at Lagos de Braies and end at La Pissa.

The TMB route goes up to high elevations with refuges, rifugi and auberges (depending on what country you're in that day) and down to low valleys, passing through small towns with hotels and restaurants every couple of days. The Alta Via 1 stays “up” in the Dolomites featuring rifugi (plural of rifugio), but it occasionally crosses roads near a single restaurant or inn. Both treks have bail-out points if needed, but figuring out transportation from there takes planning.

Traveling in Europe has exploded post-pandemic and woe to the hiker who expects to show up at a rifugio without a reservation. Prices have gone up as well. Trekking companies are eager to book accommodations for you, but to save money I did the work myself for the AV1, as I did for our TMB trek. The headaches of piecing together email requests and confirmations saved us about $1,000. (That’s 4 days in Rome.) 

As of this writing, each rifugio on the AV1 must be booked independently and each has its own timetable for accepting bookings. A couple of locations are key, but there are options if you persevere. You may have to hike side trails off the main route for accommodations or even take a cable car down to a valley town (adding to the next day’s logistics to get back on route) but it is possible if you plan far enough ahead. (Note: I booked all our accommodations in Dec/Jan before our July 2023 hike. For 2025 hikes I’ve read that many rifugi are booked by Oct/Nov)

There are accommodations of all types, including hotels and B&Bs, all along the TMB loop.  The further south you go on the AV1, the more rustic the accommodations become, leaving behind private rooms, hot water, wifi and credit cards. By then our fellow hikers were friends and we didn't mind the close quarters and simple food.  Never fear: alcohol is still available even high up where there are no roads (bring cash). 

Lunch at Rifugio Carestiato

The AV1 features a unique experience on Days 3 and 4. During World War I, Austrian and Italian armies fought each other to control the borders amid the jagged mountain ridges of the Dolomites. As the trail passes through remnants of trenches and barracks, imaging young men huddled in the coldest days of winter is sobering. Tunnels in the rocks remain and hikers can descend a variant section of the trail through a tunnel.

Our logistics: Considering the current frequency of interrupted/delayed air travel, Jim and I built in 2 days/nights after landing in Venice to get to the start of the hike. After completion, we stayed one night in Belluno, then traveled by train for 3 nights in Florence and 4 nights in Rome. Everything on our itinerary was new to us crazy kids!

In addition to a plethora of websites and blogs, we relied on three invaluable sources for planning. Two books, featuring roughly the same info but in different presentations of stages, charts and accommodations, were really helpful for our unique itinerary. (Our hike plan was 9 days/8 nights.) 

Trekking the Dolomites AV1 by Andrew McCluggage

Alta Via 1 – Trekking the Dolomites by Gillian Price/Ciceron Guides 

The third source was a private Facebook page called “Dolomites AV1.” The admin is Andrew McCluggage and its members are a robust community of previous and future hikers. The page was great for questions on just about anything, current/real time info, and many accommodations that the books didn’t include. NOTE: personal experience info about the difficulty of trail sections, alternatives in bad weather and bail-out points was VERY important in some decision-making.

Additional on-the-ground resources we used were the GAIA GPS app and paper Tabacco topo maps for the area we were hiking in, which we purchased in Cortina d' Ampezzo before the hike. I always carry paper maps in case technology fails.

In summary, both the TMB and the AV1 are trips of a lifetime, worth all the planning, the saving up, the physical training (don’t skip that part), and the can-I-really-do-this butterflies in the belly. 

Okay, friends! Are we ready? Are we excited? Are we nervous? Yes, yes, and yes!

How far did we get? Follow along.

"The world is big and I want to have
 a good look at it before it gets dark."
 ~John Muir