A Tour Around The Dolomites
The Duomo in Milan
I was recently on a week’s trip in Italy with my Finnish mate Pekka. We both flew to Milan where we stayed the first night, rented a car and drove to the Dolomites, which was the main purpose of the trip. We stayed in Trento, Bolzano, Feltre and Rifugio Tissi in the Civetta range, managed four nice days of hiking and then spent the final night in Verona. We had a brief look around Milan on the first day as well — I’ve heard many people say that Milan isn’t very nice, but we actually quite enjoyed it at least on this brief visit. We didn’t have time to check out all the corners of Verona, but it seemed rather small and quiet, apart from the central square. Verona might be worth visiting again though, so that one could actually see some of the sights.
Panorama from Monte Pez summit (2563m)
Photos from the trip are in the Italy album, which now contains new albums for Milan, Trento (only two photos though!) and The Dolomites. I further divided The Dolomites album into different areas, namely Alpe di Siusi, Alpi Feltrini and Civetta.
In general I really liked the Dolomites, as there are some very dramatic, sharp ridges, but that also means that it’s not very easy to do any summits, and indeed almost none of the paths take in summits. You can do some summits with the help of via ferratas, cable-assisted climbs. We were originally planning to have a go at some via ferratas, but never got around to buying the necessary gear (harness, helemt etc.) due to time constraints. One problem in the Dolomites appears to be the amount of traffic, the roads were rather clogged especially with Austrian and German tourists. Same goes for the paths, there were quite a few people doing the easier routes. On the second day we went to the very Southernmost Dolomites though, Alpi Feltrini, where we did a slightly more challenging route, and saw next to no people. I do think that I want to go to the Dolomites again, but I perhaps enjoyed the Alps of the Italian Gran Paradiso national park more, where we went last year for a couple of days.
Alpi Feltrini
We did the following routes:
- DAY 1 (Alpe di Siusi): 19.23km, 1101m height gain, 1102m height loss. (Garmin data)
- DAY 2 (Alpi Feltrini Loop): 24.81km, 2466m height gain, 2468m height loss. (Garmin data)
- DAY 3 (Circumnavigating the Civetta): 10.55km, 1183m height gain, 450m height loss. (Garmin data)
- DAY 4 (Circumnavigating the Civetta): 22.36km, 1770m heigth gain, 2489m height loss. (Garmin data)
A rather easy hike up to Monte Pez (2563m) from Compaccio. It’s easy to get so high when you start high! We set off quite late in the afternoon as we drove up from Trento and had to finish well before 7pm, as that’s when the last cable car went back down to Siusi where we had parked our car (you can’t drive up to Compaccio). It’s a lovely route and the views from M. Pez are great, but the route is a bit touristy and there are as much as four rifugios on the way. Rifugio Bolzano just below M. Pez summit is nicely situated though. Had a beer at one of the Rifugios on the way down.
Panorama of the Civetta range
This is an awesome route! The guide book that I have suggests that it’s a 2-day route, but you can easily do it in a day. We actually only started around 1:30pm and still managed it, although it was a bit rushed at times. The way back down from Rifugio Boz is rather boring: just a very long zigzag, but the path is easy and fairly fast. There were a couple of trickier and cable-assisted bits along the route, but nothing very demanding. The best thing about this route was that it is very isolated compared to the rest of the Dolomites — we only saw a couple of people during the day. Some stunning views as well. It’s all the more interesting due to some old tales about devils and witchcraft in the area, and route includes places such as Piazza del Diavolo. The official route takes in a sidetrip to Bivacco Feltre as well, Pekka went ahead while I climbed up there and caught up with him.
Tissi summit shot
From Palafavera to Rifugio Tissi, where we spent the night. A very short walk on the first day of the Civetta trip, but it was nice to rest after the rather long one on the previous day. Lovely views at Lago Coldai above 2000m before Rifugio Tissi emerges on its cliff. Stunning landscape! This part of the route is quite busy as it’s part of the Alta Via 1, it’s also the easiest part of the trip around Civetta. Rifugio Tissi is highly recommended, the sunset from there was amazing. It’s really quite something else to spend the night at 2250m!
Started the next day bright and early, we were walking before 8am. It was great to start right in the middle of the mountains. We came down quite a bit first before climbing back up to the highest point of the route, Forcella delle Sasse (2476m). Great views of Torre Trieste and Torre Venezia along the way. Then it was a scree slope down again and some contouring around the peaks towards Rifugio Coldai — there is a cable-assisted bit along the way, but it wasn’t very difficult. This part of the route, and especially the bit after Rif. Vazzoler, was much more isolated. We didn’t get great views of the Civetta (3220m) itself, as it was a bit cloudy. There are some via ferratas leading up there and it would’ve been great to have a go at one, but we never got around to getting the via ferrata gear. Oh well, this was a great route in any case!
So, a pretty good trip all in all!
Civetta in the evening sun
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