August 26, 2022 - Rif. Rosetta - Rif. Treviso

Early light in the high alpine greeted us outside Rifugio Rosetta, but we had a fairly lengthy day that started with a plunge below Croda Di Roda.

After dropping down for a long stretch, the trail climbs up and traverses to a loose climb up and over Passo di Ball. Views of Cima di Ball dominate for much of this traverse and the climb. 

Nicole lounging below Cima di Ball

In a shady little north pocket below the climb a protected bit of old glacier still hands on. I scrambled over and stepped up on a few imbedded rocks and peered into the bubbles. The glacier seemed to move, and then, the rocks above actually did. I took the hint and scampered back to the trail.

Nicole below the vesteges of a glacier Ball (?)

Via Fretta to get to the Pass-o

Nicole just about topping out on the pass

At around lunchtime we pulled up to a little plateau where Rifugio Pradidali sits. The views from the rifugio were quite stunning, as well as the apple struedel. We ate our packed lunches (key time and cost saver!) and then pushed on. The exposed and sunny stretch coming up would get a little warm, but we were thinking of the many thousands of feet we'd need to drop to get to our next stop: Rigufio Treviso.

Nicole naer the Passo delle Lede

The clouds closed in a little while we topped out on our last climb of the day - Passo delle Lede. Though the possible rain in the forecast mostly held off - we only heard thunderclaps and got drizzled on. Similar to other days of the trip a downpour would open up the skies, but only once we were safely in the rifugio eating food :)

Starting to drop down Vallon Delle Lede

We got some Italian pronuciation lessons from a cool family as they were coming down some via ferreta sections as we were climbing up. We thought we understood that they caught their kids packing tons of candy in on their trip so they made them leave it at the upcoming (for us) bivouac. Unfortunately we found the bivouac mostly empty, save for some emergency rations, which we of course left. We'd need to wait for the next rifugio for more desserts...

Bivouac C. Minazio

The long long descent down Vallon Delle Lede was... well... long. And the drizzle didn't help some of the slippy and exposed sections. But thankfully we got down without much incident, other than being tired. We did note, however, that the rifugio was a few hundred feet up the other side of the valley... so we had one last "small" climb up at the end of the day.

Rifugio Treviso

After we got settled in, watched some climbers ascend a nearby via fretta just above the rifugio, the weather finally decided to roll in for real. Sheets of rain hammered the outdoor deck and everyone ducked inside to get ready for dinner and the next day. There were some clearings between periods of rain, and the lightshow was quite nice! We came down the main valley in the center of the photo below:

Evening light from rifugio Treviso

 

August 25, 2022 - Rif. Mulaz - Rif. Rosetta

Beautiful views continued in the morning

The climb out of Riffugio Mulaz started with a loose scree field assisted by logs driven, mostly securely, into the hillside with rebar, and ocassionally cables from secure outcropings above. Despite the sketchniess of this appearance, this initial climb went smoothly. A long high traverse led us up to the bottom of the climb up to Passo delle Farangole - including one of the more airy via ferrata sections on the route.

Looking back down to Passo Mulaz from below Passo delle Farangole

Nicole above the most exposed part - a few moves of actual climbing thrown in there (if you skip the ladder rungs)

Nicole topping out the via ferrata below the proper Passo delle Farangole

After topping out on the pass, the descent is technically more straightforward, but plenty loose. A few cable sections takes you down a narrow rock chute (fill in with snow and bring your skis!?) before the terrain opens up. The slope doesn't immediately ease, however, and the steep loose trail keeps boming down the hillside, eventually leveling out in grassy terraces high above the Valle di Garé.

Nicole looking down the descent

Off the cables, onto the scree!

Clouds rolled in a bit, but stayed up high all day.

Nicole down below giving some scale to the grand scenery

The trail on the vegetated terrace cut a high and sometimes exposed path far above the bottom of the valley. The guidebook mentioned climbing all the way down to the river, which seemed like thousands of feet below us. Which it was. Thankfully, however, as we kept hiking, dry waterfall steps stair-stepped the valley up to us much more than we dropped to it. After a few smaller via ferrata sections as steep gullys passed through the trail, we dropped down to the river and could see the last remaining climb to the (as of yet not see) Rifugio Rosetta. It was getting hot at this point, and we were quite ready to sit outside and relax, so the last climb seemed to take forever.

Nicole traversing above the Valle di Garés

Nicole traversing above the Valle di Garés

We eventually did pull up on to the moonscape around Rifugio Rosetta, and as was typical for most days in the second half of our trip, the skies decided to open up and rain and thunder about an hour after we had arrived. I think they spaced these rifugios out just right!

The rifugio! And a lift down to town (which we didn't take)

 

August 24, 2022 - Passo San Pelligrino to Rif. Mulaz

After arriving at Passa Gardena the afternoon before, we did a lot of research, and checked up on the weather. It looked like rain a few days out, but we still had a two day solid window ahead of us. With that in mind we opted to bus around (what I'm sure is still beautiful terrain) to get to Passo San Pelligrino. We originally had a really cute hotel booked here, but the timing didn't work to still use it. 

The first half of the day climbed up and traversed across some rather mundane terrain below Col Margherita. No photos below of that section... it was just so so compared to the second half of the day. We got lunch at Passo di Valles, and then the money hiking started! Immediately we climbed along and then eventually through an escarpment which was uncharacteristically pretty vegetated. Topping out on a plateau above these cliffs yielded amazing views of the Mulaz range.

Terrain above Passo di Valles

Nicole topping out and drinking in some alpine Mulaz views

The trail then meandered along a ridgeline as it made its way towards the northern end of the Mulaz range (We stayed high on trail # 751 - well worth it!). 

Rolling terrain below Passo di Venegiota

Mulaz Range

After turning the corer at Passo di Venegiota, there were some really interesting folds of trail through steep gulleys before we climbed up in the true alpine environemnt of Rifugio Mulaz.

Typical Dolomite terrain

Nicole again putting the terrain to scale

As the trail turned south again we headed up towards some rocky ramps and increasingly epic views of nearby rocky towers. We swore we saw the Rifugio several times, or at least a chimney... but rock formations on the tops of small rock spires proved confusing! Or maybe we were just hungry.

Finally seeing the massif on the east side of Val Di Focobon

OK - now I see the Rifugio - do you?

If you do not see the rifugio now, get eye sight checked (or stop looking for climging routes)

This would be our first night staying in a rifugio, and we went full American style by asking a few times if they had private rooms. The main keeper got the drift, and as soon as someone called out that they wouldn't make it that night we got elevated from the dormitory to a private room down the hall. So money! What was even better, though, was the alpine splendor right out the front door. We also met up with a crew of English speakers... some Candians and Utah folks who were speeding through at 20+ miles/day (phew?!). A solid dinner was followed by running around outside like a schoolkid looking at hte alpenglow. I lost Nicole at one point. Apologies!

Some special light

Sunset light from the col over which they haul the trash

Light kept being beautiful

I was thankfully woken at 11ish or so, and my old habits of shooting for hours at night still took hold (despite being very tired). Without a tripod I played the game of camera jenga by stacking rocks and trying to make sure nothing rotated out of place for 30" exposures. It was dark, and I didn't have ideal glass for night photos, but I always enjoy seeing the abstract-ish images that pop out of long exposure night photos. 

We woke up the next morning, had stale bread and nutella, drank coffee, ate more nutella (its actually vegan in Europe! Nothing else we ate was!) and then got ready for a short, but technical (and it turned out warm) day up to the popular and busy Rifugio Rosetta.

August 23, 2022 - ~Rif. Genova to Passa Gardena

Rising from our first morning, and as it happened our only morning in the tent, we packed up quickly and headed out on the trail towards breakfast. About half hour of gentle downhill led into a small charming refugio of Medalges Alm. There were just a few parties who had bunked in the neighboring buidling, which is evidnetly half for goats and half for humans.

We were welcomed by the local wildlife

We reaffirmed the notion that you can stroll into a refugio and get breakfast, but it was also becoming apparent that you couldn't expect food rapidly (even if its just stale bread, butter and jam and hot beverages). Food, and the community around it, is taken at a bit of a slower pace, and we kept having to check our American notions of service and speed and take a breath. We'd later optimize this by purchasingi sandwiches for lunch instead of stopping for all meals... a high alpine lunch that doesn't interupt the motions of the day was ideal.

2012 honeymoon vintage

2022 poorly executed imitation photo

As we left and started on the long traverse to the first objective of the day, it became obvious that... yes... we would be climing up through the loose scree full notch that we had been looking at all morning... small shady col center left of first image below, and a little more detail in following photo (Forcella dla Roa). 

beautiful morning walk towards Furcella dla Roa

Nicole helping to frame up the scale of this scenery

Traversing for days

Fairly close to the foot of the climb up the scree we were passed by a couple of fast moving parties who were doing the Dream Trail - Munich to Venice. The Alta Via2 in the Dolomites makes up a large portion of this trail through Northern Italy. I couldn't imagine walking all the way along the train route we had done out of Munich... but maybe it is a nice mix of flat land valley walking and high alpine. We certainly didn't have that much time though! They had previuosly raucously greeted us from afar, assuming we were trekkers they had previously crossed paths with. This reminded us of the commraderie that can be found on these long distance trails. We chatted briefly before they tackled the climb, helped give some scale to the landscape for the next hour or so, and disappeared way up ahead.

Some gorgeous light, trail marker, and a slighly sandbagged notion of the climb

As anticipated, once at the foot of the climb, it really wasn't that bad at all - the footing was fairly solid for the most part, and as long as you didn't have a selfie stick or leaned really poorly in the wrong direction, you weren't sliding down the slope. We'd find much more serious terrain intersperced throughout the rest fo the trip, though. The overall route isn't for the faint of heart of those who fear heights!

At the top of the climb, we regrouped with several parties and pointed at maps and bits of rock in the distance. From what I could tell there was only one way through the next section, and that was our first via ferrata section. I had hacked together a climber's minimalist version of a via ferrata setup with our alpine harnesses, double slings and two aluminum non-lockers. It seemed sufficient for a trip where gear was listed as optional by most. We found it was adequate for our taste of adventure and responsibility as parents.

Nicole leading up the first bit of "climbing" on the trip.

Almost to the top!

Topping out on the moon. Image editing choices aside, it did feel very different topping out here!

We had tackled the via ferrata section solo, and the hiking at the top featured huge expansive vistas and huge visibility. We didn't see many people and felt alone up in the alpine. It was goregous! 

We made our way eventually to Rifugio Puez, which was an amazing setting. All supplies are helicoptered up, and as was typical, the rifugio was run by a family and what seemed to be close friends. The older gentleman working the outdoor tables here was doing half comedy routine, half food/drink slinging. It was a lot of fun! The bean soup here was amazing, and once fueled up, we pushed onto our hike. We didn't really understand at all which parts of the trail were heavily used, and which were more remote... but we didn't need to wonder for long on this section. A lift that bumps hikers up to the top of Paso Gardena allowed dayhikes to Rifugio Puez to be a very popular day trip. We hiked through a very crowded trail the rest of the day.

The hot dusty trail, still unresolved jet lag, tired legs and my ambitious route planning collided at the end of this day, and we regrouped at Rifugio Jimmy at the pass to hydrate (beer and/or water) and make some new plans. 15 miles and 5,000ft gain days were too much given the terrain on these trails, and we settled down on a new plan centered around 10 miles, found a blog with better trip descriptions, and navigated the busses downhill to a hotel and pizza. We'd bus around to Passo San Pelligrino in the morning to pick the trail back up.