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.
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