Alta Via 1 – Day 5
Hiking the Italian Dolomites
- Rifugio Averau to Rifugio Passo Staulanza
- Steps: 22,330
- Kilometres: 16.7
- Hours: 9
- Calories: 3,121
- Total ascent: 1289
- Total descent: 1929
- Max Elevation 2418m
This was one of my favourite days, even though we both stacked it in the mud! But my fitness was increasing, the walk had a lot of gentle downhill, and we finished it off with a spa.
Even though the day was more downhill than up, there were a few smallish mountain passes to conquer. It was a steep walk down with Rifugio Averau getting smaller in the distance behind us, then a rambling walk along a gravel road. We missed the turn off as we were bouncing joyfully down the road, but Steve’s Garmin beeped to let us know, so we turned back and found the trail.
This day was hot one minute, cold the next, with intermittent light rain so we set out in our rain gear. Due to the rain the previous day, the pathways were watery and muddy in places. But the views just kept rolling out this morning, a seemingly endless vista of stunning greenery and rock formations.
We met a group of 5 American guys who were playing Eye of the Tiger on a stereo, and that helped me up a couple of hills. Generally I think it’s poor trail etiquette to play music out loud, but I made an exception this time. They kindly took a picture of us at a strategic viewpoint. After a while we could see Cortina di Ampezzo in the distance and the guys turned in that direction – this was their last day on the trail. We pressed on to conqer more passes and soak in more views.
After the forcellas were done, the descent began and so did the muddy tracks (picture 9). Steve slipped down a muddy incline and got mud all over his legs and shorts. I slipped when stepping down from a rock and my foot just went out from under me. My shoulder took the brunt of the fall instead of my bum-bum, because I reflexively gripped my hiking pole and twisted my arm socket. No injury, fortunately.
We found a bit of shelter on the side of an old barn to eat our lunch, which we had purchased at Averau that morning. From there it was an easy walk down a gravel road to Rifugio Citta di Fiume, where we rested and bought drinks at about 4pm.
After Citta di Fiume, another fabulous rifugio, Passo Staulanza, was waiting for us at the other end. (picture 13). It was a varied walk, not particularly hilly. First there was a fairy-like forest pathway, which eventually opened out to a large scree field. Scree fields tend to be riddled with little side tracks and it’s hard to know which is the right way, so we lost the path, but used the Hiking Club tracks to find our way.
We splurged on the spa at Passo Staulanza for bit of luxury relaxation before dinner. Tanji and Kent showed up, looking somewhat bedraggled as it had started raining again. After freshening up, we shared another great dinner with them.
It was a great day and I was starting to think I could do this forever…but I would later changed my mind.
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