Alta Via 1 – Day 8
Hiking the Italian Dolomites
- Rifugio Carestiato to Hotel Brustolon, Dont
- Steps: 26,057
- Kilometres: 19.5
- Hours: 6
- Calories: 2,529
- Total ascent: not recorded
- Total descent: not recorded
- Max elevation: 1820m
Today we two options open to us. Plan A was to continue the AV1, an 18km walk which was mostly uphill and just as technically difficult as the previous day. Additionally there is a particularly scary ridge line at a high altitude. I had been told it wasn’t so bad, but we would reach this part in the late afternoon just in time for the thunderstorms – not a place you want to be exposed when there is lightning about. I had also been spooked by a recent vlogger who said some hikers had been struck by lightning in this spot and had to be medically evacuated. We had a booking for dormitory beds at Rifugio Pian di Fontana, which would have been the last rifugio on the AV1. Then the last day (day 9) was a 12km downhill walk to the end.
Months ago, lacking confidence in completing the difficult section of this hike, I had booked a Plan B, which was a cheap hotel in a nearby town of Don’t, which we could walk to from Carestiatio.
We had another think about it in the morning, for less than one minute. There was no debate. My body had had enough and we didn’t want more of the same as yesterday…or frankly, another dorm. We felt we had completed enough of the Alta Via 1 to say we had done it. So, we went with Plan B. I emailed the rifugio to let them know we were not coming, and acknowledge our deposit was forfeited.
We took in some of the final amazing views from Carestiato then walked about 40 minutes down to Rifugio Passo Duran where we had hoped to catch up with Tanji and Kent, but unfortunately we missed them by about half an hour. But we had dinner with them in Venice a few days later, which was a treat!
We contemplated our options again as we drank coffee and shared a slice of apple strudel at Passo Duran. We had a walk in us, but didn’t want to do the AV1. The very nice lady who worked at Passo Duran suggested a different route that would take us to the town of Dont where our hotel was booked. This ended up being about 10km of a comparatively easy mostly downhill walk through forests.
During this walk, we passed through the mostly-abandoned and enchanting village Colcerver (pictures 6, 7 and 8). It is a like an open air museum, filled with historical memorabilia and art installations. At first we wondered if it was inhabited by witches or cult members and if we would be kidnapped or wind up in an alternative dimension. It was wonderful to see. We were glad we had chosen Plan B otherwise we would have missed this absolute gem. Zero regrets!
Eventually we walked into Dont, and found our hotel. Dont is adorable but there wasn’t much happening there, so we ventured by bus to the slightly larger nearby town of Forno di Zoldo for dinner, and explored there the next day too. We rested and took it easy, before catching a bus to Ponte Nelle Alpi for one night, then a train back to Venice to continue the next phase of our trip (yoga cruise in Croatia).
Epilogue
I can’t find enough new adjectives to describe how wonderful the AV1 is and what a great time we had. Personally I found it challenging and was pushed to my physical limit. I am a slightly pudgy 55 year old woman, I trained for this, but I’m not athletic. I felt like most of the other hikers were faster than me, but some were slower. I’ve done the Inca Trail, the Great Wall of China, the Cape to Cape in Western Australia, and several other multi day hikes, and the AV1 one was the hardest so far.
After we finished, I decided that I would love to return to the Dolomites to go hiking but would not do this trail again, even though I loved it. Now, as I write this blog, the pain is receding in my mind and I’m starting to think about doing it again. Maybe I’ll do the first five days and look at a slightly different route…wanna come with me?
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