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Alta Via 1

Last Days of the Season

By Northern Adventures

Introduction

(Sat Sep 26th - Fri OCT 2ND, 2020)

Alta Via 1 is one of the classic high routes in the Dolomites 🇮🇹, a 150-kilometre-long trail which runs through the eastern Dolomites in Italy and passes through some of the finest scenery in the area. The path runs south from Pragser Wildsee (Lago di Braies) towards Belluno.

In the pandemic-spoiled year of 2020, Dolomites at the end of the hiking season seemed to be a reasonable choice for us given its proximity to our homeland, and with empty trails and uncrowded huts to be almost guaranteed. Indeed, there weren’t many folks hiking up there in the mountains at the edge of autumn.

We had to pursue south-to-north routing of the trail to be able to secure overnight stays in huts since most of them were closing end of Sep / early Oct, the more to the south the sooner.

Our week-long itinerary was as follows: Belluno - Rifugio Pian de Fontana - Rifugio San Sebastiano - Rifugio Passo Staulanza - Rifugio Croda da Lago - Rifugio Lagazuòi - Senneshütte - Pragser Wildsee.

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How we went

Day 1: Belluno -> Rifugio Pian de Fontana

A 10-hours long car journey with some early season snow in the bordering 🇦🇹 🇮🇹 Brenner pass (summer tires ;-)) was the cruelling effort we had to carry out to reach the small town of Belluno, a convenient base in the eastern part of the Dolomites.

The following morning, we hurried up to buy sleeping sheets in an outdoor store (these are required in mountain huts), plundered a few ATMs to get some precious cash (there were small limits of the maximum amount to be withdrawn 😳), and finally caught a bus towards Agordo (in the morning rush, we had to ask at the bus station where its stand was).

Having got off the bus at La Pissa bus stop, our adventure began in a rather dull way on the main road with frequent traffic.

Not surprisingly, the first day was about to be a nice warm-up exercise with a continuous elevation gain totalling up to 1500m.

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Knowing that Rifugio Furio Bianchet located in the middle of our journey is still open (actually the last day of the season), we had lunch there, and then quickly continued hiking in the eastern direction along the small creek of Valle del Vescovà.

We tried to pack as light as possible, having reserved overnight stays (including meals) in rifugios in advance.

I.e. no tent, mattress, sleeping bag, freeze-dried meals; just some snacks and spare clothes.

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Despite cloudy weather, views became admirable when we got above the tree line and followed a narrow mountain path on the slopes of Cime De La Scala.

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After some hiking effort we finally reached the secluded stony Rifugio Pian de Fontana which occupies a nice location east of Cime di Città.

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We slept in a small stony (unheated) cabin adjacent to the main building, actually the coldest place of the overall trail we stayed overnight.

Luckily, the rifugio itself was really cosy and warm thanks to a nice fireplace, and our dinner accompanied by generous amount of red 🍷 wine was (not surprisingly, being in Italy 🇮🇹) really delicious.

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Day 2: Rifugio Pian de Fontana -> Rifugio San Sebastiano

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The following morning was one of the picture-postcard ones, with sunrise beams illuminating surrounding ridges nicely.

Getting up early, we set out on the trail quickly, continuing with the ascent of Forcella de Zità Sud (2395m), a mountain pass just below Cima De Zità peaks.

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We got some small amounts of frozen snow that had fallen during previous days when we approached the pass, however with clear footpath to follow this didn't possess much of a problem.

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Clouds were rolling in and out when we traversed the pass, and we took special care during the following descent - there was one particular narrow ridge to cross whose flanks plunked steeply into the valley, and frozen snow and ice on the ridge required proper attention.

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Nevertheless, we soon continued across a more flat though still barren rocky terrain, and after some time the beautifully positioned Rifugio Sommariva al Pramperet came into our sight.

As was the case of other high-altitude rifugios in the area, the hut was already closed at the end of season - the only rifugios that remained open during this week were those located at lower altitudes, usually in mountain passes accessible by regular roads.

It was our second day only on the trail when we realised that something a bit strange is happening on Alta Via 1 in terms of hikers we meet - besides day trippers, the rest of the people we met were usually long-distance soul and truth seekers following the so called Munich - Venize "Dream Trail" (The Traumpfad) which shares the same route as Alta Via 1 across the Dolomites.

We were having lunch at a trail junction close to the hut when two of these dreamers just left the (constantly open) winter room of the rifugio, and started their daily hike in the same direction as we were about to do after our lunch break. I've seen strange things on trails over the years, including Asians carrying sleeping bags and other stuff in their hands on Laugavegurinn, Iceland, or a hiker with a suitcase and an umbrella on Kungsleden, Sweden, however it was the first time in my life I've seen someone hiking with a complete prosciutto leg 🍖, weighting 7-8 kilos.

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The afternoon route then continued peacefully, given the more flat terrain on western slopes of Castello Di Moschesin (2499m).

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Clouds were continuously moving in and finally it became completely overcast. Luckily, it didn't rain, and soon we found ourselves sitting in the cosy dining room of Rifugio San Sebastiano over a few beers and hearty dinner.

It had to be around 10PM (it got dark around 6PM) when the two previously mentioned hikers with the prosciutto leg finally appeared, knocking on the door of the rifugio and asking for some wine - as we were told by the friendly rifugio owner in the following morning, they misused the emergency shelter nearby to stay overnight. But who we are to judge - we were also young, crazy and intolerant of rules and regulations, and I'm the last one here to complain or to be offended ;-).

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Day 3: Rifugio San Sebastiano -> Rifugio Passo Staulanza

It was snowing the whole night and there were a few centimetres of fresh wet snow lying on the ground outside the hut in the morning. The rifugio lies at the altitude of 1600m, which implied that there will be much more snow at higher altitudes we planned to cross.

Originally, our ambitious plan was to further follow Alta Via 1 route, traversing slopes of the Monte Civetta massif on its western side, and make it all the way to Rifugio Passo Staulanza, the only hut in the area that wasn't closed yet.

It would be more than 30km though, and being quite rational, we simply agreed on a more reasonable option, also considering the advice given by the knowledgeable rifugio owner - to rather use paths on the eastern side of the Monte Civetta massif at lower altitudes, and potentially get higher later during the day, weather-permitting.

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The clouds were slowly dispersing as we progressed along the small Ru della Grava creek, pursuing a short off-the-trail forest bushwhack near the Casera della Grava farmhouse.

In complete solitude, we continued further to a cargo cable car stand used to supply the high-altitude Rifugio Torrani, and having come to a trail junction that followed (altitude 1900m), we sat down to have lunch and carefully considered options we got: either to enter the kingdom of snow above us and follow Sentiero no. 557 (Sentiero Tivan), or to descent to Val di Zoldo and potentially climb back to Rifugio Sonino al Coldai, visiting Lago di Coldai lake. Being reasonable once more, we opted for the latter; retrospectively, it was a wise choice given the level of our equipment (no microspikes).

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At another trail junction (elevation 1840m), our group split: whereas Filip took it easy and followed a footpath in the northern direction keeping the gained altitude, me and Lukáš opted for a snowy and slippery ascent of the couloir leading all the way up to Forcella Coldai pass (2191m), offering views of Lago Coldai lake.

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Retrospectively, it was a good decision not to follow Sentiero Tivan; there would certainly be amounts of fresh snow and we would spend hours battling through the difficult terrain.

Having compensated for that by ascending to Lago Coldai, we quickly descended back to Casera Pioda and tried to cover the last kilometres to Rifugio Passo Staulanza as quickly as possible.

Naturally, delicious three-course dinner accompanied by generous number of beers followed; it was a long hiking day.

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Day 4: Rifugio Passo Staulanza -> Rifugio Croda da Lago

The fourth day was about to be a shorter one; a simple yet rewarding hike to Rifugio Croda da Lago, again the only mountain hut yet open in the area.

Originally, our intention was to spend the night in the spectacularly located Rifugio Nuvolau, however just a few days ago we got a message from the hut operator that it shall be closed sooner than planned due to cold weather forecast with loads of snow.

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In slowly improving weather, we quickly reached Rifugio Città di Fiume, and continued on a broad well-maintained path towards Forcella di Col Roan pass (2075m), with beautiful views of the surrounding snow-capped peaks.

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The last stretch of the ascent then led to Malga Prendera shelter (2149m) and further to Forcella di Col Duro pass (2302m), again covered with fresh snow.

Luckily, a few adventurous souls hiked here yesterday which meant there were tracks to follow in otherwise deep snowdrifts.

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The short section between Forcella di Col Duro and Forcella Ambrizzola (2277m) passes was really beautiful and belongs to my favourite moments from the entire trail: barren land with majestic peaks covered by fresh snow, sunny weather, and almost no wind - all in complete solitude, though not far from the well-known ski resort of Cortina d'Ampezzo.

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The following descent to the secluded Lago Fedèra was quick and easy, and soon we found ourselves sitting on the sun terrace of Rifugio Croda da Lago over a couple of draught beers, enjoying warm sun beams and the surrounding tranquil scenery.

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Day 5: Rifugio Croda da Lago -> Rifugio Lagazuòi

The following morning was sunny and cloudless, and with promising weather forecast for the whole day we set out on the trail in the direction towards Pian del Pantan (Rù Corto), descending most of the time.

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Having descended to the road from Cortina to Selva di Cadore, a long ascent way up to iconic shapes of Cinque Torri and the eponymous Rifugio (2130m) followed.

The weather was really lovely - it was one of those magical autumn days in mountains when views are clear, air is crisp, and hiking is a real pleasure no matter constant elevation gain.

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From Cinque Torri, I did a short detour to the previously mentioned Rifugio Nuvolau (2574m), a spectacularly-set small hut occupying a prominent cliff of the eponymous peak that offers eagle-eye 360° views of the surrounding majestic massifs and deep valleys.

There was handful of other hikers on the rifugio's terrace consuming their packed lunches as well as rifugio staff clearing out last beer supplies, all happening in a relaxed atmosphere of the beautiful sunny autumn day.

The views were breathtaking in all the directions, yet soon I had to get back to the main track from Rifugio Averau to Forcella Averau pass (2435m), catching up with Filip and Lukáš who opted for a straightforward walk without the detour.

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There were a few tricky icy sections on frozen rocks of the sometimes steep couloir leading to the ski slopes above Lago Limedes, however besides that the descent to Passo di Falzarego pass (2105m) was easy and smooth.

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The touristic atmosphere in Passo di Falzarego was rather uncomfortable, and we rushed to leave the uninspiring area quickly to start the last stretch of the day, ascent of the prominent Lagazuoi (2835m).

We didn't want to cheat using the cable car, also due to the fact we aimed to climb the mountain using the well-restored WW1 tunnels - the extensive tunnels here were built by the Italian troops trying to wrest control from Austro-Hungarian troops who also built tunnels. The tunnels are now open as a de-facto museum, and may we walked in both the directions, with almost everyone going up with the cable car and then descending via the tunnels.

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It was really an interesting walk, though one can really feel those 250m vertical metres that are gained quickly using the steep wood-strengthened steps inside the mountain.

As expected, views from around Rifugio Lagazuòi were stunning when we stepped out of the tunnels.

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It was a short walk to the top of Lagazuoi (2835m) with a wooden cross and WW1 artefacts - actually the highest point of the entire Alta Via 1 trail.

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The evening was splendid thanks to persisting sunny weather, with sun beams illuminating high peaks in the east beautifully as the evening progressed towards sunset.

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Day 6: Rifugio Lagazuòi -> Senneshütte

Sunny albeit a cold morning gave us the opportunity to train our balance on the icy path zig-zag descending to Forcella Lagazuoi (2572m), from which we turned to the northwest, following the frozen snow-covered footpath towards Lech de Lagació lake.

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At the lake, the official trail was re-routed due to safety reasons (risk of landslide). Steep ascent with icy and slippery upper part leading to Forca d Lago pass (2486m) followed, offering commanding views back to the Lagazuoi massif.

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Luckily, the subsequent descent from the pass in the northern direction was less steep and thus less slippery, and we progressed quickly further as we joined the broad trail down the valley, frequented by day-trippers.

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We decided to take a prolonged break at Rifugio Fanes (2060m) and have proper lunch instead of sandwiches as was the case of previous days (except for the first day).

Retrospectively, the three-course lunch on which we splurged washed down by two beers wasn't the brightest idea, given the fact we still had a major part of the journey ahead of us.

Nevertheless, we managed to get back on the trail again, further descending to Rifugio Pederü (1550m).

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Having reached the frequented rifugio (with a big parking lot), we had no other choice then to venture into the final cruel ascent all the way up to Senneshütte (Rifugio Sennes) (2130m), which we preferred in our planning to Rifugio Pederü, shortening thus our upcoming last day on the trail.

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Shortly after our arrival in the rifugio rainy clouds rolled in, and soon wet snow began to fall. The weather forecast was rather unfavourable, however luckily we just had a small last portion of Alta Via 1 ahead of us.

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Day 7: Senneshütte -> Pragser Wildsee (Lago di Braies)

In the foggy, rainy and windy weather that ruled in the morning we opted for the seemingly faster western route towards Lago do Braies, climbing to Seitenbachscharte - Forcela de Riciogogn pass (2331m, no visibility there) and subsequently descending all the way down to Pragser Wildsee.

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The lake is beautiful, no discussion about that, however herds of day-trippers (even in the rainy weather) spoiled its atmosphere completely.

The end of our journey was thus rather uninspiring - overcrowded lake, junk food at one of the stalls followed by a lengthy taxi ride (we got the taxi pre-arranged in advance) back to our car parked in Belluno.

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Afterword

In a period of an unexpectedly cold weather at the end of September, we still got some luck with a few sunny days and really enjoyed the Alta Via 1 trail.

Manoeuvring the routing carefully to fit our overnight stays into the still open rifugios, we had to do a few detours from the official route, however there's no reason to be purists here.

The trail itself is comprised of a few less visited sections that connect areas that popular with day-trippers (accessible by car). From that perspective, the most rewarding parts are naturally those least visited, which are located at higher altitudes and require some hiking effort to be crossed over.

Alta Via 1 has been on my bucket list for years. We got some luck to have a chance to through-hike the entire trail in the COVID-19 influenced time, which naturally contributed to even more solitude and uncrowded rifugios.

It was a nice trip. What about the other Alta Vias? Maybe #2 sometime in the future...

Footnotes

All images are exclusive property and may not be copied, downloaded, reproduced, transmitted, manipulated or used in any way without permission of the author.

FootNotes

All images are exclusive property and may not be copied, downloaded, reproduced, transmitted, manipulated or used in any way without permission of the author.

© 2026 Northern Adventures

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