Today, we found ourselves hiking again. It was a somewhat restful period between our last hike, the Pyrenees High Route, and now. It was only made less restful by the fact that we had all the usual travel logistics to deal with every day in between: where do we go, what do we do, and what do we eat? We solved it by renting a car in Verona, Italy and driving around the Italian Alps for 8 days, sleeping in campgrounds.
At the end of the restful period, we had to deal with the usual pre-hike logistics: how do we get to our hike, where do we stay in the days leading up to it and most importantly for us, what do we do with our stuff we’re not taking with us?
The Alta Via 2 is 100 miles between the towns of Brixen and Feltre. Wild camping isn’t allowed so we had hut reservations for the entire time ($$$€€€). This meant we didn’t need to pack a tent, stove, sleeping bags, or sleeping pads. We also didn’t need to bring much food, but we still ended up packing some snacks and ~4 days worth of lunches, just in case.
We had more stuff we were not taking with us than we did for the HRP. That was a 17kg stuff fest into the largest box we could find. This time, we learned a bit and got several boxes, mostly free from a grocery store, and ended up filling 2 of them. We then mailed them via Italian Post to our hotel at the end of the hike.
Today started out at 5:30, where we woke up, packed up, and left our hotel in Salorno to catch the 6:15 train to Brixen. We ate our grocery store purchased breakfast from the night before: Greek yogurt, muesli, bananas, and some hard boiled eggs we had made a few days before when we still had a stove. The train was nice and the day looked much better than yesterday where it had rained for most of the day.
We stepped off the train in Brixen around 7:30. I guess it was time to go. Technically there was a bus we could have taken to save some time and climbing out of town, which we should have taken. Then there was a gondola that we skipped, which could have saved us about 1.5 hours of walking and a lot of climbing, but I’m glad we didn’t take it. The initial climb out of town was really nice. It was quiet, cool, and so very green. We passed by verdant farmland where there wasn’t a patch of dead, dried up plant in sight. The tree canopy above us was starting to shed some leaves for the fall and it really did feel like we had left summer behind. I have no idea how that happened so quickly. It seemed like we went from sweltering summer to chilly fall in a matter of days. I much preferred this cooler weather, but I felt we missed out on some nice, 70-75 degree days. We went from 90 to 60 degrees in just a few days.
I daydreamed about fall and cooler weather as we continued to climb. I realized I am really looking forward to our upcoming plans, in large part because I expect to not be hot anymore. When we got to the base of the gondola, the trail wound through a ski area that was beautifully forested in evergreen trees. It made me miss home. We climbed on a wonderfully maintained trail. We stopped to pick and try some mystery berries, which ended up being raspberries beneath the gondola. When we reached the top of the gondola it was packed with people but we got our first views of the Dolomites.
It’s hard to describe how or why the Dolomites are so compelling, but they’re the type of mountains that you instantly know are special. They’re made not of granite, but a different, unique type of rock, the Dolomites rock. They rise steeply out of green bases, with steep sides that do not allow any sort of vegetation to grow above their grassy base. They’re not the highest mountains, but they rise steeply above their surroundings and often have jagged or several peaks, rather than a singular peak. If there is a single peak, it is often domed or shaped in a way unlike tradition, pyramidal mountains. They are made all the more stunning by the vibrant greens that surround them at the base, which contrasts sharply with the grey, black and yellow spires. They are much more satisfying to look at as opposed to the peaks in the Pyrenees for example.
At the top, we snapped some pictures and disposed of some trash. While rifling through my snack pouch, Zoë found some cheese slices from the day before I had meant to discard. Rather than discard all of them, she chose to eat one. Why, I have no idea, but it turned out to be a terrible idea.
We left the hordes of gondola passengers behind as we climbed to our first hut, where we planned to have lunch. We figured it might take us 2 hours but we soon found a sign that informed us it was only 65 minutes away. 65 minutes isn’t long, but it is if you ate a piece of cheese, your bowels hate it, and there are people everywhere so the only bathroom is at the hut. I’ll let you guess who the victim was in this story.
The hut was situated at the top of our big climb, 6,000ft (2000m) above where we started at the train station. It had a restaurant with an outdoor seating area with a glass wall which gave you unobstructed views of the mountains around us. We ate angnolotti and rotini beneath the shifting clouds. When the sun was out, it was glorious. Otherwise, my sweat soaked shirt made me freezing. I wore my fleece at lunch and craved the direct sun. What happened to me? I had been wanting to be out of the sun all summer, but finally it was cool enough that I didn’t need to seek refuge from it. This was such a welcome change.
I think lunch was fine, but honestly, my cheap ass would probably rather eat my hiking lunches rather than pay 36€ every day for lunch. The food was good, but we were already eating at the huts for dinner every night anyway. I don’t think I need another hot meal every day.
After lunch we saw a sign say we had 4 hours to our next hut and our destination for the evening. At the huts, you have to arrive by 18:00, otherwise you risk not getting dinner. When we saw we had 4 hours to go around 13:00, we relaxed a little. Not completely, but it was the first time all day I knew we were probably going to be in time for dinner.
The hiking after lunch continued to be spectacular. The views were amazing, the temperature was great, there were no animals, it was quiet. It was perfect. We saw quite a few people descending as we ascended our first pass, Forcella de Putia. The other side was even more spectacular than the first. We talked with someone named Dan from Australia at the top for about half an hour about various hiking we had done during our time off. It sounds like he’s 3 months into what could be a similar, multi year break from work.
The hut was only 30 minutes down from the pass. We got there at 17:00, with an hour to spare. We checked in with a nice employee who told us everything we needed to know about the hut. Dinner would be at 18:30, breakfast is between 7:00-8:00. Showers cost €3 for 5 minutes of hot water. Dinner is à la carte.
We sat outside in the sun and met several other groups of Americans in various stages of holidays. We even met another couple from Seattle who have been traveling the world since the end of 2024, just a couple months longer than us! They too have everything back home in storage. Small world. It was cool getting to have conversations with people in English again. Most other conversations we have, even if they’re in English, are strictly transactional.
At dinner we sat with some Dutch people who were visiting the hut as a weekend trip from their home base in Innsbruck. Zoë and I both had stews for dinner, which were fine. The total bill for our first night, including breakfast and dinner was €131 for the two of us.
The sunset was beautiful from the hut and we went outside to take some brief photos. We met some more Americans outside, these two were lawyers from Connecticut. They were both really nice and it was great to learn about their lives, how they ended up here, and what else they had hiked that they’d recommend. We’re hearing great things about the Haute Route in Switzerland, which is up next for us and very encouraging.