Italy: The Dolomites, Hiking the AV1
The Dolomites have been on my radar for a few years now, so as I was planning my trip to Europe I decided I had to go check them out. At first I was thinking of renting a car for a few days so I could drive around to some different photo locations and have easy access to a variety of hiking trails. And at that point I was still planning on bringing my camping gear to Europe with me, so I also started looking into backpacking/camping in the Dolomites. But as I was doing my research I discovered that the Alps is full of mountain huts, and that “backpacking” in the wilderness in Europe, while certainly done, is not quite as popular in the US. While in the US our national parks are filled with networks of primitive campsites, the national parks throughout the Alps are filled with full service mountain huts. While my initial reaction to this “discovery” was a little bit of disappointment, the thought of staying in huts grew on me and I ended up having a great time.
I decided to do the Alta Via 1 trek, or AV1, which is one of the more popular treks in Dolomites. I ended up doing some slight variations on the official route, based on the huts that were available, but I was very happy with route I followed. Every hut I stayed was a little different, but I enjoyed them all none the less. Some of huts were only accessible by walking and felt more like little hostels, while others were close to roads and were more like hotels that just happened to be in the mountains. But I stayed in a shared room in every hut. The prices varied a bit from hut to hut, but overall I found this to be a reasonably affordable way to experience Europe.
The final leg of the AV1 is a via ferrata. Via ferrata translates to “iron route”. These are technical climbs through very rough terrain, and require helmets, harness’s and other protective equipment. I did not do the via ferrata. There is a common exit route to La Pissa where you can catch a bus. From Lago Braies to La Pissa took me 7 days. Many people do it in 8-10 days.
The first shot below is probably my favorite shot from the trek. I hiked up to the pass near Croda da Lago, where I stayed for my third night, at sunset and was treated to this amazing view. This photo is just about exactly as the Dolomites existed in my mind before I got there. The layers of green valleys in front of jagged mountain peaks. And the clouds were just perfect.
Forcella Ambrizzola, just a short hike up from Croda da Lago
The shot below is actually a daytime shot from the same pass but in the opposite direction. You can see Croda da Lago below, which is where I stayed the night.
Forcella Ambrizzola, just a short hike up from Croda da Lago
The views along the AV1 were amazing. Everyday was little different, and everyday there was at least one moment where I actually said “wow” to myself out loud. Below is a little montage of some daytime shots I took while hiking throughout the trek.
One reason that the Dolomites had been on my radar recently was because of some Milky Way shots I had seen over the years. In case you haven’t checked out my portfolio section of this site, I like to do Milky Way photography… While Milky Way photography wasn’t a main goal of mine for this trip to Europe, I was hoping to a least have a few opportunities to photograph the night sky. In Slovakia it was cloudy every day. In Slovenia I had trouble finding locations close to where I was staying, and it was really cold at night. My first few days in the Dolomites it was either cloudy, or I wasn’t in a good location. But the night I was staying at Croda da Lago, which was probably the last night with good shooting conditions for a while, was perfect. During the day I scoped out the lake, and successfully using the “Night AR” function in the Photo Pills app for the first time I was able to plan out a Milky way composition. There was about a 1/3 moon which nicely lit the foreground without adding too much light to the sky. The next night might have been too much light.
20mm, 6sec, f/2.5, iso 10,000, 19 light frames and 10 dark frames stacked in Starry Landscape Stacker for noise reduction. Other edits made in Light Room.
The first few days of the trek seemed to be a more popular area, filled with many day hikers in addition to multi day trekkers. While I truly enjoyed the entire trek, the quietness of the last few days was very nice. There were still plenty of people on the trails and at the huts, but it was mostly other people hiking the AV1. The huts on this part of the trek seemed to be smaller and more remote. The next two images below were taken near Rifugio Tissi. Tissi is almost at the top of mountain. You can walk to the summit from the hut in a few minutes where you’ll fine amazing panoramic views. The clouds were really moving in adding lots of drama to my photos.
This final image was taken at sunrise on my final night, just a little bit along the trail from Rifugio Pian de Fontana. This was an amazing place to stay. I was nervous about storms the day I stayed here, so I started hiking very early from Passo Duran and was at Pian de Fontana by 1pm. This gave me a whole day to relax. I don’t really like to relax, but I did have a good book and a nice cozy bed. And the barley vegetable soup was delicious and nourishing. I had it for lunch and dinner! It was cloudy all day and night, so I’m glad I happened to wake up early to experience this amazing sunrise.
I had an amazing time in the Dolomites. The AV1 trek was a great way to experience amazing nature while simultaneously experiencing the culture of Italy. In Europe, versus the US, the people and culture seem to be closer to the nature. With nature being more apart of people’s daily life, rather than being this distant place you need to travel far to get to. While I’m excited to get back to sleeping in my tent in the US, I could definitely see myself back in Europe staying in some more mountain huts.
