Hiking the Alta Via 1: Day 1

Lago di Braies to Rifugio Sennes. 4 hours, 4 1/2 - 5 miles

    After four splendid days in Venice, Bryan (Margaret's husband and William's father) drove us to Lago di Braies, where Margaret (60) and William (18) and I (78) would begin our ten-day hike on the Alta Via 1. Bryan walked with us half-way around the lake to the trailhead. The lake was aqua blue; Dolomite domes leapt above it, and by the time we got halfway around the lake, the sun had warmed the beach. It was irresistible: I went for a swim. The water was 51 degrees.

Swimming in Lago di Braies
Photo by Bryan della Santina

I was enjoying it so much I didn't want to leave the water, but I was delaying our start on the trail, so I finally pulled myself out, got dressed, and the three of us bid Bryan good-bye and started up the trail.

Me with Margaret and William, on the trail.
Photo by William della Santina

    Though the trail wasn't nearly as steep as some we were to tackle in the coming days, it went up for a long time, climbing 2,925 feet from Lago di Braies (at 4,908 feet) to the high mountains. We climbed through beautiful rocks, then across meadows, still up, then over a rocky trail, always up, steadily up. 

Me, William. Photo by Margaret Della Santina

On one cliff of rocks we came upon our first via ferrata, a cable to hold onto as we carefully tread across the cliff.

You can see that I'm holding onto a cable.
Photo by Margaret Della Santina

    On the downhill Margaret and William, with a faster pace, got far ahead of me as I picked my way down the rocks, then up a steep grassy slope and over and up and across and down and across and up. I was hiking in all that splendor without another person in sight. It was glorious and expansive, though  it wouldn't have felt so glorious if I hadn't known that William and Margaret were ahead of me.

Margaret waiting for me on the trail.
photo by William della Santina

    At last we came to Rifugio Sennes, a beautiful, large, chalet-style building with cows grazing on the hills below the rifugio, their bells tinkling musically. Everything in the rifugio looked new and spiffy. Accommodations were pretty cushy.

                                              photo by Margaret Della Santina

Because a number of trails led to Rifugio Sennes, the chalet was buzzing with hikers, among them a woman from Ashland whose son had gone to the same high school that William attended and whose mother used to listen to me on the radio. Amazements never end.

Rifugio Sennes is in the background
photo by Margaret Della Santina