Hiking the Alta Via 1: Day 4

Lagazuoi to Nuvolau. 8.7 miles. Supposedly a 5-hour day, but longer for us, due to backtracking. 

    This was a day of great variation.

    (1) Lost hat. First we had to descend all those tight zig-zags on the trail from Lagazuoi down to the signpost for Rifugio Nuvolau on the plateau, at which point Margaret discovered that she had left her hat at the rifugio. So she left her pack with William and me and climbed all the way back up to the rifugio! In much too short a time to have done such a climb, she was back, with her hat, which, being the same color as the coverlet on the bed, she had not noticed when she was packing up.

    (2) Backtracking ("again," for Margaret). William, Margaret, and I climbed down the hill and came to a beautiful transparent stream falling into a deep hole. There the trail seemed to peter out. William climbed down the cliff anyway, but Margaret and I decided it was better (safer) to huff back up the trail, cut across the hill, and join the gravel World War I road that we probably should have taken in the first place. Then we hiked easily down it and met William.

    (3) World War I structures. We passed more rock-built World War I shelters and other structures, always interesting, and sobering to think of soldiers in these mountains.

                                                                            Photo by William della Santina

    (3) Rock climbers. As we hiked under the base of great sheer cliffs, we noticed the climbers, first a few, then more and more, clinging to the rock surface, looking like children's stickers. Our easy walking allowed ample opportunity to gawk at them doing their superhuman, incomprehensible, fly-on-a-wall climbs. We continued on a gentle downhill, eventually coming to a large grassy hillside where a flock of sheep was grazing, with its shepherd and dogs lying on a distant hillside. Large flocks of sheep or small herds of cows were not uncommon in the Dolomites.

                                                            Photo by Diana Coogle

    (4) Steep again. We crossed a paved road and started up, through the greenery of a forest and deciduous undergrowth, going steadily up.

                                            Photo by Margaret Della Santina

Soon we came out of the greenery onto another steep, curving, gravel road. We passed a classy-looking rifugio under the stunning rock formation called Cinque Torri, five towers, which is what it looked like.

Cinque Torri.                 Photo by Diana Coogle

There were many hikers on this road, and as we climbed up it, a passel of bicyclists also passed us, on a very sharp turn on that steep gravel road. It was obviously a difficult maneuver. One man had only one arm. His handlebars wobbled like crazy, but he stayed in control. Very impressive.

    (5) Rifugio Averau. The road ended at Rifugio Averau, beautifully situated in all the rock, on the edge of a sheer cliff-fall, with extraordinary views up and down. Many of the many people who were walking this difficult road were apparently at Averau for lunch. Gillian Price says this rifugio has the best food on the AV 1. Alas, we had to take her word for it, since we were headed toward Nuvolau for the night.

Heading towards Nuvolau, William following me. 
                                                                            Photo by Margaret Della Santina

    (6) Rifugio Nuvolau. Think about it: "nuvolau" means "cloud." The rifugio is on the pinnacle of a rock tower. To get there we climbed on an incredible rock trail, steeply up the peak.

Now I follow William.                  Photo by Margaret Della Santina

Five minutes before we got there, the rain that had been teasing us all day turned serious. We donned rain jackets, then carried on, now over slippery rocks on the steep ascent to the top. At the top, the rifugio took up all the space on the needle-pointed peak.

                                                 Photo by Diana Coogle

All around were those incredible Dolomite peaks—sharp, like needles, or flat, like tables, or straight-walled, like boxes. A climber's dream. A hiker's glory. A skier's paradise.  Cortina, in the valley below, was the center of the Winter Olympics in 1956 and will be again in 2026. 

    There was a sculpture on the wrap-around deck of the rifugio, given to the rifugio by the sculptor in honor of his eight hundredth ascent in the Dolomites. (Or did he mean his eight-hundredth ascent to Nuvolau?)

                                     Photo by Margaret della Santina

    (7) Accommodations. At Nuvolau we were in a dorm room for eight people, which we shared with three others, in a sloped-roof attic space.

Before our bunkmates arrived.             Photo by William della Santina

There were no showers. We ate dinner at a table next to a warm fire roaring in the stove. The sunset was rapturous.

    Of all the rifugios, in spite of its spartan accommodations, I loved Nuvolau best for its situation. The rifugio on the peak. The rifugio in the clouds.