Hiking the Alta Via 1: Day 6

Rifugio Staulanza to Rifugio Coldai. 2 hours, 10 minutes.

     After yesterday's long hike we would have only two hours of hiking today, so we luxuriated in our luxurious quarters at Rifugio Staulanza until almost 10:00.

    From the rifugio we walked along the paved road, which we soon crossed onto a gravel road through a logged area with large piles of logs and slash. (We didn't see much logging in the Dolomites, but some.) Then we headed up a lovely grassy hill,

                                                              Photo by Margaret dell Santina

down the other side, and across a road to the last climb of the day to Rifugio Coldai.

    At the start of the winding, narrow, stone-and-gravel road to the rifugio, a World War I mule track, we passed a small house with a large flock of sheep around it.

                                                        Photo by Diana Coogle

Just then, a car passed us and went up the driveway. I caught sight of "Socorro Alpini" on the side door. Shortly after that a drone buzzed overhead as we were hiking. It hesitated a good long time over us, tipping slightly. At first we were annoyed by the intrusion and the noise, but then we realized that the car must have been a search-and-rescue operation and that the drone, sent to spot the person in trouble, was making sure it wasn't one of us. 

    I loved the hike up the road to Rifugio Coldai. Though the mountain was very steep, the road zigzagged at the perfect rate for my pace.

                                      Photo by Margaret dell Santina
William on the road to Coldai. 

I ignored all shortcuts between switchbacks and kept on with my steady ascent with no stops and no change of breath. The trail turned sharply uphill at the end, but my pace held steady to the top, where the road flattened just enough to lead to the rifugio.

    On the other hand, the woman hiking behind me was talking on her cell phone all the way up.

  Rifugio Coldai.                          Photo by Diana Coogle

    Although Rifugio Coldai is an old building, it looked new and modernized, as did all the rifugios we had been in so far. William speculated that the government, who owned most of the rifugios, took advantage of the COVID hiatus to make renovations.

    We left our boots in the shoe room, as at all the rifugios,

                                                             Photo by Margaret dell Santina

and ordered lunch in the dining room, which was very crowded. It amazed me that so many people would make that long, difficult trek for lunch here. The two outlets for charging cell phones were in high demand.

                                      Photo by Margaret dell Santina

    After lunch Margaret and William disappeared, while I stayed in the dining room, writing in my journal. After a while I disturbed the young woman at the outside end of the bench to go to the bar for a spritz. The bright orange Campari spritz that I returned with opened a conversation, and soon, in the way of hikers on the Alta Vias in the Dolomites, we had become friends. She (Dana) and her husband (Neil), who was sitting across the table, were from Colorado and had taken early retirement from their jobs as environmental lawyers. They were hikers and skiers. After this trip in the Dolomites they would be hiking in Switzerland. At dinner time William and Margaret joined us, and for the first time on our hike, we were sharing a table with  friends. Until Coldai, rifugios had assigned tables to specific guests. Ours was usually for "Della Santina" because Margaret had made most of the reservations, a task I was immensely grateful to have her do. On two occasions, though, I had made the original contact, so the reservation, for lodging and board, was in my name.

Our table at Lagazuoi. Photo by Margaret Della Santina