How to Plan

We started by using “Mont Blanc Treks” to help us with the booking and organizing of the trip. We also used them for the “Tour Du Mont Blanc” and they were wonderful. Now that we’ve done two trips with them I think I have gained the confidence to do this on my own on future multi day hikes. If it is your first time I encourage using a company like this. It is a bit costly but here is what it includes.

-They have options for self guided and guided hikes. We have done self guided both times, which means you hike entirely on your own. If you’re more comfortable with a guide that is also an option.

-They book all of your mountain huts for you. As well as your meals, breakfast and dinner included.

-They provide step by step directions for how to hike each day

-They provide contact if needed if you have any trouble during your hike

-They offer a luggage service where you can have your bags transported from rifugio to rifugio so you only have to carry a daypack.

-Transportation to the start and end of our hike

If you are going to plan on your own, follow my day by day schedule below. All you really have to do is make sure that you can book all of the mountain huts in order. I would check each one before booking any of them. Make sure that you can book them on consecutive days so that you know you wont get stuck without accommodation.

I advise you to book very early. These places are popular and fill up fast. We booked in November for a week of hiking in July, just to give you an idea. Not to say you can’t get lucky, but I don’t like taking risks like that.

Schedule Day By Day

Day 1 Cortina d’Ampezzo

We started our trip by arriving to the mountain town of Cortina. Again, this was included in our trek, so I was blissfully unaware of how expensive this town was. It is a very popular stop and a very, very beautiful place. The streets of this mountain town are filled with shops like Dior, and Gucci, and we were very surprised when we arrived. If you’re on a budget it would likely be smarter to either skip this town, or find cheaper accommodation a little further out. However, if you find the prices reasonable it was a really nice place to spend a half day before our hike. We stayed at Hotel Ambra Cortina and it was a very nice place. It was comfortable, had great views, great prosecco, and the kindest staff. The town is so charming, and we found a few great places to eat, drink, and wander around (more in another post).

Day 2 Lago Di Braies to Rifugio Pederu 13.6 miles:

The day started off by being picked up at our hotel in Cortina and driven to the start of our hike at Lago Di Braies. Nothing can really prepare you for how incredibly stunning this lake is in person. It’s like an instagram vs reality except instagram is NOT lying. It is possibly one of the most beautiful places my eyes have ever seen. We got dropped off bright and early so it was uncrowded and so peaceful. We were already walking around the lake before they even began letting boats out onto the water. To start the hike you get to go about halfway around the lake, so you get a lot of great views before you start heading up into the mountains. Once you start heading up you also get some epic views from above. Today is a pretty easy hike after you get up into the mountains. The switchbacks down to Rifugio Pederu are no joke!

Rifugio Pederu is a fantastic place to stay. It’s down in a valley between some incredible mountains and rock formations. The food here is AMAZING and they have their own homemade pastas. Our room was so cozy and had a balcony overlooking the scene. It’s important to note that we booked private rooms in all of these places. If you stay in dorm rooms the comfort part of the equation might be a bit different. It’s so nice at the Rifugios, people relax in the sunshine after hiking, play cards, eat cakes and ice cream (this is huge in the mountains) and enjoy wine and beers while relaxing. It’s such a fun vibe to arrive to when you finish hiking each day. Because this place is also accessible by road it was a bit more crowded than some other places we stayed on this hike, but we really loved it here.

Day 2 Rifugio Pederu to Rigfugio Lagazoui 16.2 miles:

Today was arguably one of the most epic and challenging hiking days we’ve ever done. You climb up for what feels like forever, then you do a ton of switchbacks down a very steep mountainside, and then climb up for what feels like forever again. But I swear it was SO MUCH FUN. If you love a challenging hike today is your day. If you make it to Rifugio Lagazoui you’ll be rewarded with one of the coolest places you’ve ever stayed in your life.

We stayed in a private room here as well, this room was two single beds head to head and was very small but SUPER cozy. At this rifugio you had to pay 5 euro for 5 minutes of a shower. When you see where this place is located, basically on the tip of a mountain, you understand why they have to be smart with their water supply. It’s not a big deal if you want a longer shower you can pay more, but this is just something to note when staying here. Our room also had a balcony overlooking the entire mountains and the view was so good I didn’t want to sleep.

They had excellent food and had a more communal dining experience where you were seated with others. We really enjoyed chatting and getting to know some other hikers and hearing about their experiences. On these types of treks you can run into the same people over and over so you kind of make mountain friends!

The best part of this stay was the sunset and sunrise. There is a large area up here to walk around and you can walk to the tip of Mount Lagazoui. I couldn’t stop leaving dinner to go outside and see the sunset and we were able to take a nice walk around after dinner to watch it in its entirety. It was truly an indescribable experience there are mountains LITERALLY completely all around you and you’re at the tip right in the middle. Sunrise was equally as impressive and even more enjoyable as far less people got up to check it out and I kind of had it all to myself. Needless to say I barely slept here but i don’t think I’ve ever been more thrilled. I know I will go back here someday, even if I take the cable car up.

Day 3 Rifugio Lagazoui to Rigufio Averau 12.7 miles:

I can’t express enough how amazing every day of this hike was. It’s hard to find words to describe each day and make them sound different because the same words come to mind: stunning, epic, incredible, mind blowing. We loved this day of hiking as well. It wasn’t as challenging hiking wise, but we went through some pretty beautiful areas. We hiked around the Cinque Torre and we got to see climbers doing some incredible things. This is an area that is easily accessible by cable car so lots of people were up on the mountain hanging out, having drinks, climbing, mountain biking, dining in Rifugios, doing day hikes, and just enjoying the beautiful day. There is also an open air WW1 museum up here that you can visit to learn more about the war and the things that happened in this area of the Dolomites during the war. It was incredibly interesting to visit and read about.

When we finally reached Rifugio Averau we were thrilled. Our room felt like a little log cabin and we had another private room with an amazing balcony. We chilled out downstairs and had some wine and a cheese board and played some cards. A giant hail storm rolled through and it was actually really neat to see. This place was so nice and cozy and we loved staying here. Sunrise here was probably the best sunrise of the trip. You had an unobstructed view of the mountains all around and then sun coming up behind them. I was the only person up checking out the sunset here and it felt so magical!

Day 4: Rifugio Averau to Rifugio Staulanza 15.1 miles:

Todays hike started with me walking basically right out the door and falling into the mud. After the storm the night before some of the trails were still really wet and muddy and we tried to start out on one that just wasn’t smart. Whoopsie! We turned back and found a safer way and it was all just fine, an amusing incident. We walked through some really delightful valleys today and had one large uphill section. We also got to walk through the woods quite a bit today, which was quite different from most other days.

We arrived at Rifugio Staulanza and had our usual routine of sitting in the sun and enjoying some snacks and drinks. This Rifugio was right on a roadside, it was very charming and had excellent food. It didn’t feel quite as special as being up on top of a mountain, but we really enjoyed the place. The staff were so kind and we had gotten to know a lot of the other hikers on our path by this point so it was nice to relax and socialize a bit.

Day 5: Rifugio Staulanza to Rifugio Vazzoler to Extraction Point 17.2 miles:

Today was one of the most surprising days of our hike. The views were incredible. We passed another beautiful mountainside rifugio and even saw a helicopter parked up in the mountains. We passed some breathtaking lakes and some mountain landscapes not quite like anything we’d seen before. We passed a ton of mountain goats and sheep and eventually came upon Rifugio Vassoler.

We got here and yet again did our usual routine of ordering a meat and cheese board and grabbing a drink. As we were sitting there and it was still early in the day, and clouds were rolling in, I decided to look at our hike for the following day. The time for the following days hike in total was about 4 hours. I looked at my husband and said “lets get out of here today”. I knew we could either sit in the rifugio in a storm, or get into the town of Belluno and enjoy our evening exploring. He agreed and we began hiking again. We were picked up at a small cafe about 2 hours later by our arranged ride and taken to Belluno where we checked into our hotel for the night. Thus ending our trek of the alta via 1!

Day 5 Continued: Belluno, Italy

We arrived in Belluno around 4pm and it was drizzling a bit. We took a walk around and discovered that this was the most secretly charming city. It was so quiet and we ended up loving it. We ducked into an amazing looking wine bar and were offered a delicious glass of red wine. There were just a few locals in there having a drink themselves and we really liked the feel of the place. While sipping our wines we googled best pastas in Belluno. We came upon “La Trappola Birreria & Spaghetteria” and it was the perfect find! They had huge portions of pasta which were just what we needed after days of hiking. We had a delightful cab Franc to go with dinner and they served us a really fun lemon-aid type house drink too.

Important Tips

1. Do your research and make sure you’re getting the amount of hiking you want each day. We were lucky our company gave us a good route that filled our days. Some people on our route were doing much shorter days, and I know I would have been annoyed sitting around. On the flip side, if you want shorter days, that is very possible!
2. Dolomites are known for afternoon storms. Here it is best to get up and get out early. I advise getting close to your destination as quickly as possible and then taking time to relax once you’re there. That way if a storm rolls in you have a safe place to be.
3. Be prepared with water. The Dolomites are not like some other mountain areas we’ve hiked where we could fill up from streams or springs. We had to purchase water bottles in most locations for our next days hiking. Be prepared to purchase water and to carry enough for each day. We also saw many people with life straws or filters etc. You have to decide what works best for you.
4. Prepare your lunch each day. Some days we knew we could stop at a Rifugio along our trail, some days we knew we had to pack a lunch. Both options are totally, but make sure you know what you’ll encounter so you can plan accordingly.

What we’d do differently next time

There are not too many things we’d do differently if we visited again, we REALLY enjoyed most aspects of this hike. However, as with almost any trip, theres a thing or two I’d change.

1. Staying at Rifugio Vazzoler. I don’t want to put anyone off to this place. It was such a cute spot to hang out, they had great food, and they were very kind. It was just VERY rustic compared to the other Rifugios we’d stayed in. For many people I know this is not an issue at all! It’s actually not an issue for me either, but in our circumstances we knew we were only a few hours hike away from completion of our trek and I wanted a town, a warm bed, and a big bowl of pasta. We had a private room here, but it was just wooden bunk beds, and to be honest there were bugs everywhere. I am well aware I was on a multi day trek and bugs will be places, but I just wasn’t feeling it. When you reach this rifugio you’re very close to civilization so you can choose if you’d like to stay or carry on.

How to see some of these places if you’re not a hiker

There are many ways to see a lot of epic spots in the Dolomites even if you do not want to or are unable to hike.

Lago Di Brais can be reached by car. You can traverse the lake without gaining any elevation and we saw many people walking this without any hiking gear and even in everyday clothing. There is also a nice hotel right at the lake where you can spend the night.

Rifugio Pederu and the surrounding area can be reached by car, bike, and even bus. We saw many groups traveling here by road and many people still came to enjoy a night in the Rifugio whether they hiked or not.

Rifugio Lagazoui has a cable car that runs up to it. You can use the cable car to come up and explore the area around the Rifugio, to stay here, and even to do some day hikes.

Rifugio Averau and the Cinque Torri Area: This area can also be reached by cable car. There are quite a few Rifugios that are walkable up here and we saw TONS of people hanging out in this area. The open air WW1 museum is also up here and there are guided tours of the area. This is an accessible area where a lot of day trippers seemed to love to hang out!

Rifugio Staulanza: This area can be reached by road and is a nice place to stay for a night.

Rifugio Vazzoler: This one you have to hike to get to (which is probably why it’s a bit more rustic than the others). You can get to a road walking within about an hour and half, you’d need a 4×4 vehicle to get up to the rifugio. This makes this area a bit less accessible.

Suggested Packing List

I have to admit we’ve gotten better at packing! This was probably the trip I’ve been most impressed with my own packing job!

• Underwear for each day
• Socks for each day
• 3 tee shirts (I wore each one for 2 days)
• 3 shorts (also wore each pair of shorts for 2 days)
• 1 merino wool long sleeve layer
• 1 sweatshirt for cold evenings
• 1 sweatpants for cold evenings
• 1 rain jacket
• Bag cover
• Day pack
• Hiking boots
• sneakers or slides for down time
• kindle for down time
• sunglasses
• puffer jacket (prob didn’t NEED it but I did wear it in evenings)
• clothes to lounge in at rifugios

Links to Gear

All of the links below are to gear that I’ve actually used myself and found super useful. I may receive a small commission if you purchase through these links at NO cost to you!

Waterproof HIking Pants : these are the pants I got for our Patagonia trip. They were completely water proof and I wore them in torrential rain. They also really helped to protect from the extreme wind!

Solar Charger: this really comes in handy any time honestly! But especially when camping for days! We strap it on the back of our backpacks!

Merino Wool Socks: Full disclosure, these are not the ones I got. I got mine from bombas and I love them! But these look just the same and are so helpful to have when hiking!

Merino Wool Long Sleeve: This is the exact long sleeve I hike in and run in on cold mornings. I love it! I’ll probably invest in another one. It’s light but it does the job.

Merino Wool Hat: this hat was awesome for hiking. Very comfortable and quick drying!

Life Straw: water filter for water bottle

Back Pack Cover

Day Pack: this is the day pack I got to hike in the Dolomites. It’s perfect for short treks, has so many compartments, and was really lightweight and easy to pack!