St. Ulrich to Trieste, Day 8 - a change in plans - Rifugio Casera Tartoi bonus night

Sunday June 28, loop hike to Forca Rossa

Today, we replaced our planned point-to-point hike with a loop hike from Rifugio Casera Tartoi up to Forca Rossa. It was already hot when we set off in the morning, but clouds rolled in after we reached the pass, and the temperature dropped.  

We headed up first to Tragonia pass, where the wide meadow made hiking easy. 

Azaleas and other wildflowers were abundant. 

View of, I dunno, some mountain. Mountains, mountains, everywhere...

Our goal was Forca Rossa. This photo below was the last one I took before we reached the top, because the trail was so steep it was hard not to slip backwards on loose scree. We hiked the loop counter-clockwise (100% brave-acrophobe approved); had we tried this clockwise, I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to handle the descent. 

Whew. It felt good to have grass around us again. Look at S being so nonacrophobic that he can stand there taking photos.

The trail down was a luxury: not as steep, with wildflower and soil-rich paths weaving comfortably around the rocks. 

The variety of wildflowers meant there was always something new to spot. 

Down, down, down we went...

We very occasionally went up too...

...before heading down some more.

Second and third lady slippers of the trip!

Back at Rifugio Tartoi, we had a late lunch and then relaxed. Unlike Saturday, by mid-afternoon, the veranda was empty of day hikers. We spent the afternoon reading, taking showers, and handwashing laundry--a relaxing day.

I apparently deleted the color version of this photo...

Below, an apt metaphor for the day, courtesy of the rifugio veranda:

What do you do when there's an obstacle in the way of your needs? You cut what you must, and you carry on. 

Ta da! 7 miles instead of 13+, 2,600' up and down instead of 3,000 and 4,500. My knees were happy with this sacrifice and glad the weather helped them save face (or caps, or cartilage, or whatever knees save).

St. Ulrich to Trieste, Day 2 - Colfosco to Rifugio Valparola

Monday June 22, Colfosco to Rifugio Valparola

Our day began by continuing through the valley toward Corvara.

Shortly after emerging from the woods, we crossed a bridge. Sometimes S likes to test questions like "do my boots leak?," so he engaged in the scientific method to find out. This was a way better question to test than his 2023 pre-long-distance hike question, "I wonder if I'm allergic to poison ivy?" (The answers were yes and yes, respectively.)

My Rules of Acrophobia permit gondola lifts when necessary (immersion therapy) but forbid chair lifts. We admired this one from the comfort of solid ground.

Most of the day's elevation gain involved switchbacks, but occasionally it was a straight shot up. We were heading up to the Pralongia plateau, known as "the Amphitheater of the Dolomites" for its 360° panoramic views. (I could pretend I knew this when I planned our route, but I had no clue--it just looked like a sensible and scenic way to go.)

As we approached the Pralongia hut, where the 2-stage chair lift drops non-acrophobes off on the plateau, we took a short detour to admire the Marmolata massif in the distance. It's the highest mountain in the Dolomites at 3,343m. We've never been on "the Queen of the Dolomites," but S's mom H climbed and skied down it in the 1950s.

We paused at the hut for S's go-to hiking beverage (Apfelschorle), then continued on to more spectacular views.

The snow-capped peaks in the distance below are Austrian Alps. In 2023, we crossed over them into Italy somewhere just off to the left of the photo.

Wildflowers were abundant. 

The blue splashes below are forget-me-nots--in German, Vergissmeinnicht. I'm fascinated by the possessive pronoun mein in the middle instead of the accusative mich. Renate later explained to us that the old-fashioned mein is genetive--"forget of me not."

S suspected we were near Col di Lana, and soon we saw it ahead of us. Col di Lana is also known locally as Col di Sangue. Over 8,000 Austrians, Germans, Italians, and Hungarians died on this mountain over the course of WWI. On the night of April 17-18, 1916, after months of preparation, the Italian military blew the top off, with Austrian soldiers trapped in a fortification on top. Many of the via ferrata routes in the Dolomites were first installed to make it easier for soldiers to get up and down mountains on the front lines. 

We knew we had a pass to cross to reach Valparola. We intuited that it would be to the right of our lunch spot, but it turned out to be to the left (see the 90-degree turn to the north in the second map at the end of this post)...

Fanes Gruppe in the background. We hiked on the other side in 2017.

Trees favor protective rocks.

The big mountain beyond the trail is the Piz dles Cunturines, the highest peak in the Fanes group at 3,064m.

Blazes were essential along the last rocky stretch of the route. Often, there was no actual trail--the blazes just pointed in the general direction, and it was up to the hikers not to roll down the side of the rock. For this, the acrophobe deducted 3 points from the day's Acrophobe Approval score (+3 for the blazes, -6 for the long stretches of scrambling).

Notice the TWO blazes in this photo. We were hiking
down; up would probably have been easier.

It took until the end of Day 2 for us to finally see cows. I'm not sure why they were so scarce this summer. 

Once the blazes dropped us off at the end of the exposed rock, it was another mile or so to Rifugio Valparola. 

Rifugio room with a view

Ta da! 10 miles, 3,850' up, 2,250' down, 97% acrophobe approved.

Colfosco to Pralongia Hut

Pralongia Hut to Rifugio Valparola