I have Rules for certain life-defining things: Rules of Condiments, Rules of Walking, and the mostly unwritten Rules of Acrophobia. Sometimes the rules intersect. Thus the Rules of Walking state:
1. No wheels allowed (no cars, no trains, no bicycles, etc.), except to return home at the end of the trip.2. No elevators. You just hiked 15 miles: you can take the stairs.3. The Acrophobe's Exception: means of transportation that might unnerve acrophobes are allowed, specifically ferries and ski lifts.
For Day 5 of the Sterzing-to-Feltre hike, I took advantage of this intersection and intentionally built in one funicular train and two gondola lifts, for a combination of sight-seeing and time/distance management. I felt a little sheepish about this, since I've made significant progress with ski lifts over the past 15 years or so, but I am pleased--or maybe not pleased--to report that they remain unnerving. (Chair lifts, it should go without saying, are ABSOLUTELY NOT ALLOWED EVER.)
On Tuesday morning, we left Rifugio Resciesa and walked a mile to the convenient funicular train that went straight down the side of the mountain, landing us in St. Ulrich Ortisei. We sat in the very front of the cabin, and I did not hyperventilate at all, but I did yammer most of the way down, and I mediated the view by watching through my cellphone camera screen.
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| A day pass got us rides on all of St. Ulrich's lifts. |
Once we arrived in St. Ulrich, we walked to the lift station and took a gondola up to Seceda for a quick view-admiring side-trip hike.
Atop Seceda, we were greeted with an ad to experience e m o t i o n s by booking a hang-gliding trip. The sign did not specify what emotions came with the deal, but fear, terror, anxiety, and panic weren't my idea of a good time, so we passed.
S took a moment to take some photos of the panorama. Note the smile on his face: he's in his element.
To summarize our emotional response up to that point:
Still, the views were stunning enough to have made the gondola ride worthwhile.
Seceda itself looked pretty much like the Microsoft Windows 10/11 welcome screen photo:
Pretty sure this is my favorite photo from the entire hike:
After tromping around for a bit with a zillion other tourists (not shown), we rode the gondola back down to St. Ulrich Ortisei. Whew.
I was still in chatty yammer mode, so after popping into the gold-leaf sparkly neo-classical parish church of St. Ulrich...
...we paused for a cuppa decaf and a piece of Erdbeerschnitte at a cafe near a statue of an armored bark beetle retuning victorious from infesting the forests of the Dolomites. Aptly, the sculpture is made from burnt wood.
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| Beetle on a Horse (2024) by Julius von Bismark |
Our final gondola of the day was a lift that cut about 2,360 feet elevation gain off our main hike of the day, from the Schlern plateau to the Plattkofel Huette.
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| This ride wasn't as unnerving as the others. |
The green meadows across which we hiked were part of the Seiser Alm, Europe's largest high-elevation alpine meadow (52 km2).
Our goal was the Plattkofel hut, located at the base of the rightmost mountain in the photo below:
En route we encountered horses, who were not particularly interested in us...
...and cows, who were. A half dozen cows moved in, seeking salt, apples, or anything else they could lick off of us. Too close for comfort, we climbed over a conveniently located viewing bench and continued up the hill.
It should go without saying that as we approached Plattkofel, our views of the mountain changed--yet we didn't anticipate how different the mountain would look from different angles.
The final stretch was quite steep. I appreciated an opportunity to pause and record the sound of what is basically a water-powered didjeridoo made from drainage hosing. Not sure why it was there, but there's no end to surprises in the Dolomites.
At last: Plattkofel Huette!
Here's the view from the hut's back yard:
Inside, art adorned the stairwell wall. Kudos to the young artist for this depiction of methane-induced global warming.
We dropped off our backpacks, and after some refreshment...
...we went for a short hike before dinner.
Our second critter sighting of the day confirmed that we had entered The Land of the Marmots.
Dolomite!
Note the double-pronged waterfall. The next morning when we left Plattkofel Huette, it was no longer flowing. Snow melts faster under a hot sun than under a cool moon.
Most of the rocks were white, but some had a pinkish tinge.
Room with a view:
Ta da! 10.2 miles, 2,675 ft elevation gain, bulk of which was during the hike to Plattkofel Huette.
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