TRAVEL. HIKING ADVENTURE.
Ascending to the High Alpine Terrain
Our first step of the 5-day-long hiking adventure
We locked the car and threw the backpacks onto our shoulders. Off to a new adventure. We had a short hike into the center of Dobbiaco where we jumped onto the bus to Lago di Braies, the starting point of our 5-day-long hike in the Dolomites, South Tyrol.
It was a beautiful morning. The fog was hanging low in the valley and the air was brisk.
Right around the lake, we found the first signboard indicating our destination for the day. We’d be hiking along the Alta Via Dolomiti I and sleep over this night in the Rifugio Biella, the most rustic of all five accommodation places high above the tree line.
The beginning was beautiful but crowded. There was a leisure walk written out around the lake and many tourists from around the world were out and about. With children, babies in strollers, and grandparents in their wheelchairs. Everyone could make it along this path.
I simply ignored the crowds because I knew, soon, we’d head up the mountain and leave all those people behind.
Instead, I focussed on the turquoise blue water of the lake. Despite the sky being overcast that day, the blue was shining brightly between the mountains.
The lake had lost a significant amount of water this summer due to the drought in Europe and most of the rocky shoreline was out of the water. We decided to stop to launch our drone the first time. We’re not carrying all that extra weight for nothing.
This is the first image of all four of us. My parents, my husband, and I. 20 minutes into the hike.
Soon after, we reached the other side of the lake, and just before the junction a field of rock art. Hundreds of cairns were overlooking the beautiful lake.
A cairn is a man-made pile of rocks. The purpose of those stacked rocks is usually to leave a marker or create a burial monument. The word cairn originates far north and comes from the Scottish Gaelic: càrn. (Source)
After taking one more photograph of the turquoise blue, what I thought to be the last picture of the lake, we turned away from the crowds and faced our first and only uphill for the day.
The uphill would only end once we’d see the cottage for the night.
While my mom and dad were jumping ahead like young mountain goats, my husband and I took it slow adjusting to the high altitude.
My mom was asking me at one point if I only walked that slow to sympathize with my husband since I basically grew up in the alps and shouldn’t struggle with the thin air.
I wish I did only stay back to empathize with my husband.
I explained to my mom that the lungs do adjust both ways. When you’re often high up in the mountains, they expand and widen their capacity. But if the opposite happens it reverses all of it. What’s not needed gets built down by our bodies.
And I’ve lived for the past 7 years below 50 meters above sea level. What do you think my lungs did?
Relax.
I was suffering. At times I’d only walk 20 meters before taking a break. Not a long one. Just to stop, take three deep breaths, and continue again. Just to bring down the pulse and give my lungs time to pump.
And, of course, to enjoy the view.
At times, my parents would stop and wait for us to arrive. Then my dad would snap a picture and they were both gone again.
We didn’t mind. My husband and I had found a new companion. A lady was walking just a few meters behind us. Also loaded with a big backpack indicating she was also on a multiple-day hike. Together with her best friend, a dog.
He was the cutest and most loyal dog I had seen up in the mountains. He’d always walk a few steps ahead of her, look around the next corner, or between our legs, and then stop, look back and make sure she was okay and still following.
This dog was also well-behaved. Nothing distracted him, not once did he step off the trail. We walked slowly and respectfully. Even when he passed us, he did so without pushing us off the trail.
The lady needed just as many breaks as we did, so we continuously walked for about half an hour ahead of each other. It was a quiet tour group but a smiling one.
The four of us.
I then spotted an interesting-looking part of the trail where I knew my dad was waiting for us to film the crossing.
In the end, it was much more harmless than it looked from afar but still a fun challenge. Some chains to hold on and stairs made out of wood on the side of the cliffs.
Just after crossing that rock field, the valley opened up and we decided it was time for a lunch break.
Making their backpacks heavier, my husband and my dad were carrying cans of beer up in the mountains. But it wasn’t any beer. It was Romanian beer brought over by one of my dad’s friends.
I made an advertising picture for the company. I should send it in and see if they’d like to see their beer high up in the mountains of northern Italy.
We ate our sandwiches together with tomatoes, cucumber, and red peppers all harvested from my parents' garden.
Then it was time to move on. The last stretch of the hike.
It was a brutal one. Nestled in a side valley and surrounded by large boulders and rocks we moved very slowly.
It was getting warm and I was to be seen from afar in my yellow-shining outfit.
Then we made it. We reached the saddle.
A saddle is the lowest point of a mountain ridge between two peaks.
And it was our highest point for the day. We had reached the mountain ridge. And what was even more important — we could see the cottage.
My dad loves taking pictures. Almost more than me. But he takes pictures of people. Mainly. Sometimes of flowers and fungi but just to send them on WhatsApp. All his pictures in fact are taken with his phone. To send them to friends and family.
And here I am thankful he took this image of my husband and me. It shows our excitement and relief about feeling the end of the day’s hike.
I took my husband’s phone to take a panoramic shot of the views above the mountains and that was the last time I saw my husband. He sped up and was in no time down at the cottage. It’s the beer that gives him energy at the end of the day.
I let him go and my parents. I took some more pictures. Pictures of the mountains, of flowers and the view.
Then, I slowly made my way down to the cottage. After all, it wasn’t far.
The view was spectacular and so was the beer.
The afternoon was still long and after checking into the dorm room and refreshing ourselves, we walked a few meters down to a viewpoint.
I love the picture I took of my mom. Holding her binoculars in her hands my mom is in her element. Watching birds or, up in the mountains, seeing what’s on the other side.
“The climb speaks to our character, but the view, I think, to our souls.” — Lori Lansens
These pictures were taken with a range of cameras:
- Canon EOS 750D 20mm wide-angle lens
- Nikon Coolpix L330
- Drone: Mavic Mini
- Samsung Galaxy A51
- iPhone 10 XS
And watch here the full video of our hiking adventure through the Dolomites in South Tyrol, Italy:
More about our adventure to South Tyrol:
Join my email list here if you would like to read more travel essays or sign up for the Medium membership to receive unlimited access to my and other writers’ stories out here (I will receive a commission fee in return).
