I had gone to bed ready to bail out to Venice if things got rough. But the Dolomites surprised me again today and not only that I made it to Rifugio Fanes, but overall I also had a pretty great day. When I woke up and peeked outside, I had to do a double take: I woke up to a clear blue sky and yesterday’s gloomy mess was nowhere to be found. Downstairs, everyone at breakfast seemed to feel it too, this lift in energy that came with the clear weather. Sure, the trail was still icy and packed with snow, but at least we could see where we were going instead of fighting through that nasty wind and fog from yesterday.
I ended up at breakfast with the same crew from dinner: Karen, Juan Carlos, and Francesco, while our Australian friend had already hit the trail by the time we were still munching on our bread and jams. While I was stuffing my sleeping bag back into my pack right after breakfast, Karen kindly asked if I wanted to hike together. She and Juan Carlos were planning to head to Rifugio Pederu; the game plan is we could take the bus back to the nearest town from Pederu if things got sketchy and we needed to bail. It sounded like a solid plan, and I wasn’t comfortable hiking alone just yet, so I said yes and we set off, leaving Rifugio Biella behind us.
At first I hung back, not wanting to intrude and mess with their hiking pace. But with the trails still mostly buried in snow and the weather being so unpredictable up here, having company seemed smart. Sometime later though I ended up taking the lead since I had my GPS map handy. The trail markers get pretty useless when they’re buried under snow.
We pushed through the snow to Rifugio Sennes, stopping for a quick bathroom break. After that it was mostly jeep track, though we also encountered the possibility of hiking through alternative trails. Juan Carlos, being an experienced mountain guide, would always check with hikers coming from the opposite direction for the most real-time information about the trail condition, and we made our decision on where to go based on the intel that we got.
Along the way, we ran into a couple of people: we met a couple with their dog Jello. They had been planning to camp all the way, but were eventually forced to stay in rifugios because of the weather. We also came across Francesco again, who was having lunch under a tree by the time we walked past him, and before I knew it, he joined our little group. The four of us climbed the icy gully together before picking our way down some tricky rocks to Rifugio Pederu, where we finally stopped for coffee and lunch.
By the time we hit Pederu, I was feeling way better about everything. Instead of freaking out and talking to myself in my own head, I could talk my worries out with my newfound company. The good weather had everyone in high spirits, and being down in the valley meant way less snow to deal with. After lunch, continuing to Rifugio Fanes seemed like the right thing to do, and so we pushed on and climbed ourselves out of the valley through bushy vegetations. We’d stop whenever we needed to catch our breath, sharing water and fruits, taking in the views we’d been too stressed to notice before. Karen and I agreed that today, we are out of survival mode; unlike yesterday where we were mostly busy surviving, today finally felt like a hike. Instead of watching every step and worrying about slipping, we could look up and around the surrounding mountains and the streams we walked past.
The four of us were staying in the same area, although at different rifugios; Francesco was staying in a small rifugio called Ücia dles Muntagnoles, while I stayed a couple of hundred meters after at Rifugio Fanes. Karen and Juan Carlos were staying right across at Rifugio Lavarella. We decided to hike again the next day, and planned to meet the next day in the intersection at about 08:30. And so I spent my night alone, but I went to sleep with the comfort that tomorrow I won’t be alone.
Rifugio Fanes turned out to be more luxury hotel than mountain hut, a stark contrast from my humble night at Rifugio Biella. Here there were hairdryers and free hot water. The place was busy with hikers, partly because it was the only rifugio around with WiFi. People would trek up just to check their messages, and one of them is Samantha - she recognized me from the day before, from that scary icy crossing on the way to Rifugio Biella. We swapped stories about our rough starts on the trail. She’d ended up turning back that first day, catching the bus to Pederu this morning to pick up the trail again. Listening to her, I realized how little research I’d actually done before: it turns out there were all these alternative routes and backup plans I hadn’t known about. Later at dinner I would also meet a couple from Colorado who told me about all of these alternative routes, including a safer, but longer trail, to Rifugio Biella that I had no idea about.
That night, I climbed up my bunk bed with a stomach full of hearty rifugio dinner without obsessively checking the weather forecasts, livestreams, or thinking about another trail somewhere in a warmer part of Italy. Instead, I found myself committing to this trail, thinking about the next day’s views, the other people I’d meet, and other conversations I’d have.
