Dolomites High Route 3: Above Arabba to Cortina - seven ibex, soaked to the bones and a rest day

This morning we woke up from the sun hitting our tent, which made it nice and cozy in there. We got up at around 7:30, packed our stuff and enjoyed the view from our camping spot, which was pretty amazing: looking over the valley onto the next mountain range that we were supposed to pass today.

We basically hit the trail, followed a ski slope down to one of the lifts and then it just went down in turns to the valley floor. There was a small cafe which was open already, so we sat down, had two cappuccinos, which were amazing, and had a first little break after an hour of hiking.

Then we went up on the other side of the valley, first through the forest and then over some ski slopes to a ski station with a rifugio, which was supposed to be open but was just a pure construction site. So we continued on a nice and easy trail.

As soon as we got to the junction where we had to decide to go either south or north of a little mountain range, it started raining. We put our rain gear on and decided to take the northern route, because we would be able to see into a valley we hadn’t seen before. The other side was looking into the valley that we had seen the entire day already.

It was the typical game with rain gear: without it you get wet, but then you put it on, you start sweating and you are wet from the inside and from the outside. We had to push up over the ridge and then we basically followed the inside of that mountain range. And it just didn’t stop raining anymore. It got wetter and wetter, and we didn’t see much because the clouds were hanging really low. Not the best thing.

But then a really big highlight, and probably only because we were just the only ones out there: we ran into a group of ibex. I think it was seven of them, also some young ones that still had really light colored fur. As soon as they saw us they started running up the hill, as easy as this. It’s just amazing to watch them running up hills. We watched them for a little while until they disappeared and we couldn’t see them anymore.

Then the slope went up a little and we hit some snow patches, since this was the northern slope. What we thought would take us one and a half or two hours took us three and a half, I think, because we had to cross one snow field after the other. Postholing up to our hips, rain from above, wet snow from below. It was a lot of fighting and not really a pleasure.

Once we got out of there we came to a rifugio at the Valparola Pass, and we couldn’t resist going inside. We had a big meal and drinks and tried to warm up a little. And as soon as we got to the rifugio it stopped raining, of course. So we had our lunch, packed our stuff again and went out. And as soon as we went out it started raining again.

We went up into the hill again, following the road but way above it. It was pretty interesting, because there were still the remains of the fortifications from the First World War. They had built bunkers and tunnels and caves into the mountains to secure the front lines, and this was one of the front lines. So we were walking through these trenches.

But it didn’t stop raining, and the rain got harder and harder. At one point the rain gear gave up and we were soaked to the bones. Everything was completely wet. Our option was to continue further up to find a spot to pitch our tent, but the water was coming down the hill everywhere. So we basically bailed out to one of the passes that we saw below us.

After a little bit of discussion and no luck hitchhiking we shared a cab with three other guys, who had also been hit by the rain and had come down from the mountains. And so we made our way to Cortina, got ourselves a hotel room and took a long, long, long shower. The heating system was already turned off in the rooms, but the hotel actually had a small room in the basement with the central heating, which was really warm. They allowed us to put all of our gear in there to dry it.

After we were clean and warm again we went out and had an amazing gluten-free pizza, probably the best gluten-free pizza I have had. Sina can’t eat gluten, so we are always looking for good gluten-free stuff, and it was a really good pizza.

And then we looked at the weather forecast. It was horrible for the next days, with thunderstorms all day long tomorrow. It didn’t really look good. So we decided to sleep in and make a plan tomorrow, which we did, discussing back and forth: maybe meet with friends who had a flat for their vacation just around the corner, or break off the trip and maybe go to the Black Forest and continue hiking there, or go home. We weren’t sure what to do.

In the end we decided to just take a rest day, wait out the rain and hope for some better weather the next day. We knew that the next stretch to Lake Misurina was actually a shorter one, or that’s what we thought. We said we’ll just hike the next day, take the rain if it comes, maybe get a hotel again to dry our stuff and then hope for the days after to be a little bit broken up with rain and sun in between. So we took the rest day, had a lot of food and drinks and said we are just going to continue the next day.