Dolomites High Route 7: Pragser Wildsee to the Seekofel - walking in line and the best view of the trip

We had a good breakfast in the hotel and then, as we decided yesterday, we left the #9 and took the bus to Toblach and connected to the bus that took us to the Pragser Wildsee. All easy, two euros each for the trip.

We had heard a lot about the Pragser Wildsee already and wanted to go there to see it. And what can I say, it’s definitely a beautiful lake, with a nice panoramic view and the Seekofel in the back. But it was so overcrowded that you could actually not walk. You had to walk in line around the lake because it was so packed. Actually not what we were looking for, and we were kind of stressed from the first half hour just getting around the lake. It’s a beautiful lake, but it’s definitely overrated for what you have to deal with when you get there. There are many other lakes that are as beautiful as this one, but not as crowded.

At the end of the lake the trail number 1 forks up to the hut, and it said like 2 hours 50 to the hut and 4 hours to the peak. The weather was way better than expected. It was supposed to rain all day, but we didn’t even have a drizzle until maybe the very last half hour.

So we went straight up from I think 1.500 meters at the lake to 2.300 at the hut. A beautiful trail, just a steep climb on a good path. First you follow the valley, which is a pretty washed out scree slope, and then you just go up in the wall, circle around a little and get into a narrow valley. Once we got into that valley we could actually see the clouds pulling together, it got darker and darker and then we could hear the first thunder. So we sped up a little, since we didn’t want to get caught in a thunderstorm on the way up. And luckily there were not a lot of people out there, completely different to the hike around the lake.

We made it in time before it started raining and got into the winter room of the hut, because the hut was still closed. The winter room is so cute, a little bit like a Kiwi hut. We were a bit cold, since we had also sat outside of the hut for just a moment too long, so we both went into our sleeping bags to warm up. And what can I say, it was three o’clock and I just passed out for at least an hour or one and a half. I was so tired and exhausted, and Sina was just so cold. So we had a good nap in the hut until another couple came in.

We talked a little, but we wanted to warm up again and get everything in our system up and running again. So we decided to go up the Seekofel, which is another 500 meter hike to the peak of that area. Not dangerous and not difficult or anything, just a steep 500 meters up from the hut.

So we circled up there and then unfortunately took a wrong decision at the top, where there is basically a plateau after the steep part that you cross to get to the peak. Since it’s at 2.800 meters it was still covered in snow. We thought it was better to walk lower and then cut up to the peak, which ended up in a lot of postholing in the snow fields and wet feet again.

But we got up there, and the clouds just disappeared, the sun came out and all of the peaks around us came out of the clouds. You could see the Drei Zinnen. It’s stunning and probably the best view of the entire trip. Really well worth it. You could see very far, all of the big mountains around. And you could look down to the Pragser Wildsee, which looked really nice and calm now that all of the tourists were gone.

We took a few pictures and then started to make our way down at like 7 o’clock. We saw that there was actually a pretty good track in the snow on the ridge line that dropped down later. So we took this one on the way back, which was a lot easier, and we were down and out 40 minutes later.

We had a big dinner and chatted a little with the other two, and now we are packing everything up for tomorrow. It’s already past hiker midnight, I guess, so I am going to bed now. Goodbye.