Dolomites High Route 8: Seekofelhütte to San Vigilio - heavy legs, an ibex and the way home

So this morning we got up early at six o’clock, left the winter room of the Rifugio Biella and headed west as we had planned. It was actually a pretty easy stroll over a plateau, but Sina and I were both so exhausted and tired. We didn’t even know why, but our legs were heavy and they cramped up right away when we started walking. So we really took it slow in the morning.

We saw some ibex on the way. One of them was on one of the small peaks around us, looking down at us, and then he strolled away very peacefully. So it’s cool to be out there in the morning.

After probably an hour or an hour and a half we came to the last climb, to one of the passes, I think it’s called the Pas de Senes. Nothing really to worry about, maybe like 150 meters, but it was really painful for us this morning. On the other side there was a scree slope, still partly covered in snow, but actually quite fun to run down. And once we reached the basin on the backside of the pass we lay down on the grass, had a big breakfast and enjoyed the sun that had just come out.

After maybe 45 minutes we got up again, felt a lot better already and just followed the valley out. It went in easy turns, with beautiful mountains on the left and right hand side of us, some really nice and flat areas and water coming down. We passed a super cute private hut on the way down, maybe 4×4 meters with a little porch. Of course it was locked, but we were talking about how we could actually live up here. In the winter time it’s probably pretty bad and in the summer time the season is quite limited, but it was really cute.

The further we came down, it was also a washed out scree slope, probably from the raging waters of the spring melt. We passed some waterfalls, and there is also a climbing area at the very end of the valley. It took us maybe 3-4 hours to completely get out to the road, and then there was another 5k hike on the road, passing a campground and a restaurant, to San Vigilio.

And there of course we first of all got a coffee, a good one, and then we decided to start the journey back home already. With a bus and another bus and various trains and connections we made it home from San Vigilio to Mainz in about 10 hours.

It was a pretty good last day and a nice and easy finish after the long and exhausting day before. So now we are back home, happy that we did it. The Dolomites High Route #9 was definitely a treat. Pretty sad that we missed some of the highlights like the Alpini-Steig, but on the other hand really lucky that we basically had the Dolomites to ourselves. We hardly met anyone, and that was a pretty nice experience.

So Dolomites, not the last time for us, definitely.

See all the pictures of the tour in the Dolomites photo gallery.