Hiking in the Dolomites, Italy - July 2013

Hiking in the Dolomites, Italy

Dolomites of Northern Italy

 Jerry Thomas took a vacation to northern Italy a couple of weeks ago for the purpose of hiking in the beautiful Dolomites. He is gracious to allow us to post these photos and short narrative of his trip. Thanks, Jerry. Such beauty!

Geisler Gruppe

Hiking Towards Vallunga val Gardena

 Fourteen hikers met in Bolzano, Italy, for twelve days of hiking in the Dolomites in northeastern Italy organized by the Sierra Club.  Our first hike was a short walk to the Archeological Museum in Bolzano where we viewed Otzi the iceman.  The mummified remains of Otzi were found near Bolzano in 1991 by two hikers.  Otzi has been estimated to have lived 5000 years ago around 3000 BC.  He has brought a wealth of information regarding life a long time ago.  It turns out that many aspects of Otzi's possessions show sophisticated use of available materials including a cast copper axe head.  To see more about the incredible iceman go to www.iceman.it.

Jerry and Sassolungo

Lunch Break near Gruppo del Sella

More Hikers in Vallunga val Gardena

 We hiked around Bolzano for two days and then took a ski lift up the mountain and hiked into the beautiful village of Selva Gardena.  Over two days we hiked around the monolithic mountain called Sassolungo and up the beautiful valley called Vallunga Gardena.  Then we hiked to the small town of Corvara.  We spent one day hiking to Rifugio Heiligskreuz and down to San Cassiano and the next day we hiked across country to the World War I Museum near Rifugio Lagazuoi.  We took a cable car up to Rifugio Lagazuoi which is at about 10,000 ft and spent two nights there.  This was a real adventure with all four of the bachelors (including me) stuffed into a very small room.  My earplugs were barely able to stifle the symphony of snoring that serenaded us all night long.

Mount Civetta at Sunrise

Sassongher from Corvara

View from Rifugio Lagazuoi

From Lagazuoi we took a taxi to Cortina and hiked in the mountains near by.  The next day we went to the popular Tre Cime di Lavaredo (three chimneys of Lavaredo).  We ate lunch at the rifugio there that amazingly had Italian, German and Japanese but no English on the menu.  While English was spoken fairly widely by hotel personnel, taxi drivers and some others spoke none.  So, if you decide to go, practice your German or Italian!  We had a final sad dinner as 12 days with the same people had built some strong bonds.  Most hikers took the bus the next day from Cortina to Venice and flew out from there.  It was an incredibly beautiful place to hike and very civilized as you were never really out of cell phone coverage and there were rifugios almost around every corner where you could find food, shelter and excellent espresso! ~ Jerry

Hiking at Gruppo del Sella

Hiking Toward San Cassiano

Additional Photos

Hiking in the Blizzard

Hiking Between Rock Falls

Chamois