September 5, 2021
Day 18
Are we there yet???
When I went to bed last night I was debating between the 9km hike around the Drei Zinnen or an out and back to Cortina D’Ampezzo on the Langen Weg der Dolomiten. Today and tomorrow seemed to have the best weather prognosis of the three days I have left in Toblach. While I could theoretically extend my stay here, I’m not fond of Toblach. I also want a spare day in München to get my covid rapid test so I can get back home and pack up the bike. Such is travel life during a pandemic.
When I went to bed it looked likely that there would be a long enough window to do the bike ride. Weather, especially thunderstorms, in the mountains can be very unpredictable. When I woke up this morning it looked like a shorter window of time so I reserved a bus seat to go hike a bit at the Drei Zinnen.
Breakfast was the remains of the food I had acquired at the grocery store yesterday. Another large roll, a cream filled donut, fruit juice, and some tomatoes. Nutritious, delicious, filling, and much better than anything the hostel was offering. I got through breakfast fairly quickly and headed to the bus stop. The direct route across the lawn from the hostel was blocked though. They’ve been setting up for some sort of running event for the last few days. Apparently today was the day. I had to take the long way round, but since I had given myself lots of extra time I still was plenty early to my bus. As I was waiting the first of the runners appeared to be finishing. The first two or three were from a Kenyan team. It didn’t look like they were even tired out yet. Remarkable. I’m tired just thinking about it.
The bus ride runs close to the bike trail which gave me a chance to check out my route. I saw a lot of runners. And no cyclists. In fact, the cyclists all seemed to be on the road, and I doubt they were having fun with busses and cars whizzing quite close to them. I rather suspect the path was blocked for cyclists and they were rerouted onto the road. I was feeling pretty smart for having chosen today for my hike. From what I saw of the path, it appears to have the flatter version of the route through the mountains while the road does more up and down. Expected given that it was once a rail line between Toblach and cortina (and possibly further, but my memory is sketchy on that.)
The skies were a little cloudy this morning as they have been a lot of mornings lately. The air is fairly damp and with the temps dropping during the night all that moisture kind of sinks down into the mountains.
The road up to the Drei Zinnen was much curvier and steep than I had imagined. Somehow I thought the Drei Zinnen were at a relatively low elevation. Not even remotely. The number of switchbacks is kind of crazy. Even crazier were the multiple cyclists riding up the road. Busses barely can pass one another and there’s not much room for them to pull around cyclists. And those poor crazy cyclists. They looked miserable. One guy looked like he could barely turn the cranks on his fancy road bike. I mentally marked that ride off my list of potential rides. Not that it was ever really on the list anyway.
The bus drops you off a bit down the hill from the refuge. Being a sensible person, I walked up the hill to stop in at the restroom. Squat toilets and they wanted you to pay €1 to use them. Well, no one seemed to be manning the pay station so I did my business and left. Normally pay toilets are .50 and not silly squat ones.
The Drei Zinnen were largely hidden behind clouds as I hiked away from Ridigio Auronzo. There were some nice views down into the valley and of the mountains around. Still, I was finding it all a little underwhelming. The next hit isn’t far away so I hiked on to it following the long snaking line of people ahead of me. I’ve never seen so many people hiking at the same time. While the views weren’t overwhelming, the sea of humanity certainly was.
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I decided to keep going and see what was around the corner. Up to the hut the hiking had been pretty easy. Now came some stew uphill and, given the elevation, it was a tough bit of hiking. The uphill takes you to a ridge and from there opens an incredible view out over a sort of gorge to the slopes on the other side where the Drei Zinnen Hut sits. At the same time, the clouds that had been obscuring the Drei Zinnen finally moved on. There were quite a lot of people standing along the ridge taking in the view. Understandable.
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From there the path went up and down, usually a bit too steep for my flat lander tastes, until it reached the turnoff to the next hut. The path up to the hut was even steeper, essentially climbing up the side of the cliff. It passed a cave as well and you could see a couple other caves along the side of the wall too. I know WW1 was active in this area. I’m not sure if these caves were part of fortifications or not. There were no informational signs in this area.
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3 years ago
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3 years ago
Atop the cliff were a number of people sitting on the rocks eating lunch. It seemed as good a spot as any so I pulled out my roll and salad and ate as well. A group of three birds started getting kind of cheeky and looked eager for a handout. I offered them some lettuce. Nope. No interest. Then I threw a piece of bread. Aha. This is what they were waiting for! I gave them each a little piece. Technically bread isn’t all that healthy for birds. One poor bird had lost his foot and only had a stub of leg left. I felt bad for him. He seemed to have adapted to the loss of his foot, but still.
This hut was about 2/5 the way around the main hiking route. I debated whether to go back the way I came, or go the full way round. The weather looked like it was starting to cloud over more, but it did not seem dangerously imminent. I opted to go the rest of the way, an hour and 20 minutes allegedly back to Rifhgio Auronzo. I’m not sure who estimates these times, but I’m pretty sure they’re not taking into account photo stops and a general inability to hike steeply up or downhill for prolonged periods (this is a reminder that I am a cyclist, not a hiker. I don’t even particularly like hiking.)
The route starts by taking you very steeply downhill to a sort of plain. I think this plain may be where the Rienz starts its coarse. This is the river I have been biking along through the Pustertal. Once across the plain the path heads nearly as steeply back up out of the plain along a near cliff face to another hut. The path passes through some scrub brush and a lot of rocks. It’s an interesting bit of landscape.
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From the hut you then climb uphill again to pass over a ridge and then continue along the backside of the Drei Zinnen and what is honestly a bit uncomfortably narrow of a path. At this point the group behind me ended up being an American family that is living in Italy. First English I’ve heard in 2.5 weeks. The kids kept asking if they were there yet. I felt their pain. I was asking myself the same thing. I was also trying to focus on the path and NOT look down over the edge. The couple times I did, well, it was a long ways down....
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Finally I crested one more ridge and, boom, the wind and rain hit. It was cold and the clouds were definitely moving in. I retrieved my raincoat from my backpack and picked up the pace. My legs and feet were pretty tired at this point, but it’s amazing how quickly a worn out body can move when there’s motivation. Fortunately I was, in fact, nearly there. Up ahead I could see the parking lot and the busses. It looked like mine, the 444, was there and so I hurried to make sure I would be able to catch it. It was so nice to step onto the nice warm, dry, bus. This is definitely the toughest hike I’ve ever done and definitely the most elevation gain I’ve ever done in a hike. That should tell you about how often I hike....
During the drive back down the mountain the rain really picked up. I had definitely ended my hike at the right time. Had I stopped for any more pictures I think I would have gotten back cold, tired, and wet instead of just tired and cold. Was the hike worth the effort? Probably, but it was tough enough given my complete lack of training for hiking that I don’t think I’d do it again. Plus I’ve now gotten tons of pictures and had the experience. That suffices. And for the record, the best view of the peaks is the opposite side of Rifugio Auronzo.
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