About Alta Via 1
Alta Via 1 starts at Lago di Braies and ends at Dobiacco. It took us
ten days. But it’s possible to do it in a shorter time or a longer
time. There are a lot of Rifugies on the way , often you can choose to
do a short or a longer day. There are also some alternatives on the
way that you might want to do. We walked down to Cortina on the fourth
day to buy some food and get some money, which took us an extra half
day.
It’s a beautiful trail, you are really spoiled with spectacular views.
There are many people wandering the tracks and in the Rifuges, some of
them are walking Alta Via 1, some of them are doing shorter hikes,
others are climbing, some are day tourists and even germans walking
from Munich to Venice. We were there in the end of July and the
beginning of August, which of course is the most popular period.
It’s not easy to camp, although we met some people who did. Most
people stay at the Rifuges and take the half pension. We slept in the
Rifuges but we also had food with us. We thought the breakfast was
expensive and not worth the price and usually it was only white bread
with jam. We did our own breakfast most of the time. The dinner at the
Rifuges was quite good, pasta, polenta, knödel, Apfelstrudel and
Tiramisu… We also choice to do our own cooking although we didn’t
always have a chose, we had to eat at some places in order to get a
bed. We had to bring all the food we cooked and the gas with us, it’s
not possible to buy food on the way except for maybe bread and
chocolate.
In the beginning we didn’t book the Rifuges but realized after a long
day walking in heavy rain arriving at a full Rifuge, it’s a good idea
to do so, usually it’s enough to call the night before.
In most places we could drink the water from the tap, and in some
places there was drinkable water in the tracks. We only had to buy
water once. The coffee and the beer is great! At most of the Rifuges
you can get espresso and cappuccino. They have Italian Frost and
german Weissbier. The wine is okay and very cheap.
The guidebook we brought was Dolomites Trecking- Alta Via 1: Alta Via 2; second edition 2005 by Henry Stedman. Publisher: Trailblazer Publications. It was ok. However we met a italian man Paulo Cervigni on our way and he is writing a new guidebook that will come out 2012
in english. The map we used was Tabacco 031, 03, 025, 024.