Lago di Braies (Prager Wildsee) (1494m) to Refugio Biella (2327m)
- Distance: 7.3 km
- Time: 5 hours
- Ascent: 919m
- Descent: 111m
- Steps: 14,222
Taxi from historic Hotel de la Poste in Cortina, the pretty mountain town (1200m) full of hikers, to Lago di Braies, a scenic tourist spot that starts the Alta via 1. The taxi driver was surprised that we were doing the whole walk, and said the Dolomites were popular this year, as many people had booked before the pandemic and were only now making the trip, like us. He also warned us that the walk was very steep at the start.
After a pleasant walk around the lake, the walk got steadily steeper and steeper, without respite, until the end, climbing nearly 1,000m. This was very difficult with full packs on a hot day with no shade. We didn’t take the option for a climb to the top of the mountain at the end of the walk: another 500m ascent and 500m back down. Some of the other walkers didn’t do as well, lying down under umbrellas with their boots off along the path, but the younger walkers all did it pretty easily.
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| Lago di Braies |
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| Resting on the big climb |
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| Picture of the climb ahead of us |
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| Resting after finally making to the top |
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| Refugio Biella, sitting next to the "optional" 500m climb at the end of the walk. You can just make out a zig-zag path and possibly some climbers up the ridge to the right of the Refugio. |
Refugio Biella was a shock, but we later realized that this was what the more remote refugios were like. Very little space inside. Dormitory style rooms with double bunks, only one shower, which was a recently added cold water nozzle over one of the 3 squat toilets available. Basic alpine food, which means pasta, polenta and barley soup. Same at many other refugios.
