Alta Via 1

The climb day, and the one that sets the bar: from Lago di Braies you rise in under three hours past steep scree and limestone walls to the shelves below the Croda del Becco, leaving the lake's famous tourist crowds far behind. From Rifugio Biella, perched on a rock ledge at 2,327 metres, you look down on almost the entire rest of the route, because from here the Alta Via stays high.

The gentle day, and the karst day. Across the vast limestone plateau of Fanes-Senes-Braies you walk between sinks, ponors and channels where streams vanish underground, in the legendary homeland of the Ladin Fanes saga. It is a route that looks easy on the map and feels anything but small: the horizon up here is the roof of the whole Dolomites line. The day ends at Rifugio Fanes, the crossroads hut of the plateau.

The highest-point day. Up over slabs and snowy shoulders of the Fanis group to the Forcella del Lago, the most sustained climb of the entire route, then the crowning terrace: Rifugio Lagazuoi at 2,752 metres, the roof of the Alta Via, where on a clear evening almost the whole Dolomites line lies below you. Under your feet lie the First World War tunnels where the Austrian and Italian fronts fought this mountain.

The marble high day, with the two most famous huts on the trail. Down to Passo Falzarego, past the Lagazuoi tunnels, across the shoulder of the Tofana and past the Cinque Torri to Rifugio Nuvolau, built in 1883 and one of the oldest huts in the Dolomites, crowning its own summit with a 360-degree panorama. In the evening the view belongs to you alone: the day visitors leave with the cable car.

Down from the Nuvolau crown to the Passo Giau, then into the quiet: over the wide Mondeval pastures where Mesolithic hunters once stalked ibex and deer, with the great pyramid of Pelmo ahead. The day ends at Rifugio Città di Fiume at the foot of Pelmo, a hut you hear before you see it, cattle bells in the meadows and a landlord known on the whole route for hospitality.

The Pelmo day: around the huge mountain locals call the throne of God, along its steep flanks to the green pastures under the Croda da Lago, and finally the slow entry into Civetta country. The wall of walls is the first thing you see and the last thing you lose. The night stop is Palafavera, a sleepy hamlet under the Civetta massif.

The Civetta day, and the biggest climb of the first half. Up through the larch slopes past Rifugio Coldai, whose emerald lake hangs under the sheer wall of the Civetta, and over to the quiet Val Corpassa where Rifugio Vazzoler, a classic CAI hut, sits deep in the forest. After the open high ground the silence of the trees is its own reward.

The breathing day. Through soft woods and along old military roads from the war years the route walks to Rifugio Carestiato under the Moiazza group, one of the last quiet corners of the Alta Via. At nearby Passo Duran there is coffee on a terrace again, and the good mood of day hikers fresh off the local ferrata routes.

The transition day into the Dolomiti Bellunesi national park, the wild half that makes the final stages of the Alta Via so quiet. Over gentle highland past the castle ruins of Moschesin, a First World War fortification, the route climbs to Rifugio Sommariva al Pramperet at 1,857 metres. From here the crowds are gone: the northern Dolomites with their huts full of day visitors are a week behind you.

The Van de Zità day, technically the strongest of the whole route. Through the spectacular glacial cirques of the Van de Zità you climb the Portela del Piazedel to the Van de Zità Sud shoulder at 2,395 metres, the highest point reachable on foot in the national park. The reward is the small Rifugio Pian de Fontana in immense silence: on this half of the trail the through-traffic of the first week has long disappeared.

The shortest stage and the boldest. Up rock ledges and past a frozen gully to the Forcella Marmol at 2,262 metres, then the bivouac: the Bivacco del Marmol hangs like a nest under the walls of the Monte Schiara at 2,266 metres, the smallest overnight stop on the entire route. This is the day you need good weather, a clear evening and a steady stomach for, because from here there is no easy way down.

The finale is a descent you will not forget: on the secured route of the via ferrata Piero Rossi the path lowers you nearly 1,500 metres from the bivouac to Rifugio Settimo Alpini and then down the Ardo valley toward Belluno. The vertical limestone walls of the Schiara tower above you like a fortress wall, and the paved road at the bottom feels absurdly ordinary. In Belluno, eleven days later, the first city waits: espresso, a train, and the plain of the Veneto.