Alta Via 1

120 km through the Italian Dolomites. 6500 m elevation change. Ten days to do it all.

I arrived in Brixen to hike with my friend who’d never done a thru-hike before. I was cocky and ready to be underwhelmed because I’d done the Haute Route the year before. I was a hotshot after all.

But all of this ego fell away already on the first day. As you arrive over the mountain pass to look down on Rifugio Biella, the view is nuts. The hike goes North-South conventionally, and the dolomites are taller in the north, so you’re looking southwards at this vast expanse of mountains that you’re going to walk over the next days. The sun is low in the sky, and everything is pure drama.