Saturday 26th August: Weather: 16°C to 18°C: Cool with blue skies becomeing overcast later in the day.
Firenze to Puez: 7.3k walk: 5hrs: 8.30am to 1.30pm: 1 x 30 min stop: Ascent: 688 m Descent: 271m
Accommodation: Rifugio Puez
Up to Forcella di Sielles 2505m
Blue skies above Odle Dolomites
Tough climb to Sielles gets tougher
Cables after Forcella di Sielles
Forcella di Sielles views north
Forcella di Sielles views south
Us at top of Forcella di Sielles
Edelweiss carpet Forcella di Sielles
A path down there somewhere
Scree path on barren Dolomites
Scree path on barren Dolomites
San Christina below Sassalunga
Rifugio Puez with no road access
Time to blog Rifugio Puez
Highlight today was that we were far from the madding crowd high in the dolomites with just a few day hikers and many through walkers. A stiff climb up to Forcella di Sielles at 2,505 metres with cables at the top to help us up the last 50 metres - a bit hairy scary. But the top was covered in Edelweiss which made up for the Grade 3 climb. Then a narrow ledge of shale across to Rifugio Puez at 2,475 metres set high in the Dolomites, with no road access, and everything is brought in by helicopter.
We’d hoped it would be a cold night for sleeping under a doona at Rifugio Frienza at 2,000 metres, but our cosy room was almost too warm. We’re awake at 6.30am, but no jetboiled cup of tea as usual because breakfast is early at 7am. After a quick tidy up, we’re down to the dining room at 7am. Breakfast is a nice spread of meusli and yoghurt with breads and jams, but Ian’s cappuccino is luke warm, and my cup of tea is not much better.
Leaving at 8.30am, it takes 5 miuntes to find our way out to the track up to Forcella di Sielles, then we’re on our way out of the pine trees pretty quickly and on to a vast plain of sandy spillage down from the gully from Forcella di Sielles. We’re joined by a couple from Montreal and follow each other up and up with blue skies over the Odle Dolomites behind us. It’s a coolish morning, which warms up quickly as we steadily ascend 500 metres up a stony path which gets steeper and more zig zaggier the higher we get.
We can see the top of Forcella di Sielles at 2,505 metres, a gap in the Dolomites, but when we arrive, there’s more up. And the “more" is a very steep 90 metre ascent with cables on a hairy-scary goats track that finally leads to the grassy top at 2,595 metres. We sit and take a breather. It took a lot of arm strength to haul us up the cables over steep steps. Time for the cup of tea that we hadn't had for breakfast, with a spicy fruit roll. As we sit and lower the heart rate, we’re joined by a couple from Montreal and soon after by a German couple, our first real through hikers we’ve seen in 2 weeks. We take turns taking each others photos at the top of Forcella di Sielles. There’s views down to San Christina sitting below Sassolunga, views to the Odle-Puez Dolomites, views back to Seceda, views everywhere.
The track down hill is steep and stony and there’s patches of Edelweiss along the way. But the narrow scree path soon levels out and the 6 of us - us, two from Montreal and two from Germany, step out on an easier path towards Rifugio Puez. We arrive there at 1.30pm to find our German and Canadian friends already there enjoying lunch with a beer on the balcony of Puez. They are moving on to another Rifugio later, while we are staying here the night, but registration isn’t until 3pm. Ian needs a beer after a heart pumping climb and it’s quite cool outside so we move in to the dining room where there’s a few day hikers having lunch and enjoying the warmth while Ian has his beer.
The manager tells us we can check in sooner than 3pm so we wait patiently until the manager comes to take us up to the dorm. He shows us a double bunk, and I pleadingly request two lower level bunks. He looks at us - he decides we are old, and takes us to the next dorm room which I think he was holding back on filling to save cleaning costs, and gives us two lower bunks near a window. Hooray!! We unload our gear and spread out our sleeping sheets on the bed, then duck outside to have a coffee with stale bread and jam. Back inside we eye up the shower. It’s 4 euro per token and we buy 2 tokens for 8 euro. We would have paid more! The shower is warm but not warming, and soon we’ve changed and are downstairs again to order a red wine/beer to sit in a warm spot to blog and sort some photos from a spectacular day in the Dolomites.
Soon after 4pm, a family member brings us the dinner menu for half-board (Dinner, bed and breakfast), and we both choose the bacon, eggs and roast potatoes. No thinking required. A few hours to have a beer/red wine and sort photos and blog until dinner arrives late at 7pm but really nice - we had mixed salad as starters, penne Pasta as entree, and 2 eggs, bacon and roast potato followed by jam pancake whci we save for morning tea. We’re too full at 8pm to eat any more. An early night at 8.30am in our cosy beds with only one blanket on top of our sleeping sheet.