Tuesday: 22nd August: Weather: 25°C to 37°C: HOT and dry in Bolzano, Cool to warm 22°C Passo Sella.
Bolzano: 17.2k walk: 6hrs 30 mins: 9.30am to 4.00pm: 3 x 30 min stops: Ascent: 850 m Descent 850
Day Walk: Circuit around the Sassopiatto-Sassolunga group of Dolomites
Accommodation: Villa Anita Apartments Bolzano
Passo Sella 2,180 metres
Highlight today was walking the 17.2k circuit around the Sassopiatto-Sassolunga Dolomite group, including the wonderful Friedrick August Weg - with thousands of other day hikers. We were amazed, again, at how many tourists/hikers are in the Dolomites, most of them Italian day hikers of all shapes and sizes. We’ve barely heard a word of English in two weeks (except for two loud Americans at the train station yesterday). The Italians bring their kids, their babies, their dogs and cats, their grandmothers and an assortment of other rellies wherever they go - even when hiking they seem to travel in large family groups and chat away in Italian non stop. At least they seem a happy lot.
Buses unloading hikers at Passo Sella
Sassopiatto-Sassolunga Dolomites
Coffin chair Lift at Passo Sella
Dogs and hikers to Forcella Rodella
Cow poses for scenic photo
Donuts popular Rif Friedrich August
Krapfen doughnuts look good but queue too long
Morning coffee Sassolunga backdrop
John rings from UK
Gotta bring the dogs
Another very hot night with a minimum of 25°C overnight. After a quick cold shower and breakfast we walk down to the Autostazion, about 1k from Villa Anita. We’d decided last night to catch the 7.28am Bus 350 to Ortisei, then Bus 471 up to Passo Sella and try to walk the entire Sassolunga Circuit. The 2 buses each way would take 2 hrs , meaning a 4 hr trip, so our exit strategy from teh walk in case we didn’t complete the circuit in time for the last bus down teh mountain was to take the chairlift down to San Cristina at the 3/4 way point to catch BUS 350 back to Bolzano. That was the plan.
We arrive in plenty of time for Bus 350, and it’s a lovely trip up to Pont Gardena than turning sharp right up Val Gardena which everyone raves about for it’s beauty, and rightly so. The bus picks up more passengers along the way to the point it’s full, jam packed with hikers. We arrive in Ortisei at 8.30am, and need to change to Bus 471, the summer-only bus which goes to Passo Sella, then down the other side to Canezei in the next valley. We’re blown away by the number of hikers waitng for buses in Ortisei, mostly Bus 471 to Passo Sella. In fact there’s a BUS 471 about every ten minutes for a two hour period between 8am and 10am, when hikers need to get up the mountain. In reverse, Bus 471 starts coming down from Passo Sella from about 3pm, every ten minutes to 5pm, when hikers are ready to return to Ortisei.
After a thrilling bus ride, we arrive at Passo Sella at 2,180 metres an hour later at 9.30am to bus alley. There’s buses coming and going in all directions, and the car park is full. The first thing we see is the famous coffin lift, a vertically hanging cabin with room for only two people standing, and looking like a butterfly chrysalis hanging from a branch. It rises to a point half way up the junction of teh Sassopiatto and Sassolunga.
Hundreds of hikers emerge from cars and buses and begin the trek to Forcella Rodella then along the Friedrich August Weg. After 45minutes, a queue of people at Rifugio Friedrich August have jammed the track. Too early for coffee?? As we squeeze past, we see they are selling Krapfen donuts quicker than they can make them and the hikers are buying 6 at a time. They obviously knew something we didn’t know. I resist the temptation to stand in line for 30 minutes waiting for a cake, no matter how special, so we move on along the Friedrich August Weg with stunning views all round on an absolutely perfect day.
Next stop is the Rifugio Pertini, where there’s more hundreds having coffee/snacks/lunch. We have our own jetboiled coffee beneath the high sheer walls of the Sassolunga. I relent and buy 2 Krapfen whole donut like cakes from the little kiosk - at 3 euro each (AUD$4.50) - and save them for lunch later. Then on again to Rifugio Sassopiatto which is also full of hikers having whatever. We round teh corner and Alpe di Siusi in all it’s glory comes into full view, spread out before us as far as teh eye can see. Beautiful pastures with no cars and just the odd farm tractor rumbling in the distance.
The views go on forever, but the crowds are now thinning, most of the hikers having stopped for refreshments at the rifugios along the way. We now encounter hikers coming towards us, probably those who were chairlifted up from the Val Gardena side. The track becomes narrower and stonier, and at 2pm, it’s time for us to find a shady spot for lunch. A cup of tea with our donut-cakes, which were nice but we were very filling and were still tasting them an hour later climbing through The City of stones, an ancient landscape of tumbled boulders.
Around the last corner, and we see a snow patch for the first time this trip. The breeze is cooling on this warm day of 22°C, which is way cooler than Bolzano, but still a bit warm for walking. Eventually we’re back at Passo Sella, and run for the 4pm bus 471 back to Ortisei. It’s full. But we interpret that the driver tells the waiting queue that there’s more Bus 471’s coming.
An hour ;ater we’re back in Ortisei, to see our Bus 35o just leaving. Damn! missed it by 20 seconds. We wait for the next bus 350 but it only gos as far as Waidbruck, Pont Gardena, not all teh way to Bolzano. But that’s OK, as I have the train time table and we can hop off and jump on a train to Bolzano. And we did. It was a really quick trip through a really long tunnel and at 6.30pm we step into Bolzano’s relentless heat at 36°C, just 1°C cooler than the maximum today of 37°C. It’s hot walk back to our Villa Anita and we’re no sooner in teh door thanwe have an icy cold beer, watered down with Frizzante, soday water, as we’re thirstly after long but wonderful 11 hour day.
Dinner is a ham sandwich again. It’s too hot to eat a cooked meal. Then bed at 1030am. Tomorrow is our last day in Bolzano.
Alpe di Siusi from Sassolunga path
Never ending views
Lunch with a view
Sheer wall of Sassolunga
The only snow we’ve seen on track