Shorter Walks in the Dolomites

Guidebook to 40 walks in Italy's beautiful Dolomites – from around 3 miles to full-day excursions – in both the high mountains and valleys. The region boasts vast expanses of forest, high-altitude rockscapes and seas of wild flowers. Its extensive network of paths links the numerous mountain huts of the region.

Background

‘Here the traveller obtains a view of the Dolomite Mountains. They are unlike any other mountains, and are to be seen nowhere else among the Alps. They arrest the attention by the singularity and picturesqueness of their forms, by their sharp peaks or horns, sometimes rising up in pinnacles and obelisks, at others extending in serrated ridges, teethed like the jaw of an alligator; now fencing in the valley with an escarped precipice many thousand feet high, and often cleft with numerous fissures, all running vertically.’

Murray’s Handbook, quoted in J. Gilbert and G.C. Churchill, 1864

Like the Alps to which they belong, the Dolomite mountains were long regarded with awe and a good dose of fear by the populations of herders and woodcutters who clustered around their bases. It was not until the 1800s and the advent of ‘travelling’, that the first leisure-seeking visitors, Britons for the most part, ventured through treacherous passes to glimpse the wonderful scenery and enjoy the breathtaking enrosadira sunsets. Published accounts and guidebooks began to appear, and soon both tourists and mountaineers from all over Europe flocked there to conquer the magnificent heights, untrodden until then except by the odd chamois hunter.

Nowadays the Dolomites mean a prime holiday destination in both summer and winter, with superbly located resorts connected by good roads and equipped for all pockets. An ultra-modern system of space-age cable-cars and lifts whisks visitors to dizzy heights in a matter of minutes, extending the range of short routes (not to mention easing steep descents). On the other hand, nature lovers will be delighted by the vast expanses of magnificent forests, high-altitude rockscapes and seas of wild flowers. Only a little effort is needed to get away from the ‘hot spots’ and spend days in solitude on the marvellous network of paths that link hospitable mountain huts.

The sheer, pale rock in bizarre fantastic formations, unique spectacular aspect of the ‘Pale Mounts’, as they were first known, attracted geologists well before the travellers. In 1789 French mineralogist Déodat Guy Sylvan Tancred Grated de Dolomieu identified the composition of the principal rock as the limestone variant calcium magnesium carbonate, later named dolomite in his honour. As regards its origin, scholars puzzled over the abundance of fossilised shells and marine creatures embedded in the rock at such heights and so far from the sea. The theory of the Flood long rejected, in 1860 German scholar Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen proposed their genesis as a coral reef, work further developed by Edmund von Mojsisovics. While the sedimentary nature of dolomite is undeniable, there continues to be disagreement over the nature of its mutation from regular limestone. The earliest theory on how the newly discovered rock was actually formed came from Leopold von Buch in the 1820s. He suggested that the magnesium-rich vapours released from molten volcanic rocks penetrated the limestone, transforming it into the white dolomite rock, a theory not completely discounted to this day. In the meantime, researchers in Brazil, for instance, have suggested the efforts of industrious bacteria in tropical environs.

In general terms, the rocks were formed some 230 million years ago when a shallow tropical sea covered the area. Deposits of corals and sea creatures gradually built up on the sea floor. It was not until 65 million years ago that the area underwent the dramatic tectonic events that led to the creation of the alpine chain as rock slabs were up-ended and lifted hither and thither. Glacial sheets and erosion from snow, rain and wind continue to shape the wonderful mountains visitors see today.

One additional noteworthy natural phenomenon widely observable in the Dolomites is karstification, named after a limestone area in Slovenia. Carbon dioxide in rainwater reacts with limestone and causes it to dissolve over time, leading to the formation of characteristic sink holes, fissures, curious grooved rock surfaces (karren) and a notable absence of surface water, which reappears at the foot of the mountain, often as a waterfall.

In addition to natural beauty, the valleys of the Dolomites offer attractions ranging from old-style farms still run according to ancient traditions to towns such as Trento, Bolzano and Bressanone that boast priceless art treasures and make for a fascinating visit on that rainy day. Settlements date back to prehistoric times, as attested by the excavations at Mondeval (Croda da Lago), and the area’s history is punctuated with a series of heavy-handed dominators and determined ongoing rebellion. Early peoples fleeing barbaric invaders made their homes in the relative protection of the high-altitude mountains, and succeeded in conserving their original language: the ancient Rhaeto-Romanic language known as Ladin has survived to this day and is the declared mother tongue of 4.3% of the inhabitants of the northernmost South Tyrol (Alto Adige). However, this region, which accounts for a third of the Dolomites, is dominated by the German language (68.2% of the population), the legacy of sixth-century invaders and cultivated under the Austrian Hapsburgs. Along with the adjoining Italian-speaking Trentino, it has been part of Italy since 1919 in the wake of the First World War, and now enjoys a privileged political and economic status as one of Italy’s autonomous regions. The remaining southeastern chunk of the Dolomites is administered by the Veneto region, based in Venice. Centuries before, during the glorious era of the Serenissima Republic, immense rafts of timber were piloted downstream to the city for use in its foundations and shipbuilding.