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Overview
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This guidebook describes 25 hut-to-hut treks in the Dolomites of northern Italy, covering 15 regions including Cortina, Sella, Sesto, Marmolada and Latemar. Ranging from 11.3km to 40.8km and from two to four days, the graded routes are suitable for walkers with a reasonable level of fitness and experience of mountain terrain, and some feature exposed sections which demand a good head for heights. This edition includes a number of treks in less frequently visited rugged districts, as well as the more popular trips, all of which take advantage of the region's network of mountain refuges and efficient public transport system, with the majority of routes accessible by public bus.
Detailed route description is presented alongside mapping and stunning colour photography and the guide also suggests alternative access and exit routes, and options for linking routes to create a longer trek. There is plenty of advice to help make the most of a trip as well as background information on the region's geology, plants and wildlife and local cuisine.
The Dolomites - a UNESCO World Heritage Site - are characterised by striking volcanic and sedimentary rock formations. Walking is an ideal way to discover this breathtaking landscape of angular peaks, towering pinnacles and jagged ridges, and the carefully chosen routes in this guide will exhilarate, challenge and inspire.
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Table of Contents
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CONTENTS
Overview map
Map key
Preface to the third edition
Introduction
The Dolomites
Geology
Plants and flowers
Wildlife
Getting there
Local transport
Information
When to go
Accommodation
Food and drink
What to take
Waymarking and maps
Dos and don’ts
Emergencies
Using this guide
Dolomiti Friulane
Walk 1 Anello delle Dolomiti Friulane
Marmarole
Walk 2 Along the Marmarole
Dolomiti di Sesto
Walk 3 Vallon Popera
Walk 4 Tre Cime tour
Walk 5 Tre Scarperi tour
Fanes–Senes–Braies
Walk 6 Croda Rossa tour
Walk 7 Sasso della Croce–Cunturines
Cortina Dolomites
Walk 8 Tofane–Lagazuoi
Walk 9 Nuvolau–Cinque Torri
Walk 10 Croda da Lago–Pelmo
Civetta
Walk 11 Civetta tour
Dolomiti Bellunesi
Walk 12 Cime de Zita traverse
Walk 13 Alpi Feltrine
Pale di San Martino
Walk 14 Palarondatrek
Walk 15 Over the Pale di San Martino
Marmolada
Walk 16 Behind the Marmolada
Sella
Walk 17 Sella traverse
Puez–Odle
Walk 18 Around the Puez–Odle Altopiano
Walk 19 Odle di Eores
Sassopiatto–Sassolungo
Walk 20 Sassopiatto–Sassolungo tour
Sciliar and Catinaccio
Walk 21 Sciliar–Antermoia traverse
Walk 22 Catinaccio loop
Latemar
Walk 23 Latemar traverse
Dolomiti di Brenta
Walk 24 Western Brenta
Walk 25 Eastern Brenta
Appendix A Route summary table
Appendix B Tourist offices
Appendix C Italian–English glossary
Appendix D Further reading
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Maps
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Waymarking and maps
The Dolomites boast an extensive network of interconnecting footpaths, marked and numbered at regular intervals with painted stripes of red and white on prominent rocks, trees or signposts. On bare terrain such as stony plateaus, in the absence of permanent landmarks, stones are often heaped into cairns to mark a route; known as ometti (little men) in Italian, they are reminiscent of the prayer stones of the Himalayas. Never continue for more than 15 minutes at most without checking for waymarking, as you may be off course. Faint paths across scree slopes and alongside mountain streams are often erased during the spring melt, so expect to hunt around a little.
Signposts on the Pale di San Martino plateau (Walks 14 and 15)
The maps provided in this guide are intended as a general aid, and are no substitute for detailed commercial maps such as those produced by Tabacco, Kompass and other publishers. Tabacco puts out a clear 1:25,000 scale series: Carta topografica per escursionisti, on sale throughout the Dolomites as well as at leading bookstores and outdoor suppliers overseas. Smartphone users can download an app from www.tabaccomapp.it and purchase the maps in digital formats for reasonable prices. Relevant sheet numbers are given in the information box for each walk throughout this guide.
The Tabacco maps show the easiest routes as an unbroken red line and moderate paths with a broken red line. A dotted line indicates some difficulty, such as a particularly steep stretch or an exposed passage along a ledge, but it can also indicate paths with poor waymarking, such as those crossing mobile scree slopes. Routes indicated with crosses are aided, and may have a length of cable fixed to a rock face to make a short exposed section safer. However, more often than not they are vie ferrate, aided mountaineering routes. Exposed at length, they are for experienced climbers equipped with a helmet, special harness and karabiners.
Sign for Rifugio Flaiban-Pacherini (Walk 1)
Languages and place names
The Dolomite valleys are inhabited by speakers from three main language groups: German, Italian and Ladin. In the Südtirol (accounting for the north-western Dolomites), the majority (80 per cent) speak German as their mother tongue. This region belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1918, when it was transferred to the fledgling nation of Italy after World War I. During the fascist period in the 1920 and 30s, Italian nomenclature was zealously applied to everything, with the resulting names more often than not worlds away from the original – the Südtirol, for example, was renamed Alto Adige, a reference to the northern reaches of the Adige river. Nowadays it is a bilingual autonomous region, and place names appear in both Italian and German on signs from offices to streets and mountains.
In the adjoining regions – the Trentino to the south and the Veneto in the south-east – Italian dominates. Just to complicate matters further, the ancient Ladin language, a hangover from pre-Roman times, is still the mother tongue of many inhabitants of the central Dolomite valleys of Badia, Gardena and Fassa, with additional pockets around Cortina and across Friuli.
Consequently, place-naming across the Dolomites is by no means standardised! For the purposes of this guide – and to avoid weighing the text down – names of mountains, places and refuges are given in Italian, flanked by the German or Ladin version where they differ dramatically. One to watch out for is Rifugio (or Hütte), recently transformed into Ladin Ücia or Ütia.
Walkers will inevitably encounter discrepancies between the names used in route descriptions in this book and on commercial maps, as cartographers and local authorities are tending to reintroduce dialect names and remove longer established versions, on maps and signposts alike – not always a helpful practice.
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Updates
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August 2022
Photo correction
p145 photo - this belongs on p195 and shows Rifugio Boè
June 2022
Navetta shuttle service
p239 + p242 the navetta shuttle service linking Pera di Fassa with Rifugio Gardeccia is no longer running
January 2022
2022 reprint route updates
March 2021
Rifugio Fanes phone number has changed
Walking in the Dolomites
p103 Rifugio Fanes phone has changed to 0474 453001
May 2019
Route updates and corrections
Visitors to the Dolomites in summer 2019 need to be aware of possible problems regarding paths. The best advice is to check locally with Tourist Offices and refuges, be versatile and don't take any risks.
Storm Damage in the Dolomites:
Six months ago, in October 2018, the Italian Dolomites were hit by a devastating hurricane - Tempesta Vaia. Winds up to 200km/hr caused widespread damage to villages, houses and roads, and there were several deaths. Millions and millions of trees were toppled. Forestry workers and sawmills are struggling to deal with the massive amount of timber that needs removing and storing.
Naturally, hundreds of kilometres of paths in the Dolomites have been affected by landslides, rockfalls and fallen trees. Despite the snowy winter season plenty has already been done to improve the situation - the authorities as well as volunteers have been hard at work clearing timber, rerouting, and affixing new signs where possible. (Though priority has obviously been given to essential services for villages). The Italian Alpine Club, CAI, as well as SAT, the Trento branch, are involved.
Things are definitely looking up - and even Rifugio Venezia on the Pelmo will hopefully open for the summer season despite having had its roof torn off, the top floor with beds and mattresses ruined by rain and snow, and its jeep access track blocked by rockfalls and landslips. Another refuge with supply problems is Rifugio Pordenone in the Dolomiti Friulane. Thankfully the building was not damaged but its access road all but washed away. But they plan on 'business as usual' this year too.
The following web site lists all the paths by number in the Belluno province (central-southern Dolomites) with notes about what's open and possible problems. It's updated regularly. Google Sheet 'Non percorribile' means 'not walkable' ie closed.
As regards the Trentino area (south-western Dolomites), see this web site: https://sentieri.sat.tn.it/wp/?p=2444. Moreover as of May 20 an App will be downloadable on www.visittrentino.info with up-to-date path info for the Trentino.
Aug 2018
There's been an increase in cases of TBE (tick-borne encephalitis) across Europe, Italy included. Walkers should be aware that they may pick up ticks while walking through grass and woodland up to approx 1500 metres altitude. Not all ticks carry the disease but better safe than sorry. Simple precautions and plenty of useful information is available on the website: https://ecdc.europa.eu/en/tick-borne-encephalitis. Vaccination is also an option.
July 2018
page 218 :Private car traffic is finally being limited through one of the key Dolomites road passes (Passo Sella) http://dolomitesvives.com/en/. More buses have been put on to allow visitors to reach the pass.
p55 Walk 2: Access: Pozzale no longer has a summer bus service but can be reached by taxi (tel 328 7536842, 0435 30725) from Pieve di Cadore.
p57 the walk start should now read:
Starting out from the village square in Pozzale (1054m) follow the signposting for Rifugio Antelao due N uphill on Via Centrale. Once out of the village, where n.520 goes straight ahead, fork L for a minor sealed road climbing in bends. This becomes a 4WD track making its relaxing way up the southern flank of Monte Tranego.
p118 Rifugio Averau tel 0436 4660 open June to Sept, credit cards accepted https://rifugioaverau.wixsite.... Rifugio Pisciadù www.rifugiopisciadu.it
... Rifugio Catinaccio has closed
p244 Stage 2 box: ascent 850m, descent 1120m
p278 Tourist Office Braies tel 0474 748660 www.valledibraies.info
... 2017
Walk 22, Stage 2: Ascent should be 850m and descent 1120m
(Thanks to Estelle)
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Reviews
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"It has been my pleasure to follow in Gillian's footsteps all over Italy"
I have used Gillian Price's books for the Dolomiti, Stelvio, and Gran Paradiso, and most recently last year for Alpi Maritime and Mercantour. It has been my pleasure to follow in her footsteps all over Italy. Thanks so much for her wonderful books and sense of humour.
- Sandy
Absolutely fantastic, if exhausting!
Thank you very much for walk suggestions in your Cicerone book of longer walks in Dolomites - last week we hiked Anello and walk 2 along the Marmarole and had an absolutely fantastic (if exhausting!) time. Hope to try out further hikes in coming years.
Such a useful, accurate and well-written guide
I'm one of your happy readers, having used your guide book before. It's such a useful, accurate and well-written guide to have - thank you!
Tom, by email
Brilliant and helpful
Thank you for producing two such clear, interesting and informative books in ‘Walking in the Dolomites’ and ‘Shorter Walks in the Dolomites’. Your books have already proved invaluable in our planning efforts and I only wish we had discovered them when we first visited the region a couple of years ago. We are quite simply spoiled for choice already!
Again, thank you for writing such brilliant and helpful books.
Lucy, by email
The hikes, detailed descriptions and photographs in it have blown my mind and they all look and sound amazing
Hi, Gillian my name is Kevin and would like to say well done and thank you for writing such a great book on Walking in the Dolomites. A friend recommended the Cicerone publications and after talking with a work colleague about hiking in Italy I decided to order your book. The hikes, detailed descriptions and photographs in it have blown my mind and they all look and sound amazing and I’m only halfway through.
Gillian Price is a true gem amongst guide book writers!
We were on our first real hiking holiday and used Gillian Price's Dolomites guides. We'd selected walks based on her descriptions, which were so inspiring it was difficult to choose! Instead, we selected by a process of elimination, based on difficulty and length, rather than attractiveness. Most guide books are a rather dreary recipe of start here, turn left at creek, go up hill 200m, walk along spine. Gillian Price completely understands that the best walks are a story with a rhythm and narrative: a beginning, a middle, a climax, and an end, and her writing reflects this. She conveys the mood and tone of a walk, not just its facts. As a plant enthusiast, I appreciated her highlighting special vegetation or flowering alpines. Two years later, we returned to the Dolomites and did multi-day treks there, and her descriptions were once again a true reflection of every one of them. Gillian Price is a true gem amongst guide book writers!
Helen, 2018
Your wonderful guides have been a pleasure to read, and have been particularly helpful, thank you!
Dear Ms Price,
For the last 20 years, my wife and I have relied heavily on Cicerone guidebooks. Your wonderful guides for Amalfi, Dolomites, and Gran Paradiso have been a pleasure to read, and have been particularly helpful, thank you!
Thanks again!
Dan & Cheryl
Seattle, WA
Everything you need to take on some truly fantastic walks.
If you've ever flicked through a Cicerone guide before you will know exactly what they are about: practical information presented in a clear manner to provide you with everything you need to take on some truly fantastic walks. And that's exactly what we have here with Walking in the Dolomites.
Inside, Gillian Price outlines 25 multi-day routes in Italy's Dolomites giving you the means to explore the breathtaking alpine scenery that the area has become so famous for. The routes mainly consist of two and three day itineraries and take in the Likes of the Brenta Dolomites and Sella Massif traverses. Expect pristine lakes, rugged ridges and those exhilarating scree slopes.
Adventure Travel Magazine
Packed with useful tips and beautiful colour photographs
I have no issue in recommending the fantastic Trekking series from Cicerone. If you are into hiking and experiencing the ‘great outdoors’, then you can place your trust in the hands of this first-class publisher. It uses the services of only the most skilled and informative writers, all of whom can boast about more knowledge of the various treks and routes and how to break them down into manageable sections than any other specialists. There is a satisfying hands on approach taken by Cicerone that provides it with a defined market advantage. The latest guides deal with the spectacular Dolomites mountain region of northern Italy and are packed with useful tips, beautiful colour photographs and the customary recommendations for short to medium hikes, all of which can be combined for the more adventurous travellers.
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