HOW WE ARRIVED IN THE DOLOMITES AFTER ALREADY 4,500 KM HIKING

Crossing Southern Europe on foot from West to East is a huge challenge. We could have completed this journey in countless other ways, but it has always been a dream of ours to cross the Alps. So here we were, planning this crazy adventure making sure we would arrive in the Alps during a viable window, weather wise.

During this trip, we knew that hiking was the only way to access the places and people that we wouldn’t have met otherwise. Since we started, 9 months ago in Portugal, we hiked around 4,500 km across 5 countries, crossing mountains, deserts, coasts, fields, marshes, burnt lands and lakes. We faced wind, rain, hail, snow, storms, freezing nights and criminal heat. We met entire families, lonely people, children and the elderly, all of whom made our experience what it is.

Crossing the Alps, the main ordeal of the adventure

After 6 months of physically, mentally and emotionally preparing for this trip, we thought we were ready for what would be the biggest trial of this trip. But, we quickly found that no matter how hard and long we prepared, it couldn't have prepared us for what the Alps had in store for us. The difficult trails, the elevation gains and the pure distance we hiked in the Alps in France, Switzerland and Italy exhausted us. 

Enjoying the Dolomites off season

Parisian people like us did not know much about the Dolomites before preparing this hike - we pictured the hike to be the Tre Cime di Lavaredo. Before preparing our itinerary, we had no idea how wide and diverse the Dolomites were, nor did we have any idea that we would fall in love with this place. Those steep and gigantic limestone reefs, sometimes absolutely vertical, left us speechless. A unique show that took place everyday, making us feel undoubtedly smaller and smaller, mile after mile that we walked.

We will remember these places for a lifetime

From the Passo Sella we saw the whole Sella mountain range and were attracted to them like magnets. Climbing up there was not in our initial plan, the weather was not looking good, but we could not resist - we headed to the Piz Boè: the highest peak in the Sella range. All of the huts along the hike had closed in mid-October, we did not see anyone along the trails. This desert, rocky, yet foggy land felt like we were on another planet.

We probably like learning as much as we do hiking, which was why we visited the Lagazuoi tunnels. We had no idea of what happened in this part of Italy during WWI.

The Lago di Braies (Lake Braies) was a must see for us in this Italian region, so we made this a meeting point for us to connect with our two next guests - at this point in our hike, we've already had 12 people from all over Europe join us for a section of the trail! Lago di Braies is surrounded by high mountains and we find that the white limestone surrounding us and the colors of autumn match perfectly.

On our way to the Tre Cime, we met very few people. At this time, only the Rifugio Auronzo was still open and it was obviously Our plan was to sleep at the winter bivacco of the Rifugio Locatelli. The approach was impressive but the Three Peaks left the four of us speechless. These giants emerging from the earth, surrounded by intimidating trees are pure beauty.

Respect what is offered to us

Visit such a mythical place as the Dolomites off-season seemed like a privilege to us. Meeting almost nobody, experiencing a perfect weather and enjoying the welcoming bivacci around… Being able to spend the night in a safe and dry place is priceless! And it made us regret even more finding some of them with abandoned trash inside. We felt that cleaning those bivacci would be a nice way to keep the 1KG FOR THE PLANET challenge and to return the favour to those places that have welcomed us for a night.

The end of the Dolomites, on our way to Slovenia

Now we have left the Dolomites and we are heading to the Slovenian border. We picked the Sella Prevala to enter this 6th country. Since the storm of the past days, there is quite a lot of snow up there. Crossing the last two passes will not be easy but hopefully the weather is now dry and there are several bivacci that give us several sleeping options in case we cannot make it as fast as we think.

A page is turning on our crossing of the Alps. The Dolomites raised themselves on the podium of the most incredible places we have discovered so far and we will come back for sure!

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