Dolomites 2005 A personal diary ....

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Day 9: Thursday 8 September

Travel to Trento

Everyone managed to get themselves up for a fairly early breakfast.  Andy has settled the bill, as this is the only place that insisted on “cash only”.  Not everyone wants to try the ridge route, so we’ll be splitting into two groups today.

After some photos under the “Arrivo” banner outside the rifugio .. set up for a forthcoming race .. we all set off down route 608, crossing a river before heading up to the Passo di San Nicolo.  We stop for a break and a drink at the rifugio.  Inside the bar, I get the feeling I am being watched and, looking up spot the bar guard.  On the shelf above the bar is a convenient place for the cat to watch everything that happens in its domain.

After our break, we split into two groups.  Allan, Gordon, James and I will take the ridge walk while the rest are going to head down into the Val San Nicolo to head to Pozza di Fassa.

As the ridge walkers headed onwards and upwards, the rest of headed onwards and steeply downwards.  The totally knee-jarring 300m descent to the valley floor didn't take long .. but I certainly needed a refreshing cup of lemon tea at the Baite alla Cascate before the long, but much gentler descent out to the Val di Fassa at Pozza.

As we passed the next watering hole, the Baita Ciampie, the numbers of people ascending with toddlers in pushchairs dramatically increased, as yet another bus emptied its cargo out at the roadhead.  One couple asked me in almost perfect English, "How far to the Cascate?"  If only I could have answered in Italian ....  We guessed there must be a children's event happening up there in the afternoon.

And so the 608 continued down and down .. passed 1700m .. passed 1600m .. and there's a restaurant, the Malga Crossifico!  Yes, that'll do nicely for lunch, thanks.  Suitably refreshed, the rest of the way didn't seem quite as long .. and what's this?  It's market day in Pozza?  So I get my hands on a pair of very large peaches .. for the first time in many days, by the way .. and Diane and I enjoy them all the way down to the Tourist Office where we settle down to meet the others .....

Andy

The ridge walkers continued on the path and headed for the Forcia Negra. It is a “dotted” path on the map but doesn’t give us any difficulty.  As we walk up we found a number of burrows beside the path but no sign of any marmots.  After moving through the Forcia Negra, we came across a small bit of via ferrata.  Not too difficult but there are three rungs to climb down and they could really have done with a fourth as the last step is nearly a metre.  As we walked away, there was a group coming towards us.  It included a woman with a very wide brimmed red hat.  Maybe she was the group leader and used the hat to be noticed.

As we continued, we came across some more World War 1 remnants.  It included a cave that went from one side of the pass to overlook the other.  There were even shelves carved out on the sides.  We then continued down a loose path into a large bowl, where according to the map there was a traversing path.  However we never found this and ended up following a path down to route 644. This meant we now had to climb 160m to get back to the ridge. Below us was the start of a chair lift that went up to the ridge but we decided to walk up.

This was not appreciated by any of us by the time we had arrived at the top station, as it was a hard slog.  However, having arrived on the ridge, the walk along it was very enjoyable.  We stopped at the Sass de Dama (the highest point on the ridge at 2430m) to take some photos.  However, a group who took about 5 minutes to walk the 15 yards past us delayed this process.

Then we headed down towards the top of a chair lift.  We had to detour around it as it was a bit of a building site, but as we passed the construction, we could see a rifugio below that wasn’t on the map but was obviously open.  This looked like a good place for a lunch stop.

We headed in and ordered our lunch.  We weren’t that far from the gondola down to Pozza, but it didn’t appear to be running.  However given the number of people around who had obviously not walked up, we reckoned that it must be stopped for lunch. (Very Italian!)

I asked at the bar and was told that the gondola would start again at 2.00 pm.  That was fine by us, as it meant we didn’t need to race down the hill.  We strolled over and arrived just as the attendant was opening up.  We paid our €4.80 and got on two of the gondolas.  We were down to Pozza di Fassa in no time.

As we walked through the town, there was a market in the streets, which added to the interest of the walk.  Before long we were near the tourist office and could see Diane and Andy walking down the street ahead of us.

Ian has gone to find the bus stop, but when he came back, we headed across the road to a bar.  We order a variety of drinks and food including a couple of “Frutti di Bosco”.  I called the hostel to let them know that we should be arriving around 6.15 pm.

We then walked down the road to the bus stop.  The bus arrived on time, but we had to wait to Moena until Iris could get the tickets.  The journey down the valley was uneventful and we only arrived a few minutes late, mainly due to the rush hour traffic as we got into Trento.

We all trooped off from the bus station, and found the hostel at the second attempt having initially walked past it.  We had no problem getting booked in to our two rooms for six, both with en suite.

We got ourselves settled in and I took the chance to repack my rucksack for the following day’s train journey.  After getting a shower and changed, I took a quick trip to the station to get the tickets printed for tomorrow’s journey.

ps  fulfilled a long-held ambition to buy a pair of Alpine climbers trousers at last .. right in the centre of Trento.  And here's a pic to prove it .....

pps  spot the builder's tan .....

Andy

After we all met again, we headed back into the centre of the town.  Some of the guys had earlier spotted a pizza place that did a buffet so we found it and headed in.  It was excellent value and quality .. the only problem was the queue to get the pizza.  However everyone managed to eat their fill (including a number who had multiple desserts!) and after settling the bill, we headed back to the square to find a bar.

We settled into some tables outside a bar opposite a magnificent church and ordered some large beers.  At this establishment, it was a litre and it took two hands to lift the glass at first.  They also supplied some snacks.  It was a very pleasant evening that was enjoyed by all of us.  However, all good things come to an end and we had to quickly finish off the drinks as the heavens opened.

We headed for cover and paid our bill, then had a quick run back to the hostel dodging in and out of doorways to avoid the rain.  We arrived just as they were closing the main doors, so we didn’t have to remember the key code to get in.  As we were having an early breakfast and had had a long day, everyone headed to their rooms for a fairly early night.

Bob MacDonald