Another summer.. another holiday in the Dolomites 🙂 This year we planned to spend our holiday in the Sella group.
On our way to Italy we stopped in Munich to visit the worlds biggest boulder hall. That was a lot of fun! The next day we took the train to Brixen. From there a bus is going to Wolkenstein. In Wolkenstein we had a really nice accommodation called Garni Chalet Elisabeth.
We spent the afternoon walking through the town. In the evening a huge thunderstorm came over the town. We hurried through the rain to the next pizza restaurant and spent the evening there. The thunderstorm took about 5-6 hours!
The next morning it was cold, but blue sky. We had a really great breakfast at Garni Chalet Elisabeth. During breakfast we heard in the radio that the road to Grödner Joch is closed because of falling stones after the thunderstorm. But still we walked to the bus stop. Actually we wanted to take the bus to Grödner Joch, but as said in the news, the road was still closed and no bus appeared. So we started walking to Grödner Joch. It took about 1,5 hours.
When we arrived at Grödner Joch black clouds already appeared at some parts of the sky, but over us blue sky was still visible. Therefore we decided to take the via ferrata Piscadu to the Piscadu hut. The start of the via ferrata (which is said to be the mostly walked via ferrata in the whole Dolomites) was very nice. But after about an hour more black clouds started to appear over us and we became a bit nervous - a thunderstorm inside a via ferrata is no fun. We were quite quick and then we came up to some really slow people. They seemed to move in slow motion... That was enough and no longer fun. Walking behind a group of slow people and bad weather coming.. therefore we decided after half way to leave the via ferrata and continue on a path up to the Piscadu hut. When we arrived at the hut we had something to drink. In the afternoon the weather was very unsettled - clouds and sunshine. When the sun came out we enjoyed it a few meters away from the hut at a nice place. The dinner was great, we had the first Kaiserschmarrn this year 😀
We shared our room with six other guys from Italy. They were very funny. We slept quite well and woke up with a beautiful blue sky the next morning.
After breakfast we decided to go up the Cima Piscadu. The summit is 2985 meters high. The way up to the summit is really nice, not an ordinary path, but a lot of rock and sometimes you need to climb a little bit. We enjoyed the view from the top - we could see many white clouds above the valley and some dark clouds behind us. After the descend of Cima Piscadu we followed the path in the direction of Rifugio Boe. The landscape there is very different to the parts of the Dolomites we have seen before. We go over a huge plateau.
Then a few meters up and down again and we arrive at the Rifugio Boe. There we take a short break and then decide to go up to the Piz Boe. On the way up we meet many many people which took the cablecar. After about one hour we arrive at the summit of Piz Boe at 3115 meters. Unfortunately it is very cloudy and we cannot see the Marmolada. Actually the idea to visit the Sella group came into our mind when we stood up on the Marmolada summit and looked at the Sella group. From there the Piz Boe looked like a huge pyramid. From the summit we started to descend in the direction of the Rifugio Pordio. On the way down many many people were still coming up from the cablecar. On the Pordoi Hut we had a nice room - and even a hot shower. We walked a bit around in the afternoon and enjoyed a huge dinner 🙂
The next morning we woke up with sunshine and blue sky again. Today we planned to go to Rifugio Kostner. There are many ways leading to this hut. We decided to walk up the Piz Boe again, this time from the other side. It was the most beautiful morning we had during this time in Italy. On our way we had a great view to the Marmolada and only a few people were on the summit when we arrived there.
We took a break and then decided to follow an exposed path in the direction of Rifugio Kostner. Unfortunately very black clouds arrived again 🙁
The Rifugio Kostner is a very nice hut. We left some stuff in our room and decided to walk around a bit in the afternoon. We wanted to go up the normal path to the Boeseekofel. After half an hour we saw that for the normal path also via ferrata gear would be required.. and more black clouds were coming.. therefore we decided to not go up to the top. Instead we walked around some easier paths, took photos and enjoyed the landscape. After some time it started to rain.. and we disappeared inside the hut. There was again a hot shower which was really nice and then we waited for dinner. The dinner was really the best we ever had on a hut I think. It started with a glass of white wine, followed by a salad. Then spinach dumplings. Next schnitzel with fries and afterwards chocolate cream. Really good!! 🙂 Shortly after dinner we disappeared in our bed..
The next morning started really cloudy. We had an amazing breakfast and afterwards started to go back down to the valley. During the descend we could see only 2 meters and were completely wet when we arrived back in the town. But the sun came out and we were dry again after a few minutes. We took the bus back to Wolkenstein and went back to our accommodation. Before we started our trip trough the Sella group we left some stuff there. We now picked it up again and waited in a nice Italian bar until the next bus to Brixen arrived. Then we took the bus to Brixen which had no air conditioning, it was really hot and horrible.
Nevertheless we arrived just in time at the train station to get the next train to Innsbruck. Innsbruck should be our stopover on the way to Switzerland.
