Now we are closer to Sesto - Sexton, Italy, right on the Austrian Border.
We left the Pomedes hut, caught the three lifts down, and got the 445 bus which dropped us off at an intersection. The road splits here, this new branch snaking way up in the mountains. The 444 bus met us, and slowly made its way twisting and turning up the steep road until we were above timberline. We were dropped us at Rifugio Auronzo. It is like a parking lot for Disneyland here, and just as crowded. Really.
I know this Tre Cime area is famous, not just for the hiking and the mountains (it is an UNESCO Protected Site) but also for the WW1 battles that happened here. As we hike you notice the tunnels and rooms carved into the rock, high above us.
We start walking.
Our hut, the Dreizinnen Hütte, or Rifugio Antonio Locatelli, is about two or three hours in.
Total people.
Wall to wall people.
A people traffic jam.
It is like we left the peace and quiet of Lassen Park and walked into Yosemite.
We come to the Laravado Hut, which is set right at the base of the Tre Cime. A lot of the people drop out here, but it is still really crowded as we continue on the 101.
We crest a hill and suddenly there is our hut, off in the distance. We are walking around what looks like a huge, circular crater, but is just an area at the base of the peaks scooped out by glaciers. The Tre Cime falls behind us, a wall of rock is on our right side and looking up I can see the via ferrata route up along the old war time ruins. There are still a lot of people, even out here.
The clouds are coming in and so we hustle along, and finally climb up the last section to the hut.
It is full of people, we are lucky to get a table to share with a German family. We want to eat lunch, and we cannot get in our room until 15:00, so we have a heffeweissen beer and I get knodel soup, Gail has spaghetti.
The clouds come pouring into the basin, it gets colder and the wind starts to blow, there is thunder. I am glad we are here in the refugio.
The Dreizinnen Hütte.
We finally can get our room.
The good news: we have a room. Just for the two of us.
The bad news: it is just a room, as in four walls. This is the most bare-bones place I have ever stayed. Two bed and we each have a night table. A table and two wooden chairs. No plugs for charging. One light. No WiFi and cell reception is either five bars or no reception, and it goes on and off like the electricity.
The bathroom is up one floor, and SURPRISE! due to water shortages there are no showers allowed, just washing up in the wash-troughs with cold water. We rent towels for a €10 deposit (refundable on return).
This is NOT my idea of a refreshing towel!
Four toilets (two women's and two men's, though technically one of the men's doesn't work) for the 100 or so people here.
You know how you get kind of spoiled, and get used to an idea of what something is going to be like? Then, when it is not, you feel disappointed?
Yup.
There is nothing wrong with this hut, in fact it is a great shelter in a fantastic place.
But from all the huts we have stayed in the past few years, this is somewhat... rustic.
Not the computer, all the camera batteries should be good, but we will need to do Gail’s Kindle tomorrow.
We laugh about the showers, and think how great it will be to get to Amlach and the Tiefenbacher Haus.
Perhaps we can go stand out in the rain?
After the great room and food at Rifugio Pomedes yesterday, and the nice huts we have stayed in this trip and other trips, it is a dose of reality about what the high mountain huts are really like. Probably good for us, too, as we were just taking it for granted they were all a luxury place. But… we can’t help but wish we were two nights at Pomedes and one here.
But… then I couldn’t do the via feratta tomorrow. So it is what it is. And, this is better than camping our or sleeping on the floor.
We have completed half the hike around the three peaks now. Gail is deciding if she wants to continue on tomorrow, or stay in and relax.
Meanwhile, I hope to do two climbing routes: the De Luca-Innerkofler Via Ferrata, and Ferrata delle Scalette and Sentiero del Curato M. Hosp, both of which will take me up into and through the WW1 ruins.
It will depend on how long the weather holds; right now we are totally socked in with fog, and it has rained off and on. I am hoping for another blue-sky morning.
But what really made it fun was we were seated at a table with a family from Köln, Germany. Two gynecologists and their three daughters.
Boy did we have a great time sitting and talking.
So we found out that, in terms of high mountain huts, this one is really comfortable. Their last one they stayed in an attic, up a ladder they couldn’t use during dinner because it came down in the dining room. No shower their either. But hey! So what? They are out having fun. They all via feratta together, and spend two weeks every year here in the Dolomites, going hut to hut.
Their daughters, (let alone the adults) are more politically informed and curious than most adults I know, with well thought out opinions. They had a lot of good questions for us, and were interested in what we thought of Europe.
Anyway, we had a great time, me trying out my German and their daughters trying out their English. So now, perhaps, Beate and Dirk and the three girls Rebecca, Franziska and Theresa will come to visit us in California. And we have a place to visit in Köln!
Meanwhile the fog moved in so the mountains were erased, and the slight drizzle turned into a steady, cold rain. It got dark early, and we headed up to our room to read and crash, though it was only 22:00.