We had an excellent spaghetti dinner after climbing the Fuenffingerspitzen and, more importantly, were able to “wash up” in the bathroom in preparation for sleeping by the car again. We knew the weather wasn’t going to cooperate the next day so climbing wasn’t an option, but we could always hike. What’s a little rain (and thunder and lightning)? We picked out a lake to go visit and set off around 9 or 9:30 pm for our destination. As was to be the pattern for the trip, we searched and searched, trying to balance the need for sleep against the speed of the car going around the hairpin turns. By 11pm, we were at the lake, crossed over a dam, and Michael pulled in to a horrible parking lot that was doubling as a construction site. Both Carlos and I were set on looking a little harder despite our exhaustion, but Michael had had enough and collapsed into a state despair. Carlos took over piloting the car and doggedly took us down another street to a fantastic little parking lot with a small green area overlooking the lake. Here, we crashed and slept hard until past 8am the next day. I don’t even remember turning over.

We pondered over several plans for the day and beyond. The weather wasn’t cooperating on this trip, so we were changing plans constantly which made for arguments, expressions of pros and cons, and differences of opinions. Well, eventually we settled on making plans for the day. We had been sleeping on the northern side of the Marmolada. We could catch a cable car and go do a via ferrata there, or, I pointed out there was a lovely green ridge that we could hike along the southern end of the valley. It turned out that Michael had hiked part of that ridge before, which featured old World War I ruins, and vouched that it was a great hike. Eventually, we settled on hiking the green ridge. However, we went in the other direction and made towards a refugio. Along the way, we passed tons of people coming down. Eventually, we were one of the few parties high on the ridge.

We made it to the refugio in a little over an hour having also spent some time on the edge of a buttress with a lazy meadow on top. We saw approaching rain and made our way to the refugio as the rain caught us. But inside, we enjoyed some apple strudel and cappucino. These Europeans do know how to comfortably enjoy the mountains. Having come from the North Cascades, this didn’t feel like a hiking and climbing vacation. After the snack, Michael volunteered to go back and pick up the car and drive it to Pordoi Pass while Carlos and I would continue on by foot.

(above) Looking east at a cairn high on the ridge

(above) Looking west towards Pordoi Pass somewhere in the distance

The three of us walked together to a small col. Michael went right, back to the car. Carlos and I turned left for Pordoi Pass. But, before we were separated completely, we paused for lots of pictures among the dramatic clouds. The north side of the ridge was engulfed in roiling clouds while the south was unobscured. We hiked our own directions and were soon out of sight of each other. Carlos and I turned constantly to take pictures and video of the amazing cloudscapes. We were treating the day very leisurely; every time we’d arrive at a new vista, we’d take off packs and suck in the scenery. We were perhaps being a little too leisurely when the clouds finally conspired and pulled together a little storm that scared us down the ridge. Carlos and I were hiking quickly as the rain and wind intensified. The rain was driving hard against our faces and we sought refuge against a large boulder where we quickly adjusted our jackets to cover our packs. As we began down the trail towards the next refugio, the thunder and lightning started. We marched fast and made it to the hut, which had powered down in the face of the storm. That didn’t stop us from getting some more strudel though. As the storm raged outside and our wet gear slowly dried, we enjoyed the strudel and talked about the various bolts of lightning we’d seen. Some minutes later, the refugio was closing and we decided to make the quick run to the next refugio, only a hundred yards away or so. This one was “certainly open”, according to the owners of the refugio we were in. It wasn’t. The rain was coming down hard so we continued. We pondered stopping under the ski lift, but then realized it was entirely metal. So we hiked down in the rain. The good thing was that the brunt of the thunder and lightning was finished. Also, the pension (hotel that includes dinner and breakfast) that Michael had picked out was quite comfortable. After two car camps, this place felt like a palace and the food was excellent. We made plans for the next day. Though it called for more bad weather, we weighed our various hiking options.

(above) Carlos celebrates the good weather