Alta Via 1 Dolomiti

The Alta Via 1 is the oldest and most travelled of the Dolomite high routes, connecting 10 mountain rifugios on a 120km route from the perfectly blue Lago di Braies in the north to the provincial capital of Belluno in the south. The trail stays high — consistently above 2000m for large sections — and passes through the Fanes-Sennes plateau, the Civetta wall, and the Pelmo group in a traverse that covers the greatest concentration of UNESCO World Heritage mountain scenery in Europe.

The rifugio system is what makes the Alta Via 1 accessible. The huts are spaced 12-20km apart, provide full meals from noon through dinner, and offer dormitory and private room accommodation. For trail runners, this means carrying almost nothing — a day pack with emergency gear, rain jacket, and a single night's minimum equipment is sufficient if you commit to the hut system. The huts are popular and the key ones (Rifugio Fanes, Rifugio Lagazuoi) fill quickly in August — book 6-8 weeks in advance.

The Fanes-Sennes plateau is the central set piece of the route. The plateau at 2000-2300m is a limestone karst landscape with meadow on the flat sections and dramatic cliff faces rising to the higher peaks above. The Dolomite rock here has the warm pink-orange colour that gives the range its name (Dolomieu, the French geologist who described the rock) and in the evening alpenglow the peaks take on a colour that photographers have been trying to capture adequately for a century.

The Civetta west face — 1200m vertical from the base to the summit — is the most dramatic single feature on the route. The Alta Via traverses beneath it on a path that stays well clear of objective hazard but close enough to understand the scale.

Most trail runners complete the route in 4-6 days. Walkers take 8-12 days.