Lessons learned and summary:
- Don’t worry about missing out by taking a cable car from Brixen (Sant’ Andrea) to Plose instead of hiking
- You can leave your car on a parking lot right below the cable car (free of charge in 2020)
- First ascent to the pass below Peitlerkofel/Sass de Pütia peak and first hut – Rifugio Genova on Stage 1
It’s here…another longed for vacation, another trek. Time to be free, liberated from all the worries and pressures of everyday life. Time to leave the hustle and bustle of the city far behind and spend 2 wonderful weeks in peaceful connection with nature. Time to get on trail and be carried away by breath-taking views while fighting thirst, hunger, sore calves, sweat in the eyes and a smell of unwashed socks in the constrained interior of a narrow tent…exactly this and much more is what multiple days hike is about.
We depart after 9 am from Brixen/Bresannone to which we arrived the day before. We take the first morning cable car from Sant’ Andrea in the direction of Plose. We leave our car parked in the free-of-charge parking lot adjacent to the cable car. We hope that in two weeks time our car will still be there.
The first stage leading through the relatively frequented area with numerous cable cars is quite easy and so we take the chance to enjoy the magnificent, flamboyant landscape. It truly makes me feel like I’m in a fairytale…
The chill and ease with which we covered the first few kilometers are quickly gone . We begin the first serious ascent to the very first pass under the Peitlerkofel/Sass de Pütia peak. It’s though. The sun is beating down on us, we soon turn reddish like two radishes and are gasping for breath as we keep on avoiding crowds of day hikers who seem to be all around. To me it currently resembles High Tatras in Slovakia – it’s stunning but slightly overcrowded. Well, let’s hope this will change as we will get futher away from easily accessible areas.
After we cross the pass, the path gets flat again and we soon reach the very first hut – Rifugio Genova. We try local specialty -“Limón-soda” – super-sweet but super-refreshing lemonade for €4.
The first stage officially ends on the hut. Not for us though. As we are not going to spend the night here, we better be on our way to find a campsite for the night. From the hut we commence another ascent. The energy from the lemonade is quickly gone and ascending becomes though. However, as soon as we get to the top, the energy is back – the view is very rewarding.
We haven’t met anyone any more since we left the hut and so we stop for a while to enjoy the stillness of this place. Finding an appropriate bivouac spot is rather problematic. We are hiking on a narrow path in the middle of the slope with no flat spots. Eventually we find a relatively flat spot right above the path. There’s a civilization below us – a small settlement of cabins. From time to time some people walk out of these cabins and observe the surroundings with binoculars. “Probably an ornithological excursion”, we tell to ourselves. We try to hide behing big rocks to avoid their attention, however, it’s more than clear that their hawk-eyes don’t miss a thing and we have been seen. This makes me slightly nervous but I need to live with it’s already getting dark and we won’t move any further. We are falling asleep with a sight of sun setting behind the sharp rocky peaks. Beside slipping down the slope and being slightly nervous about the people below, it’s just….perfect.
Hopeful Wanderer 