ONTO ALTA VIA DOLOMITI (DOLOMITEN – HÖHENWEG)

VIA ALPINA DAY 18  – THURSDAY 9 JULY 2026
SEXTEN/SESTO – NEAR DURRENSTEIN HUTTE

DISTANCE HIKED:  26.7 km
ELEVATION GAIN: 2,020 m

TOTAL DISTANCE HIKED: 435.9 km
TOTAL ELEVATION GAIN: 24,430m

Hotel Mondschein was a charming old world hotel.  It was in the centre of town and close to everything we needed. We stayed for a fabulous breakfast and fully recharged we headed off around 9am.  We were clean and refreshed and on a beautiful sunny day we headed off from town. A quick stop at the bank to get cash – for the huts ahead. 

Nice to rise above the town and enter a cool pine forest for a bit. The hum of traffic receding below. We had plenty of day hikers for company.  The morning hike started  at a reasonably pleasant grade through pine forest. We were heading to the world famous Three Peaks of the Dolmites.  The trail soon started to climb slowly at first and then steeper and steeper.

Towards the summit it felt neaustingly hard. It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny.  We held our own against the day hikers on the ascent. It was a  really nice day to be up the mountains. I was wishing to be one of the day hikers with their small packs. It was around 1pm by the time we reached the destination for most of the day hikers, Rifugio Antonio Locatelli/ Drei Zinnen Hutte.  We could see lots of people milling around the hut as we approached.  So we stopped short in a beautiful meadow, surrounded by the towering peaks and enjoyed a well earned break and lunch.

We reached the hutte after our lunch stop. It was overrun with people moving in all directions. A long line of people  stood in a queue to get inside to be served.
There were numerous tour groups of just about every nationality and instagrammers dressed in their photo fave outfits standing to be to photographed in front of this wondrous natural amphitheatre of rock.  We didn’t stay for long but were very careful to follow the right trail away from the hutte. On the way down we passed the French hiker we met a few days ago.  I said this was crazy busy. And she replied, it and Mt Blanc were the most famous places in the Alps. I knew that,  I just wasn’t expecting to see hundreds of people scurrying in every direction. It was crazy busy.

We were pleased to find that our trail diverted from the big groups. We started to descend following a dry creek bed into a gully. It was steep and slippery in parts but other wise quite pleasant downhill, especially  once the creek popped out of the ground.    We were passed by a few groups going uphill and  occasionally couples coming down behind us. We were pleased to leave the crowds behind. It was quite nice to follow the creek down. And if it were later in the day there were some great campspots along the creek.

We reached the road junction at Landro, a busy through road with fabulous views of the Tre Cime, the Tree Peaks of the Dolomites. Lots of people about taking photos and enjoying the good weather.
We stopped at the nearby cafe Drei – Zinnenblick and got a cold drink while deciding if we’ll push on for a 5km uphill to the Durrenstein Hutte.  With such a beautiful day we decided to move on. 

The climb was rising gradually at first with the constant sound of traffic  from the busy road below. The track was  well made and graded which made the climbing a bit easier.   When looking up it was hard to work out how a track could go through such steep terrain. But the track builders managed to find a way. One section towards the top had steps and boardwalk and steel cables to hold onto and even a tunnel to pass through. This tricky section of trail looked like it was recently rebuilt and really was no problem to traverse.

We eventually rose above the trees and emerged into a clear summit with some historic ruins and a monument to fallen soldiers (Kriegerdenkmal am Strudelkopfsattel War Memorial). On the way up we had passed a few historic military installations.

We had not seen any people on the way up.  The summit had so many spots to camp. We waited for a while to put our tent up. It was getting cold as the sun set behind the mountain. We were exhausted.   It was nice to get the tent up and get inside,  watching the sunset on a nearby mountain with a large steel cross on it.