Alta Via 2 Hiker's Route 5-day North Itinerary AV2-5N

Accommodation

Most of the accommodation along the Alta Via 2 is in typical mountain huts, called rifugios. These huts are generally quite simple, but provide a bed, blankets, meals and often showers each day. 

Breakfast and dinner will always be available at, or near, your accommodation. It is not necessary to carry your own food for these meals. In most cases, the huts allow us (and often require us) to book half-pension for our customers, which includes a multi-course set menu for dinner (usually with a vegetarian and non-vegetarian option) and breakfast. Drinks are never included. In our experience, the dinners serve up heaps and heaps of delicious Italian food, and the breakfasts are less impressive with bread as the centerpiece. Some huts do not have set menus that they offer, and instead expect guests to order dinner a la carte at the hut. At these huts, we are unable to book and pay for dinner in advance, so dinner is not included in the package, but it is available for purchase on site.

Read about dietary restrictions at the huts

For lunches, there are three options. We recommend planning a combination of these:

1. On some days, you’ll have options to sit down for a warm lunch on each day. While this sounds appealing, it is also very expensive and time-consuming. This is not a great option on long hiking days or for slower hikers who are already concerned about covering the planned route.
2. Most huts offer sack lunches that you can bring with you on the trail. We find these to be overpriced and repetitive to breakfast, and this option generates a lot of trash. Most huts do not include picnic lunches in their reservation process, which is why we are unable to book these in advance for you. Sack lunches should be requested immediately upon arrival at the hut for the next day. Huts are generally not very flexible in honoring dietary restrictions with their sack lunches.
3. The third option, and our favorite option, is to bring your own food. There is one small grocery store along the way, so you can stop and refill your food supply.

The Alta Via 2 is likely to have the best conditions between mid-July and the end of the August. Due to the challenging and alpine nature of this tour, it is available from the 2nd week of July. The bus at the end of this itinerary for the Northern half only runs until August 31st, so it is necessary to plan to depart the end of the trail by then.

Here's what conditions to expect:

Problematic snow can remain on the route through the first week of July. Beginning the second week of July, trails are almost always clear. Summer settles in and days are usually mostly sunny with an afternoon thunderstorm or two. These thunderstorms rarely interfere with hiking itineraries and are not usually problematic. Of course, thunderstorm safety should be practiced. The wildflowers at the higher elevations should be all out by mid-July. Hiking conditions during this time are often favorable, and it’s a great time to be on the trail.

It’s reasonable to expect 1 to 2 rainy days on the trail.

To research more detailed information about average temperatures, precipitation, etc., we recommend checking Meteoblue (go to “History & Climate” and then “Climate (modelled)”) for Malga Ciapela.

Read more about Understanding the hut-to-hut hiking season in the Alps.