Alta Via 1 with Via Ferratas VF4

Accommodation

The Alta Via 1 does not run through any towns, and accommodation is 100% in rifugios, or mountain huts. These huts range from very comfortable (by hut standards) to rustic. Most of them are privately owned, usually by families, and they all operate in their own independent way. While there’s a lot of variation from hut to hut, you can read our Staying in Mountain Huts Webpage for information about the hut experience.

Generally speaking, the huts toward the beginning of the route are more fancy (by hut standards, of course) and the huts toward the end of the route are more basic. This is generally due to the fact that the Alta Via 1 becomes more remote, the further south you go. Many of the huts do have private rooms available, but these book out very quickly. At the end of the route, none of the huts have private rooms, so it is impossible to do the route 100% in private rooms without exiting early. Hikers who insist on private rooms should book early, have a flexible date range, and/or be willing to use off-route accommodation that is convenient to reach.

While not all huts on the route are equal, we hear great feedback about every hut on the route. Of course, there’s variation amongst our customers regarding the most, and least, favorite huts on the route. It’s really a matter of personal preference. If there are specific huts that you would like to stay in, you can share that with us in your booking, and we’ll do our best to honor your request.

Meals

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

1. There are so many huts along the way, that depending on your itinerary, you’ll likely 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. Since there aren’t any grocery stores along the way, it’s necessary to purchase food before starting on the trail.

The Alta Via 1 is likely to have the best conditions between mid-July and the end of the August. Huts are generally open from mid-June until mid-September, which defines the hiking season for the Alta Via 1. The specific dates for each of our Alta Via 1 itineraries are defined by the opening season of the huts. Keep in mind that via ferratas can be exceptionally dangerous in late spring/early summer, when cables may remain buried under treacherously steep snowfields.

Here's what conditions to expect at different times of year:

Late June: Huts are open and routes from the valleys to the huts are clear. Problematic snow may still remain on the passes and at high elevations, and in some years, it may be necessary to bypass certain sections of trail using transportation (which is not convenient and is usually expensive). It is highly likely that some of the via ferratas may not be doable. Even if the passes are clear in time for your hike, they usually clear at the very last minute, and June hikers always have a couple of stressful weeks leading up to their hike as they check webcams and eagerly wait for the snow to melt in time for their hike. In almost every year, it is not possible to predict what trails are going to be like in June until one or two weeks before. This is true even after a winter with low snowfall. Some of the Dolomiti Bus lines don’t start running until late June or early July, and timetables are not available in advance, which makes planning difficult. Buses for Lago di Braies and the La Pissa Bus Stop are running, but it may be difficult to access Malga Ra Stua, Passo Falzarego, Palafavera/Passo Staulanza and other stops along the way.

July and August: Problematic snow can remain on the route through the first week of July and can remain on the via ferratas through mid-July. Some via ferratas may not be doable until mid-July. Summer settles in and days are usually mostly sunny with an afternoon thunderstorm or two. It is necessary to avoid passes and being clipped in to via ferrata cable during these storms. Considering that the electrical storms rarely last more than 30 minutes to an hour, these thunderstorms rarely interfere with hiking itineraries, and it is often possible to work around them for the via ferratas. 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.

Early September: The first snow of the winter usually falls in the first week of September. The snow rarely sticks around for more than a day, but the visibility can be very low, making navigation problematic on this one day. Most days in early September are beautiful and perfect, and the thunderstorms are less, but there is a higher risk of snowstorms and conditions that may prevent you from completing your hike during this time. Many hikers have incredible weather in September, but some do not. It’s simply a matter of luck. The later you push into September, the higher the risk that unfavorable conditions (usually snow, but sometimes extremely cold temperatures) can interfere with your hiking itinerary. We notice that customers who are on the trail beyond September 15^th are much more likely to quit their hike early due to conditions. In early September, the wildflower season is mostly over, with the exception of brilliant bursts of fireweed that mark the end of summer. The Malga Ra Stua shuttle is not running, and many of the Dolomiti Bus lines (Passo Falzarego, Palafavera/Passo Staulanza, etc.) could stop running as early as September 8^th. The timetable for the La Pissa Bus Stop changes sometime around or after September 8^th, and the new timetable will not be posted until the first day it is valid. This means that the timetable will change during the hike for many September hikers, and they may not know the pick-up times until arriving at the last hut on the route, Rifugio Furio Bianchet, where the times are usually posted.

In all months, 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 Passo di Falzarego and Forcella Staulanza.

Important note about availability on the Alta Via 1: Many authors and bloggers have published information that June and September are the shoulder season and are less crowded on the Alta Via 1 than other times of the summer. The word is out and now huts tend to fill up faster in June and September than they do in late July and August. In fact, for the past couple of years, August has had the most availability for last-minute bookings. With that said, August is a busy time of year for tourists in the area, so hotels in Cortina can be more expensive at that time, and sometimes difficult to get.