Italy Day 4 – Saturday -Rifugio Locatelli to Rifugio Col Di Varda

We headed out for day two feeling pretty good but knowing it was going to be hard day, at least 9 miles and an additional 3 hr Via Ferrata. We had a couple of issues getting on the correct trail and got a bit stressed out due to the crowds of people. Locatelli is listed as one of the most popular huts and we could see that for sure given the crowds. **Update now that the hiking is over – this was our least favorite rifugio. If you can skip it, that is our recommendation. It’s like staying in a city hostel while in the mountains, no personal touch. The other huts were far superior in comparison! **

Heading out for Day 2 of hiking Alta Via 4

Once we hit the main trail it was easy hiking, with a good amount of hikers coming the other direction. The next landmark was a huge “rifugio” Auronzo, a major tourist stop since you can drive right to it. This also explained the hordes of people we saw around Locatelli, including people pushing all terrain child strollers!!

We all tried a selfie from the same location, with various results!

We hustled through this area as fast as we could but missed a trail turn. What I thought was just a trail out to a viewpoint overlooking Cadini di Misurina was actually the main trail and the viewpoint was a spur. As I made my way down, a lady yelled to me that there was a queue (for the insta-famous viewpoint) and I responded that I didn’t care about the viewpoint, I was looking for the trail. The whole time we waited for our group to find each other, a couple bogarted the viewpoint with their drone while a line of people waited. Have I mentioned my hatred of drones? I get that they do amazing pictures and videos but they are so freaking intrusive to everyone else in the area.

Once we had everyone together, we headed out on the trail. There were some cable sections but nothing we needed to dig the gear out for. Steve went out to another viewpoint to get some pictures and the damn drone buzzed him a few times! He should have started throwing rocks at it in my opinion… It’s possible if you sift through enough Instagram accounts you might find some footage of Steve.

As we continued down we came to another Via Ferrata section and had to wait for 4 ladies to climb up. That was no big deal. What was a big deal was the tour group of 45 people who we encountered as we were half way down. We ended up hunkering in a cave like space for at least 30 mins while they worked their way up. Eventually we made it down and realized that we faced a time crunch to get to the next location on time. The guys had picked out a Via Ferrata that left from Rifugio Fondo Savio, where we wanted to stay but couldn’t get a room. The plan was to get there in time to do the route and then head to our lodging further on. The hike up to Fondo Savio was a bit tricky and the trail was not well marked, both of which cost us precious time. Once we hit the top and had some snacks, they guys set out. I opted to stay with the bags for a couple of reasons. One, it was a popular area and while I bet theft is pretty low out here, it’s not a zero chance. Two, I was a bit foot sore and could use the break. The main reason was that I knew I was the slowest person at that moment and without me they could move faster. They already didn’t have time to complete the route (an out and back or maybe that should be and up and down) but they were going to push hard for a hour then turn around.

They returned around 3:15 pm I think and we had an almost 2 mile hike to our rifugio. I know that doesn’t sound bad but the projected travel time from CalTopo was 2.5 hrs due to the elevation gain and loss! Most mountain huts have a dinner time or a window of time dinner will be served. We didn’t want to miss dinner for sure, so we had to push hard! This section was a steep down, followed by an equally steep up, so steep that a rope had been strung to assist but not so bad to require a via ferrata.

While ups are hard, most of us agree the downs are harder overall and the downs cost us some time. Once down it was right back up the other side of the valley, this time with some short cable sections that we didn’t bother gearing up for. The down was long and eventually became a nice path all the way to the Rifugio col de Varda.

Due to the slow pace, Steve ran ahead to make sure we could get dinner and when the rest of us arrived this is what we found:

He tried to text us this for motivation but it didn’t come through!

This was fabulous for a couple of reasons, the biggest being that we could lay with our card and all of the cash issues were solved!

This hut is at the top of a ski lift near a town and is super plush! We had a private room this time, showers were 5 euros and worth every penny! I’m not sure of the yoga required for someone Josh’s size to use the shower but he made it work! Dinner was very tasty, sticking with the 2 courses plus dessert menu, with a bonus salad. The only downside to this location is we had mosquitoes in the room when we slept with the window open to cool off the room.