Breakfast was a tad light today but that has come to be the norm on this trip since we led the comfort of our Austrian Bed and Breakfast. The night before we had a brief chat with some lads from the UK who had hiked into San Marco from the direction we were headed. They claimed it was an easy day, something we would breeze through in a couple of hours (they assumed we were just going to the next hut but we had many more miles to go). Steve remarked that sure, it only took them a few hours because they had long legs, to which one dude lifted up his leg and said “no mate, not me, I have little hooves”! For some reason this just cracked me the hell up and I would continue to bring it up for the next couple of days! The hike out of San Marco for us was straight uphill to the pass then down and around and over.

Leaving the bocci closet behind, we made our way across a plateau, working ever upward as we skirted Mt. Antelao. You’ll notice a lack of pictures so far, due to Steve insisting on “big hooves” and a quick pace.

We started to encounter some snow sections and then the rain picked up, making for a chilly climb. Knowing we had a Via Ferrata coming up, we sheltered under a rock for a quick snack and the gear up. Soon we came to the cables and it was pretty much a route straight up the sloping face of the rock. I feel confident that if the weather had been dry, Steve would have just walked up but given the rain and heavy packs, we all opted to clip in for the climb.

At the end of the cables we were on a small saddle with a view of what I’m pretty sure was the remnants of a glacier. The clouds had pretty much covered us at this point so no amazing vista pics, but we did add another pic to our album of “Dell and Steve on top of something completely greyed out”!

Next we worked our way across the boulder field, admiring lots of interesting rocks, most waaaay too big to consider picking up! We were all hungry at this point but no one wanted to stop and eat in the rain so we pushed on until the next Via Ferrata section. I’m not going to lie and tell you this one was easy and fun because it was neither of those for me! In the cold and rain my fingers usually start to go numb and my gloves weren’t providing much grip. We basically were going straight down a sheer rock face and with my “little hooves” I couldn’t easily reach the holds. There was a momentary panic when Steve was encouraging me to let my arms out instead of holding a bicep curl but that was not happening!

Once down the cables we continued down, walking on the side of a scree slope. This is not my forte and I ended up wiping out and eventually ended up on my ass, just sitting until the guys caught up.

The next order of business was to find a drier and flatter location for some lunch as we were all pretty hangry at this stage. We found a lovely flat rock and broke out the bread that had been traveling in packs for the last 4 days.

Snacks consumed, we kept on chugging along to the next rifugio. This part was through a quite lovely grass and then forest area. Tserka spotted an alpine salamander, and then we found two more in the same area.

There were some ups and downs but compared to what we had already covered, it isn’t worth mentioning! As the thunder rumbled in the distance, we put on our final turn of speed and came into Rifugio Antelao.

One blog had less than kind things to say about this hut but we found it to be fabulous! There was only one other group in residence so we had a whole bunk room to ourselves. The host was super kind and had great taste in music (classic rock). We paid for the hot showers and enjoyed a round of radlers before dinner. Dinner this time offered a soup option for first course and it was maybe the best thing I had the whole trip! After dinner we played another game of euchre and the hut host brought out a tray of bottles to the other table where the Italian hikers were seated. They turned to us and asked if we’d like to try some grappa, a spirit distilled from the husks of grapes left from winemaking then infused with whatever the purveyor would like. Most of them were herbal in nature, anise, licorice, possibly mugwort (super bitter), and one blueberry.