What a day we had in store for us today; this is my favorite day of the trip! The hut was throbbing with activity this morning. I thought that we would be in a crowd winding up the first forcella. We climbed out of the bowl where the hut is located and were greeted with an absolutely smashing, sun filled day! Once on the way to Forcella Roa, we were practically alone.
As the trail lulled us into a sense of ease with nothing of any difficulty, we noticed in the distance that our big challenge for the day was looming before us, Forcella Roa! Holy Smokes!!…we are going to climb up that thing!
As it turned out, this was really a fun trek up the mountain. There was lots of shale, snow and slipping, but quite exhilarating as we slowly made it to the top.
Two men whom we had seen earlier waited for us to summit so they could cheer for our success! They encouraged us to take a different route than the one we had planned. So instead of Forcella Nives, we took the trail to Forcella Seiles. The scenery as we topped Seiles was breathtaking! The Dolomites are truly spectacular!
Around every bend was another wonderful view.
And more
We saw very few people until we reached Puezhütte where I think most tour hikers were congregating . There were still three more forcellas to conquer today so we did not stay long. The way was fairly easy going and we arrived soon at Forcella de Ciampei. Below us was what would have been a very inviting lake, Lago Crespiena, on a warm day, but not on this chilly day. After a series of switchbacks Forcella Crespiena was checked off the list!
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Descending into another bowl with stunning surroundings, we could see our last climb for the day, Forcella Cir. A fun little path from here which consists of a strange landscape of rock towers and mini summits.
It was a fabulous, exhausting, spectacular day. One last descent of a great many switchbacks and we arrived at Grodner Joch. Rifugio Frara is on the road where hikers, cyclists and motorcyclists all seem to gather.
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