Pale limestone towers above a slope of dry golden grass under a clear blue sky.

Dolomites

You walk green pasture under pale limestone walls and sleep in staffed huts and on one dairy farm.

All three regions
Country
Italy
Fly into
Venice or Innsbruck
Best months
Late June to mid September
Where you sleep
Rifugi (staffed huts) and one dairy farm
Routes here
2
 routes

Trips in this region

See all trips
The stony saddle of the Grava Pass, the far valley opening below between limestone walls and rock towers on the skyline.
Dolomites
 · Grade 
3
 of 5

Grava Pass Traverse

Four days from a dairy farm to the far valley, with one big day over the Grava Pass.

4
 days · 
40.0 km
 · 
1,552 m
 up
£960
See the route
A valley between grey limestone walls, scree fans and dark conifers on its floor under a patch of blue sky.
Dolomites
 · Grade 
4
 of 5

High Dolomites Hut Route

Six days of high huts and limestone ridges, with a night at 2,707 m and a cabled ridge at the end.

6
 days · 
62.1 km
 · 
3,281 m
 up
£1,490
See the route

The Dolomites are pale limestone and dolomite rock: towers and walls that rise straight out of green pasture, with scree fans below. Paths climb from farmed valleys through larch and spruce woods to high saddles and ridges, and in the evening the rock turns pink.

The Grava Pass Traverse, grade 3, is the gentler route: two short days, then one crossing of the Grava Pass at 2,625 m. The High Dolomites Hut Route, grade 4, sleeps at Rifugio Torre Alta at 2,707 m and crosses the cabled Forcia Ridge on its last day.

Most nights are in rifugi, staffed huts that cook dinner and breakfast for everyone staying. The others are at Malga Lavarel, a hut on the high pasture, and on the dairy farm at Malga Pradel. Chiara Pescosta guides the first route, and Matteo Dallago, an IFMGA mountain guide, the second. The huts open from late June to mid September, and that sets our season.

Guides in this region

Chiara Pescosta, Guide, outdoors: sitting in a blue fleece and grey hat, chin on her hand, rock and mist behind her in the Dolomites.

Chiara Pescosta

Guide
·
Dolomites

International Mountain Leader

She carries a hand lens and stops below the Grava Pass to show the group the gentians on the scree.

Matteo Dallago, Guide, outdoors: in a grey cable-knit jumper, hands in his pockets, beside a chain railing above misty wooded hills in the Dolomites.

Matteo Dallago

Guide
·
Dolomites

IFMGA mountain guide

He grew up in the hut his parents kept.

Two walkers small on a path across a long scree slope, limestone walls above them lost in cloud.
Drawn map of the eastern Alps cut to the Dolomites: the region shaded, with the train and bus legs that reach it from Venice and from Innsbruck.

Dolomites

Fly into

Venice or Innsbruck

Fly into

Venice or Innsbruck

Start

San Vidal, 1,218 m

Grava Pass Traverse
Start

Val Dores, 1,503 m

High Dolomites Hut Route

Getting to the start

From either airport, a train and then a bus take you to the start village. The Grava Pass Traverse leaves from San Vidal and the High Dolomites Hut Route from Val Dores. The times for both legs come printed with your route notes. Your guide is waiting in the village at 9am on day 1.

Pale-maned horses grazing on a valley floor, a braided river leading to glaciers and snow peaks at the head of the valley.
Next region
Austria

Stubai and Ötztal

Two Tyrolean valleys of dark rock under glaciers, walked between alpine club huts and valley inns.

See the region