We photographed at dawn at Cinque Torri, had breakfast, and rode the gondola back to the parking lot.
We stopped in the famous resort town of Cortina d’Ampezzo for some sightseeing. It is quainter than its jetsetting reputation, but there were plenty of branded stores for shopping. It was the location for a big ski chase in the 1981 Bond film, “For Your Eyes Only”. We stayed in Cortina back in 2012 but didn’t recognize our hotel anywhere.
From there it was a long twisty drive to Tre Cime. We had a lunch stop at a restaurant-farm called Malga Popena, which offered traditional meals. They had miniature horses and mountain goats too.
The last leg of the drive to Tre Cime was a private road with a toll gate, which caused a traffic jam. A bus went down the left side to get to the bus entrance, forcing some exiting cars to back up. Finally we got through and went up the windy road to the Rifugio Auronzo parking lot.
Auronzo is a huge lodge, with three floors of bunk rooms. We had two rooms with 6 people in each. It is the anchor of a relatively level circuit hike around Tre Cime. Lots of people were there for the day hike. The trail, which you could see along the side of the valley, was a long column of people.
For our sunset shoot, our goal was a ridge partway around Tre Cime. It was called Forcella Lavaredo, and it had a magnificent view.
We started out with the column of people. The hike was often level, but it rose up to the ridge. At first glance it seemed like an easy hike but we were carrying heavier packs than the day hikers and it was a high elevation with thin air. For every hill, we stopped frequently to catch our breath. But we could tell that our conditioning had improved since the start of the week.
The hike took us by a small church, then by a second rifugio called Lavaredo. We got to the ridge and set up for shooting. The more athletic of our group hiked further up the opposite cliff where there were caves, more remnants of WWI, I think. We were content with our view.
On the ridge, a rescue team arrived, surprising us. Some of them continued around the circuit trail. Then we saw a helicopter flying in to a point in the valley below. Someone was in trouble and needed help. The helicopter left, landed at a distance, then came back. We never found out what happened.
People had built rock towers on the ridge. As the sun set, they caught the light and made a cool picture. However, when one of the leaders came down, he started knocking them down. We thought it was destructive and disrespectful. This well-traveled place is not an unspoiled wilderness and there are plenty of human artifacts in view.
Later as we hiked down in the dark with headlamps.
At the little church, there were also many cairns in what seemed like a little cemetery. A small group of us didn’t stay to take night pictures there and continued on to the lodge for a good night’s sleep.