Europe 2015: From Villnöß - a strenuous hike way high up high.....

Gampenalm/Schlüterhütte: Hike to the Clouds

Today we packed up the car at the Kastelruth farm and on the way to Cortina d'Ampezzo, we parked in Santa Madelena in the Villnöß/Funes valley (childhood home of Messner) and picked at random (well, actually according to our time frame) from a giant touch screen, a hike to the Gampenalm, a small alpine meadow that sounded promisingly bucolic.

The Villnöß/Funes valley lies below the north side of the Geisler/Odel Gruppe and is the site of this very famous image of the Dolomites:

photo: Hans Kruse

This photo was my desktop image for the few months leading up to our trip and I was determined to find this paradise, especially a tiny Kapelle that I had seen in so many photos.

And we found it, just off the road back down from the hike:

Kapelle on the Zanzeralm.

Real Lederhosen on this kid!
The parents had totally modern clothes on.
Only the boy had the Real Thing goin' on!

This hike, while picturesque, may not be as stunning in the photos as the other hikes, but it was our favorite overall and also the most challenging.
There was a certain indescribably sweet ambience in this valley that sang to our hearts.

It was already a good hike to the Gampenalm Gasthaus (malga), and then another steep 45 minute hike separates this one from the Schlüterhütte and Rifugio Genova, which hung straight up above the Gampenalm in plain sight.
45 minutes? Yup, just about that. It looks fifteen minutes away, but much of the most direct route required a slow Everest-like shuffle up a steep path that got you a foot higher in elevation with every step.

The very inviting and crowded malga Gampenalm.

Gampenalm is just around this corner, but we set our sights on the one nestled in the very top of the saddle up there.

There was a lot of this going on behind the Malga Gampenalm.
But we forged on instead.

Pay attention in the photos in the Villnöß Flickr photo stream (at the end of the post) for very tiny people way off in the distance, or way above and below us to get an idea of how steep this hike became.

Breathless, we arrived at the very top to reap the reward: the Schlüterhütte with it's fabulous menu, and a killer view of the Villnöß/Funes valley and the distant Alpine peaks in Austria and beyond. We could have hiked to another peak, via the Passo Poma (with large requisite cross on top) from the rifugio, but Julian quashed that possibility, happy to eat and sit and go online (for every good rifugio has wireless access!)

Julian had a schnitzel with pommies and I indulged in schlutzkrapfen - that is, ravioli. They were soooooo good.

Schlüterhütte/Rifugio Genova
For some weird reason, the outdoor dining area does NOT overlook the valley below, but we soon found out why: wind.

Passo Poma in the background.

Solar panels, wifi and Hacker-Schorr!

More of that going on...

Dude !!

More Lederhosen, too.

And there was this cute little girl running all over the place in her little sunflower Dirndl dress.

I asked her if she lived here at the rifugio and indeed, she does! (I found out that the place is run by one Messner family - don't know if related to Rhienhold.)
I tried so hard to get a picture of her from the front, with her tanned face and wind blown braided brown hair, but she was like lightening, moving from one activity to another with the energy of an electron. Heisenberg uncertainty principle and all....this was as good as I could get:

We met a few nice families up here, notably one John (American) and Larella (from Milan), their twins Johnny and Tommy, and daughter Elana, who told us all about the intensely strict Italian teachers (one wrong answer and you apparently get a tirade that might include how dumb you are and how, really, you should consider not continuing at this level of schooling....) John and Larella were both Harvard neurobiologists and were on sabbatical from Harvard for a total of four years, working at the some university in Südtirol, living in the mountain cabin (not a log one!) that she inherited from her parents. They would have to go back to Massachusetts sometime in the next year and were on the fence about it. I, for one, envied them, having swung good jobs here in the region and bringing their kids along for the ride. They all love it here.

And then there was Audie, Ollie, Lawrry and Dad from Scottland, (short for Audrey, Oliver and Lawrence) who were on day three of a six day rifugio trek (from hut to hut). Mom was meeting them at the end of their adventure, having gotten out of the hiking by claiming a bad back. The (nameless) Dad, who was actually a Londoner, laughed that he was so happy to finally be at Schlüterhütte, as he had taken the kids down a wrong turn and they had been hiking for six hours straight.
Funny thing is that when they appeared at the top there, they were all wearing sandals. Go Scotland!

We hiked back down in the company of John and family, who ended up having missed the last bus from the Zanseralm parking lot at the bottom of the paths back to their car in Santa Madalena, 5 km away. We so would have given them a ride, but, well you have seen our car.