Tre Cime de Lavarado (Die Drei Zinnen) - Cortina D'ampezzo

Dolomiti Classico: Tre Cime di Lavarado/Die Drei Zinnen

This hike is apparently the quintessential Dolomite hike: Tre Cime is Italian for  The Three Merlons - you know, the ones you see in all the pictures of the Dolomites. (What is a merlon? Click to find out!) And it is "Zinnen" in German.

The hike began for us at the loo of the Rifugio Auronzo:

Place feet on either side
and squat or stand,
whatever peels your banana...

 If you've never seen or used one of these, it's not as bad as it looks. Since most everyone doesn't sit on public toilet seats anyway, this just makes sense.

The bathroom is unisex: one big room with many stalls. Men, women, children.
I think this is very progressive.  (Not joking.) 

  

Rifugio Auronzo perched high up...
above the road to the park.

Today the weather (as you can see in the pics) was partly cloudy, in an ominous way, which perfectly fit the mood of craggy, pinnacled formations in this region of the Dolomites.

Südtirol, with its green diaphanous meadows, cows with bells, super model-like Koffels (peaks) and sunny disposition is like sweet cream in comparison to Cortina's more austere and stolid landscapes. Seiseralm is so -- civilized, inviting.... 

Where's Julian?

Here the beautiful scene unfolded in a large and imposing way. Sometimes the vistas were lunar-like. Huge hillsides of scree hid long, skinny trails on which one could spot tiny colored hikers 
inching along, ant-like.

Can you find the little eeny-weeny hikers on the path at the top of the talus slope?

Steaming, swirling, chilly, foggy clouds, churning up from the valley,
but it got somewhat hot for a while - we stripped down to t-shirts.

Where's Julian?

Jules, dragging his sorry a** up a steep trail. (See the hiker behind him?)
Destination: the three little Zinnenseen
(three little alpine lakes that lie below the Tre Cime peaks.)

Dude!
Someone taking their "afternoon run" along the trails below Die Drei Zinnen.

How long would it take Julian to run
all the way down to Lago Misurina?
The Sorapis in the far distance.

OK, so the first part of the hike was from Rifugio Auronzo (surrounded by hundreds of people, cars, buses, tourists, cameras...) to Rifugio Lavaredo, just a kilometer or so around the corner along a flat, wide, easy trail...

...but, nonetheless, with stunning views of deep valleys below and dizzying crags above.



We were in the company of all sorts: small, tall, wide, baby-carriaged, elderly, wheelchaired, sandaled, high-heeled tourists that had streamed off the buses through Rif. Auronzo and onto the finely maintained path around the back of the Tre Cime. The Japanese, in particular, were very well dressed, with leather jackets, jaunty hats, bright skinny jeans, fluttering scarves, glittering Hollywood bitch sunglasses and colorful Nikes. ( I should  have snapped a picture, but I was mesmerized by the complete juxtaposition of this to the sentinel peaks above.)

There were a myriad of trails that led forth from Rif. Lavaredo, so the crowd thinned, with most returning the short distance back to the buses at Rif. Auronzo.

We made our way up the side of a rocky slope above Rif. Lavaredo.

There were large snow patches, which fit Julian just fine.  He had been pleading for snow, and was actually disappointed with the lack of it over on the sunny, smiley west side of the Dolomites. He needed to make a snowman and throw some snowballs. Because it is June.

Throwing snowballs above Rifugio Lavaredo. 

Up and over a saddle on the side of the Tre Cime brought us to a stunning vista of a glaciated valley surrounded by the Tre and many peaks of different heights, shapes, geological type and color. The space between was filled with undulating dark green furz covered meadows, crumbling talus slopes and huge snow patches.

We made our way to Rif. Locatelli.

Can you see it?

There it is!

It's HUGE!

We immediately proceeded to the restaurant and of course once again ate well, Italian style, inhaling our fill of hot, delicious freshly prepared viands. Spaghetti Bolognese for Jules, and for me, a Northern Italian classic: polenta con funghi, or "Heart Attack in Yellow and Brown".

Polenta porridge with yummy mushrooms cooked in LOTS OF BUTTER.
Aperol Spritz on the side (instead of beer this time.)
I ate it all and consequently did not have (need) dinner.

Pretty cool, eh?

Our view during lunch.

Rifugio Locatelli felt like a small city, with the buzz and pomp of a variety of clientele:
tourist hikers, school children on a field trip, the overnight guests....

Interior hallway at R. Locatelli with requisite sport sticker collection.

And the requisite cross/Kapelle a short walk from the Rifugio
Where's Julian?

   

(Photo credit for above view from inside the cave: "overnature.com".)

Notice that above the Kapelle are a half dozen caves, dug into the rock by WWI soldiers.

These caves were all over the valley. 

The north side of the valley was held by the Austrians, the south by the Italians.

Here the soldiers over-wintered.

Many more perished form the elements in the Dolomites than were killed by actual warfare.

       

Moving on from R. Locatelli.

There are many malgas and rifugios in all directions, between one and three hours away.

So far, we've hit three rifugios.

            

Strange formations with personalities all their own.

Can you see the man with the cap?

Hoodoos and pinnacles, crags and crannies.
Note the large group, apparently students on an field trip,
on the trail below.

Beyond R. Locatelli, we were often alone.

At times, the surreal pitch of the giant straight up and down rock walls, the fanciful teetering pinnacles, the barren stone showed similar moods to that of Monument Valley. But Tre Cime di Lavarado is high and mountainous. And cool.

One could feel very alone out here in the valley, listening to far off echoes of falling rock, squinting to see the caves gouged out of the sheer rock walls by WWI soldiers. Rock debris and dark green furz mix on the valley floor, making a very different kind of meadow than the Seiseralm - beautiful, but not pastoral - cold, quiet, hard and austere.

We continued on the loop through the valley and back up around the backside of the Tre Cime, past a couple of small lakes to yet another hut, the Malga Langalm (Lang-alm = long meadow). Here we did not go in, but opted to refresh ourselves by sipping (sucking) the cold, flavorful alpine water from the creek through the Straw of Life.

One of the three Zinnenseen.

Another hut in the distance, tucked into a quiet dell.

Nearly all the malgas and rifuguios boast familiar Tibetan prayer flags strung up along the gables.

Malga Langalm.

Photos of course do not do justice to this unique landscape.

Where's Jules?

You can click HERE for a link to the live panocamera at Tre Cime.

Clouds wrapped and curled around the peaks, pinnacles and hoodoos in slow motion, making everything seem cold, even though at times it was in the high 70's (25-27˚C).  Gusts of chill wind did intrude, and later in the afternoon, the clouds began to roil in fits, threatening to squall. But it never rained past a few drops here and there.

The taste of creek water minerals lingered in our mouths as we came to the final stretch of trail, bending south, around the Tre and back to the...... parking lot. It was a good hike, at times very steep (not comparable to Schlüterhütte, though!)
Julian was done by the time we got back to the car.

Six hours and several miles later...

The parking lot.

Here's a good informational LINK to a page that describes some details about the area.


Click HERE to see all our Tre Cime photos (again, not in any order).