i hiked across the italian dolomites hut to hut🏔️ | mountain girl diaries

Auto-captioned from the film, lightly cleaned. Elena's words, not edited prose.

foreign hello I'm so excited I am about to hike for three days throughout the Italian dolomites which is a mountain range here in Italy and I've always wanted to do this has been such a bucket list dream my first ever backpacking like several day trip was literally just last year in Catalina I was originally gonna do it solo and I was talking to my friend Eric when I was in Brazil and telling about it he's like wait can I come and I was like oh my gosh honestly hell yes that would be great I was a little nervous about doing it solo and into her country with navigating different systems so he'll be joining me as well some action that all of my for like eight or nine days but I'm Hunter hiking for about three so it's kind of part one and there will be a part two of more of like a road trip experience the good old mites and I'll be doing this like onto hiking with kind of a route I built on my own and honestly it was so confusing and complex to figure out how to organize this trip for myself so I have an entire explanation at the very end of this video about how I did it so if you have any questions they will all be answered at the end but let's get to hiking the bus we sprinted today here we go in the Rain the Journey Begins we're a little unsure of day two but uh and two is tomorrow so let's focus on day one that's the spirit one step at a time quite literally I got my novice hiking outfit 30 Euro thrifted puffer from a thrift store in Paris two days ago and my silver backpack my Hoka Clifton Ace and we're ready to rumble we have about three hours and 20 minutes to get to fon's boots which we will then walk to lavarella which is about 15 minutes which is another Refugio so it's a good backup if you're trying to do this hike and the first is occupied but again I'll explain at the end of the video all the planning as well as my tips on what not to do and what to do because I am learning a lot Jesus we're zigzagging all the way up a mountain it's going so far up there almost up maybe am I on the list thank you I found cows oh my God it has been pouring rain this whole hike and I am chilled to the Bone but we're almost there and they're a happy cows how y'all doing there she is there's a room oh look at these little bunk beds look at this View all these song hello from afternoon it's so stunning here it's so peaceful we had a really lovely hike today it's about four hours the first hour was like very intense elevation gain and then it was pretty much smooth sailing from there and now going a little even hike after a nice big meal you want to say anything hello very Charming tomorrow's going to be a little bit more chaotic we're going to a different Refugio that's very far because it's the only one that was available to book so it might be a little bit more chaotic but for today pretty easy Tuesday okay hello so being in Mercedes true does wonders for my mental health it's truly one of the best ways that I can find just peace and Clarity and feel more present but sometimes you need a little bit of extra help I've been a long time proponent fan of therapy as a way to support your mental health and just get additional help with the challenges we face in life so I started using better help which is today's sponsor several years ago and if you're unfamiliar they have the world's largest online therapy service all it takes to sign up is essentially just filling out a few questions and they match you with therapists in a few days and honestly finding the right therapist is a little bit like dating but what's nice about mental health is that you're able to switch your therapist at no additional cost if it's not the right fit right away so their mission is to make therapy more affordable and accessible and you can do it all from the comfort of your own home online which I love we all have our own issues and struggles like it's completely normal and even if things seem to be going well it's still gonna be really great to have somebody to talk to the link which you know always helps when you click on it down in the description below also gets you 10 off your first month better health so you can take charge of your mental health by visiting betterhelp.com and check it out for yourself and we're gonna go all the way up to the top pretty intense elevation game but through the ice very cool climbed all the way up this mountain over here all the way up all the way down to a valley and then back up those other mountains to this Refugio okay let's go Anna almost there it's been quite the journey we're on our like second mountain of the day and we still have all that way to go a lot of water so make sure you pack enough water and find stick I have a spiritual section of the stick now I think I need to bring it back to New York saving me and go all the way up did like two different mountain peaks so a ton of elevation gain and most people would stop and stay here for the night but it was full so we actually have to take the cable car to a bus to two more cable cars to get to the Hut because it was all that was available very hard to play in here but I think this might be one of the best views I've ever seen made it to 2750 meters so are you feeling happy the legs are the legs are very direct we are happy that there's a cable car down and then we have to rush to catch the next cable car s we were supposed to take the cable car up because we've already walked 11 miles up two mountains for over five and a half hours and so we drove here but there was a marathon and so then there's an hour of traffic we've missed the cable cars and now we have to hike up another Mountain yeah for another hour and a half and we're probably gonna miss dinner at the Refugio yeah it looks tall say a prayer to our legs oh my God we're just walking up a Giant Eagle it's incredibly Steep and we're just zigzagging our way all the way to top it's been about an hour of extremely intense switchbacks but trying to Bath good morning from pomedes I think this is the coolest of you I probably ever woken up too you hike down half the mountain and then we're capable carrying down the rest we've made it I've got my tiny little mic and let's talk about the Hutt hiking experience in the dolomites this was my dream trip one of my main resolutions was to go on a hiking trip within the dolomites I went on my first ever like backpacking several day hiking experience last year in Catalina which you can check out if you'd like and that really inspired me to try to do then the dolomites which is this Northern Italian like mountain range so let's talk about how I plan this this was probably one of the most time intensive trips I've ever planned and I travel a lot it really took a while for me to get grasp on the region on the different routes I think the first main tip would be book in advance basically when you go to select a route to do your hot to hot hiking you can either kind of build your own or you can do some of the famous ones like the ultimate one or the Alta via two but my problem was that the Hut to Hut you know like pipeline one Hut like in the middle of maybe a Ford would be booked out then I'd have to start from Ground Zero again where I'm like let me pick a brand new route and like search to see if then these other four Huts are available and a lot of the websites it's not like you can just like click reserve and all of a sudden you're like locked in you have to email many of the huts and a lot of times they'll take like three weeks to respond so you'll think you have like a route down and after three weeks and you're like sorry it's full and then you'll be like I'm back to Ground Zero what I found really helpful was looking at other much more experienced hikers routes or travel companies routes and just copying them essentially if you want to save hours of time this is one of those few places I want to see would recommend like yeah if you have the money book with the travel company and have them book The refugees for you so you can figure out everything else but the Refugio booking part I found to be the most difficult if you're not doing it like six months in advance I will say that was helpful that I spent so much time researching this area because it gave me a greater understanding of what I wanted to see of what the different refugios were so now as I'm finally in the dolomites I like recognize every Refugio name and like every town name here there's been so much time researching it when it comes to what you need for your trekking experience obviously have good shoes I just had running shoes because I'm traveling for two months so I don't have space for hiking shoes I'm wearing my Hoka Clifton running shoes and they serve me very well obviously did not have hiking poles but I found the Walking Stick Of My Dreams which honestly saved my ass obviously packed a lot of water have a good backpack make sure that any of the checks you're doing they don't have via ferratas unless that's what you want which is essentially kind of like almost mountain climbing give or take which you need specific gear and helmets for so just be mindful of that when you're looking at a route if you're exploring more of the dolomites region Beyond just the hot head hiking definitely rent a car it's not super easy to get around with just public transport to the different towns and Hikes if you are staying at a certain hotel a lot of times they'll hold on to their luggage for you for several days or you can potentially Park their car maybe with a fee which kind of makes this process a bit easier I will say too if you're somebody that's used to Camping the Hut trekking is glamorous it's so nice to get to these refugios that have like a nice bed a warm shower usually a great meal a drink I will say it's not exactly cheap if you are used to the camping experiences lavarella was about 65 Euros per person which included breakfast and a bunk bed double room and they also offer dinner which again it's not cheap it's probably anywhere from like 10 to 20 euros another thing I would recommend is definitely bring cash most of the refuges we ended up staying at did except card but some of the refugees on the way where we went to just get like a beer or snacks only except cash when it comes to the dolomites there are obviously many different these valleys and towns to visit starting Cortina dezo and then we bust to San Cassian to start the hike at kapana Alpena to go to Refugio lavarella that last day was so chaotic the first day was easy it was like six miles there was some elevation game but it was pretty chill the second day was crazy because we basically hiked a big chunk of the Alta via one from Refugio lavarella and we hiked all the way to Refugio laga Zao which was about 10 miles two Mass amounts a lot of elevation gain and elevation loss and then when we got to the top of that which in Ideal World I would have been able to stay there but again their future was booked out the only Refugee I could find was Refugio pomedes which was quite far so it was about seven hours of hiking in like 15 miles so by the time we got to Refugio pohedes we were so exhausted I absolutely loved this experience it was so special to finally be able to do it was really lovely to have somebody join me as well because I thought it originally was going to do it solo I am doing something like this without technology even if it's just for three days it's such an incredible like mental reset and you're really just focused on like the beauty of the nature and kind of putting one foot in front of the other and kind of trying to get to that end goal while enjoying yourself along the way if you have any more questions please feel free to leave a comment down below or DM me directly at Elena Tabor this was really the trip of a lifetime I feel so lucky to be able to experience is this and I hope you enjoyed thanks so much