Dolomites Alta Via 1 South
Self-guided trekking holiday

+ Walk half of the classic AV1 trek in Italy
+ Good mountain paths with no via ferrata
+ Expert advice on all the route options

Latest news April 2012
We are thrilled to introduce our Dolomites trips for 2012. Please ask us about the AV1; our season starts on 1 July.

The Alta Via Uno is one of the North-to-South treks across the Italian Dolomites, taking roughly 10 days in its full length. Our AV1 South week spends 6 days on the Southern half of the trail, from Cortina to Belluno.

The AV1 route can be walked without great difficulty, being made up of standard Alpine paths. Our routecards also describe variants which bypass the harder sections. Much of the route is over rocky paths in the mountains, with long sections too on good solid tracks. Forested sections are interspersed with bare rocky hillsides.

Our routecards follow the main Alta Via Uno route, starting in Cortina to meet the trail above town. We also describe all of the common variants, so that on most days you have some choices of path. The only route that we miss is the difficult via ferrata on the Schiara, the mountain at the end of the trek above Belluno. We take the variant to La Stanga, for the local bus to Belluno, thus keeping the whole trek to normal mountain paths and tracks instead of any via ferrata.

Where we stay
Your accommodation is based on the splendid huts and auberges in the mountains, plus our super hotels at the start and finish. Enjoy the friendly welcomes of the Italian Alps, then explore Belluno for a buzzing contrast.

North or South?

Our North and South weeks on the AV1 are designed to be excellent treks in their own right, and to let the whole AV1 be completed over two separate trips to Italy. But how do the two halves differ?

Very generally, the Northern half is less challenging; it's the Southern half that holds the bigger sweeps of hillside and the more remote locations. The difference is marginal, however, and there is no reason to overlook any part of the AV1 on grounds of remoteness. Because we have configured our two halves to be split in Cortina, the Northern half also gives us more flexibility to add rest days or to space things out within one week. Our Southern week has a greater feeling of steady movement through the landscape.

Both halves are superb treks, both give the true flavour of the AV1.. and both can be done the following year!

Options

We can adjust your AV1 South in various ways, as follows:

Faster treks
The AV1 has finely spaced huts along the route, which lets us break up the stages in many different ways. To trek simply to the next hut is a quite viable way of completing the AV1; over the South section this would mean about 8 stages. Please ask us to suggest an itinerary, depending on how far you like to trek each day.

Meet tougher terrain
The AV1 offers lots of scope for being made harder. The normal route sits just below the Tour du Mont Blanc in its difficulty. Experienced walkers might enjoy some of the variants, such as the circuit of Monte Pelmo. This is an unusually tough day of scree and rock, similar or greater in difficulty to the hardest stretches of the Walker's Haute Route. We can adjust your schedule to incorporate such longer variants; other variants are possible within the normal daily pattern.

Add days in Cortina
By spending extra nights in Cortina, you can enjoy the local walking to ease your legs into the trip. There are also some sections of AV1 above Cortina that make good daywalks before you hit the trail for real.

Accommodation
The AV1 is a trek among huts, passing few villages between the start and end. However, we can adjust the mix of hotels and huts from our normal schedule. While dormitories are difficult to avoid entirely, we can reduce their number. Please ask about these and other adjustments to your accommodation.