In February, I met Corinna. We had wonderful connection from our first coffee together: When I told her I hoped to hike the Dolomites, she immediately marked her calendar and said she was in! I asked my sister-in-law Susanne if she would consider hiking the Dolomites with me and without hesitation she said YES! Fortunately, our friend Michael Gomolka knows the Dolomites and helped me plan our 4 night /5day non-technical hut to hut hiking trip. The pressure was on me to come up with safe hikes to nice huts, everybody brought their great attitudes and we laughed for the entire time together.
We had a rough start. Three days before the trip, I got bitten on the face by a nasty jelly fish. Two days before, Ina deeply cut her foot, required antibiotics and constant care. The night before, Corinna's hiking shoes broke. However, on the way to Italy, Corinna bought some shoes, (the rest of took just had to advantage of a last minute shopping spree at Conrads) Ina and I were healing: Susanne and her motley crew got started. We spent the nights in the Refugio Fonda Savio, Dreizinnenhuette, Buellele Joch Huette and then the Refugio Citti di Carpi. Usually people hike to the base of the rocky cliffs and then use "Klettersteig" to get from hut to hut. Since I did not feel comfortable leading a technical trip, we had to hike down and up, gained and lost about 12,000ft (4,000m) in our 5 hiking days. However, every 300 mts we were awestruck by a totally new dramatic vista of yet more incredible Dolomites. Our vistas did not end at there. Every night we stayed in a different, beautiful hut with terrific food and attracting very athletic mountain people. We truly laughed for 5 days straight! I think we all had a trip of a lifetime with the best Dolomite chicks around!
