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Click here for a movie of the view from the top of the gondola. |
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Thistle with snow on top; Melancholy thistle? Cirsium heleniodes |
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September 13 - Col Alt
Today turned out rather different from our original plan. It started raining yesterday afternoon and it continued as heavy rain into the night. When we awoke this morning it had stopped raining, the streets were dry, and the world above 1650-1700m was covered in snow.
Our plan had been to do hike #40. This involved taking a bus to Passo Pordoi (Pordoijoch) at an altitude of 2239m and then taking a gondola to 2950m and hiking somewhat higher. The forecast for Passo Pordoi indicated that the morning temperature was about -4 deg C and the high for the day would be +2C with chances of snow later in the day. As we are not equipped or desiring to do winter mountaineering, we sought an alternate plan that involved staying lower.
After consulting with the hike leader of a group from Seattle, who had been here several times, and the concierge, we decided to take the Col Alt gondola which begins just behind the hotel at 1561m and goes to 1981m. There we did a loop hike that never got above 2030m and gave us several options of refugios for lunch. We put on all of the many layers we had brought with us. It was a rather beautiful and unique world up there. At 11am it was 44F. It was rather windy in some places. Some of the snow did melt as the day went on.
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Click here for a movie of the view from the top of the gondola. |
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Thistle with snow on top; Melancholy thistle? Cirsium heleniodes |
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Continue to September 14 - Cortina
Last updated: November 21, 2012