Hiking Tre Cime di Lavaredo & Fanes-Sennes-Braies

Arrive in Cortina d’Ampezzo (1,224m / 4,016') on your own and check into your hotel (private transfer available on request). Cortina d’Ampezzo is a charming alpine resort town surrounded by stunning peaks. Host to the 1956 Winter Olympics, Cortina enjoys a reputation for great skiing in winter, and in the summer attracts hikers and climbers who challenge the rocky faces of the nearby mountains.
In the afternoon, a Dolomite Mountains representative (for self guided trips) who will provide a trip briefing and orientation.

Today starts with a scenic 30-minute transfer up to Rifugio Auronzo (2,320m / 7,612'), from where you will begin your hike around Tre Cime di Lavaredo. The Sesto Group of mountains that encompass Tre Cime are practically bisected by the administrative border between Italy’s German-speaking south Tyrol and the predominantly Italian Veneto region – the frontier between Hapsburg Austria and Italy until 1918. The entire range was involved in the First World War, and wherever you turn are trench systems that were dug by hand out of the rough dolomite surface by platoons of soldiers, with defensive barricades of stones then heaped up around them.
From Rifugio Auronzo, you’ll hike a crescent around the east side of Tre Cime, on a moonlike landscape of dolomitic rock and scree, with incredible vistas of Tre Cime and the Sesto Group throughout. You will descend from the rocky world of the high peaks, past clear, blue-tinted streams coursing across the dolomite rock, and down through patches of forest to a cozy mountain rifugio where you will spend the night.
(~6-7 hours hiking, 15,8 km / 9,5 miles, 570m / 1,869' ascent, 1291m / 4,234' descent.)

Today’s rewarding hike constitutes an especially panoramic diagonal crossing of the Fanes-Sennes-Braies Natural Park. New landscapes are revealed every step of the way and there are ample opportunities to see wildlife including marmots, ibex, and chamois – an antelope-like mountain goat native to Europe. Highlights en route are the spectacular section below the northern face of Croda Rossa (2,818m / 9,245') and Prato Piazza (1,993m / 6,539'), set in an idyllic high-altitude valley pasture. This hike has one of the best vantage points for viewing the Croda Rossa (Rote Wand in German, or Red Mountain in English), so-called for the blood-red color of the rock which due to the presence of iron oxide. Enjoy your stay tonight at a family run mountain rifugio.
(~7-8 hours hiking, 20 km / 12,4 miles, 1,236m / 4,054' ascent, 1,133m / 3,719' descent.)

From your rifugio, follow the trail towards Rifugio Malga Ra Stua (1,688 m / 5,538'), a cozy hut-cum-dairy farm set in a valley lying between the Croda Rossa (northeast) and Lavinores (west) Dolomite groups. The name “stua” comes from “dam” (the nearby stream used to be harnessed for energy to operate machinery for the medieval quarry of red stone next to the hut). Take a private transfer to your hotel in Cortina.
(~4-5 hours hiking, 10,1 km / 6,3 miles, 300 m / 985' ascent, 600 m / 1,970' descent. Option for a longer hike.)

Breakfast and departure on your own (private transfer available on request).