Day 1 – Kreuzberg Pass To Val Fiscalina

Sep 25, 2022

Today’s Adventure

Sunday dawned overcast and rainy – and it stayed that way for most of the day. Fortunately our hike for the day didn’t have any sections requiring tricky footwork so we decided to go ahead as planned. After hitting the breakfast buffet at the Zin Senfter we walked to the bus stop near the base of the Haunold ski lift. From there we took a short but scenic ride on a Südtirolmobil bus to Kreuzbergpass, also known as Passo Monte Croce, at the upper end of the Sesto valley. This pass is the dividing line between the provinces of Südtirol and Veneto. We had visited here during our earlier trip to the Dolomites, albeit in the snow, back in January of 2020.

After a quick pit stop at the elegant four star Hotel Kreuzberg (I’m sure that they loved us stomping through the lobby with our hiking boots and backpacks) we found the trailhead for Trail 15. This trail took us uphill through the forest, past an interesting and very much abandoned World War II era concrete bunker, to the treeline where we broke out into the open. The trail then turned northwest and more or less followed a topographic line along the shoulder of the Croda Rossa di Sesto. Even though it remained cloudy and a bit misty at times the trail offered a nice view to the opposite side of the Val Sesto, including glimpses of the Alpe Nemes Hütte and the Gasthof Waldruhe – both inns where we had enjoyed meals during our January 2020 visit to the Dolomites. That said our view up to the jagged skyline of the mountain was often obscured by mist and clouds. We can only assume that this would be a very dramatic hike on a clear, sunny day!

We continued to follow the winding trail along the face of the mountain and along the upper edge of the forest. While much of the trail was just gravel or woodland loam, we also had to traverse several impressive scree fields where erosion created rivers of almost pure white rocks and gravel washing down from the peaks above.

The scenery wasn’t all rocks and mountain peaks, though – the fall coloring of the trees and the ground cover were lovely in spite of the gloomy skies. We also got our first good look at some of the Südtirol’s iconic larch trees turning their signature golden hue. We were very happy about that after all of the videos that we had seen highlighting this spectacle.

We finally reached the Rudi Hütte, our lunch destination at the Prati di Croda Rossa, just as some rain showers moved into the area. We appreciated the warm interior, a couple of draft beers, and a shared plate of local wurst and fries that would tide us over until dinner that evening. After lunch the rain finally let up so we paid our tab and went outside to find the trail that would take us down into the Val Fiscalina, also known in German as ‘Fischleintal’.

We followed trail 19A down in the woods and then connected to trail 124 for the final leg of our descent to the valley floor. We expected a gentle walk through the woods but the trail was actually fairly steep, muddy, and strewn with exposed roots that forced careful placement of each and every step in order to avoid twisted ankles (or worse). As a result we were very glad to finally reach the Fischleinbodenhütte. While we had planned to walk all the way back into Moos along the floor of the Val Fiscalina we had accidentally timed things perfectly and were able to catch a local shuttle bus to Moos instead. In Moos we transferred to regional bus for our return to Innichen.

Cindy fixed us a delicious and warming dinner of spaetzle with eggs and speck that we enjoyed before settling down for the evening. We knew that our next day’s hike was going to be a challenging one so we needed to study the trail maps and get some rest to prepare ourselves.

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