Day 10 – A Wild Hike On The Prato Piazza

Jan 23, 2024

Today’s Adventure

For our Day 10 adventure Cindy and I headed southwest from San Candido to a high mountain meadow called the Prato Piazza. This UNESCO-protected treasure isn’t exactly easy to get to but never fails to deliver in terms of jaw-dropping scenery. We had visited the Prato Piazza twice before today; first in January of 2020 and then again in February of 2023. Today’s visit proved the old adage that “if you don’t like the mountain weather just wait five minutes”.

Cindy and I arrived at the Prato Piazza right at 10:00 AM following a convoluted sequence of train, bus, and shuttle rides. The shuttle ride was in a 4×4 Mercedes Sprinter van because the last four miles of roadway is too steep, narrow, and winding for anything larger. And today that roadway was completely covered in snow, albeit plowed and cindered.

After our arrival Cindy and I sat by the fire pit at the Rifugio Prato Piazza to put on our ice cleats. There was little doubt that we would need them today given the amount of snow on the trail and the steepness but in retrospect we might have been wise to take our snowshoes as well. Alas, they were warm and dry back in our apartment.

We set out for the 7,568 foot summit of Monte Specie under mixed skies. The forecast called for clouds in the morning giving way to sunshine by mid-day. Hmmm. Everything looked fine as we headed out – there were some clouds around but we had some blue skies behind us and a well-packed trail in front of us, so off we went.

After an initial climb the trail turned right to traverse a fairly steep hillside using two possible routes. We took the high route because that’s the one we had used successfully during our earlier visits. The problem was that even though the high trail looked okay it had not received enough traffic to completely pack the snow. The result was that every few yards one or both of your feet would punch through the snow and you’d sink up to your knees. Definitely not ideal, but we figured that once the two trails met up again at the other end of the traverse there would have been enough combined traffic to pack the snow properly (and that’s exactly what happened).

So now the trail’s in good shape but the sky is suddenly a jumbled mess. We can see some angry clouds over the summit and a line of snow squalls heading our way, but we know the trail and it’s not too cold so we keep on trudging up the mountain. By the time we’ve reached the ruined World War I fortifications just below the summit the squalls have passed and the clouds are breaking up, creating some stunning panoramas.

When we arrived at the summit we were literally the only people there for about 10 minutes until the next hikers arrived. This is a rare occurrence as Monte Specie is a popular and relatively easy summit. It was a thrill to be up there all alone, if only for a little while.

We took a number of pictures from the summit, of course, including unique longer range views of the iconic Drei Zinnen and the Croda Rossa d’Ampezzo, before heading back down the mountain. We stopped again at the Rifugio Prato Piazza where we split an order of Wienerschnitzel with fries for lunch. This paired perfectly with our tall Forst drafts.

By the time we went outside after lunch the sun was shining and the clouds were gone – it was a totally different day! We caught the next shuttle down the mountain, then a bus to Monguelfo, and finally a train back to San Candido. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset on our walk from the train station back to our apartment – red sky at night, sailor’s delight.

Today’s hike was 6.5 miles with 1,473 feet of vertical. We completed the hike in just under 3-1/2 hours, not bad given the trail and weather conditions.

For Innichen’s main page click here.

For Seefeld’s main page click here.

For the entire trip’s main page click here.