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+m4_navtable(← Alta Via 2,../, , ,Day 1 →,../day1)
+
+# Preparation
+
+Alta Via 2 is not a hike one can do without planning. Obviously, one must
+be sufficiently trained - though advanced climbing skills are generally
+not needed, walking on steep mountain trails for multiple days requires
+some experience and being in decent physical condition. But there is also
+the logistics side of things: Where are you going to sleep? What and how
+many clothes are you bringing?  Do they all fit in your backpack? And
+what if it rains?
+
+## Training
+
+We started planning this around a year in advanced, so I had plenty
+of time to train for this hike. Unfortunately, since I now live in
+the Netherlands, I could not practice by actually walking in mountain
+trails. My dad was luckier, because there are plenty of physically
+demanding trains that start just a few minutes drive away from where
+he lives.
+
+So I replaced the actual hiking with two types of training: long-distance
+running and gym-like leg exercises.
+
+For the running part, I went for 6-12km run around twice a week. This
+is something I enjoyed regardless of my goal of training for the hike;
+I even decided to take part in a local half-marathon (21.1km) run.
+
+![Me, ready for a half marathon](../img/0-leiden-half-marathon.jpg)
+
+m4_caption({{{{{
+At the starting gate of the
+<a href="https://marathon.nl/">Leiden half marathon</a>.
+Two hours and six minutes later, I am not going to be smiling like that.
+}}}}})
+
+The gym part was less entartaining for me, I never liked exercising
+indoors.  But I managed to train somewhat consistently once or twice a
+week for 15-30 minutes. My exercises included squats, side planks,
+one-leg push-ups and the like. Boooring.
+
+With all of this I was quite confident I was going to be in good
+shape for the hike. I was more worried about the logistics...
+
+## Planning the route
+
+Most sources (including the one I followed, a red booklet that I
+can't find online, but whose content is mostly summarized in
+[this website](https://www.altavia2dolomiti.com/percorso))
+suggest walking Alta Via 2 in 12 or 13 days, but in this way some of
+the days consist of less than 5 hours of walking. On the other hand,
+well-trained hikers could complete the whole route in 7 days or less. We
+decided that 10 days would be a good middle ground for having a fun and
+intense hike without overdoing it. In hindsight this was a good plan, but
+I don't think I would have minded some of those short walking days.
+
+For multiple reasons, we decided to sleep in huts rather than camping.
+Since these regions tend to be quite popular with turists, we decided to
+book our accommodations early on.  We started booking in May, thinking it
+would be early enough, but it was not - at least for part in
+[Südtirol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Tyrol).
+None of the huts in our first two days of had any spare bed. We contacted
+all the places that were somewhat close to our path, to no avail. In the
+end we were forced to squeeze the first 3 days into 2, and make a long
+detour to reach a nearby village to sleep in a B&B on our first night.
+
+For the rest of the plan, the part following largely the border between
+[Trentino](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trentino) and the
+[province of Belluno](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Province_of_Belluno),
+was mostly fine. Not every hut in our original plan was available, but
+we were able to find good alternatives nearby.
+
+Our final plan was the following:
+
+||Start|Finish|Up|Down|Distance|
+|:-|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|
+|[Day 1](./day1)|Kreutztal|Lungiarü|1050m|-1620m|22.1km|
+|[Day 2](./day2)|Lungiarü|Rifugio Pisciadù|1820m|-690m|19.0km|
+|[Day 3](./day3)|Rifugio Pisciadù|Rifugio Fedaia|760m|-1310m|18.0km|
+|[Day 4](./day4)|Rifugio Fedaia|Rifugio Flora Alpina|1030m|-1290m|17.4km|
+|[Day 5](./day5)|Rifugio Flora Alpina|Rifugio Mulaz|1160m|-410m|17.6km|
+|[Day 6](./day6)|Rifugio Mulaz|Rifugio Pradidali|890m|-1160m|12.4km|
+|[Day 7](./day7)|Rifugio Pradidali|Rifugio Passo Cereda|1110m|-2000m|17.1km|
+|[Day 8](./day8)|Rifugio Passo Cereda|Rifugio Boz|1210m|-860m|12.8km|
+|[Day 9](./day9)|Rifugio Boz|Croce d'Aune|800m|-1500m|20.0km|
+
+For the first and last days, the plan was to have someone bring
+us there or pick us up, so we spent only 8 nights out.  We did not
+realize at the time, but this plan gave us a nice balance between
+high mountain huts (for the real mountaineering experience) and
+proper hotels (for better comfort); after all, every one of these
+hotels was also called *rifugio* (or *hütte* in German, or *utia* in
+[Ladin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladin_language)).
+
+## Packing up
+
+You may find it silly, but fitting all the necessities in my backpack
+was the part of this adventure that I was most worried about. We were
+going to hike for 9 days, but clearly we could not pack 9 sets of clean
+clothes; that alone would almost fill our backpacks. And it's not just
+t-shirts and underwear, we needed warm and waterproof clothes too. And
+what about food? The huts served dinner and breakfast, but we definitely
+needed something to eat throughout the day, too.
+
+In the end, this is what we packed:
+
+### Hiking gear
+
+* Hiking boots.
+* [Hiking sticks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trekking_pole), similar
+  to [nordic walking](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_walking) poles,
+  but they are usually kept shorter. They help pushing when going up
+  and keep you stable when you walk down.
+* A simple harness consisting of a strong rope with a
+  [carabiner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carabiner), to be used
+  for the occasional *equipped trails* (think of a
+  [via ferrata](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Via_ferrata), but easier).
+* Two water bottles (0.5L + 1L). The smaller one was a thermos-like bottle
+  to keep the contents warm, but I ended up never filling it with hot
+  water or tea. It would have been better to just bring two lightweight
+  plastic bottles.
+* Maps: [Tabacco](https://www.tabaccoeditrice.it/en/home-english/) maps number
+  [30 (Brixen-Villnössertal)](https://www.tabaccoeditrice.it/en/cartografie_en/125000-coast/030_en/),
+  [6 (Val di Fassa e Dolimiti Fassane)](https://www.tabaccoeditrice.it/en/cartografie_en/125000-coast/06_en/),
+  [22 (Pale di San Martino)](https://www.tabaccoeditrice.it/en/cartografie_en/125000-coast/022_en/),
+  plus an older map of the same brand for the Feltre area, that followed
+  a different numbering scheme. We also had offline maps from
+  [OpenStreetMaps](https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=12/46.5905/11.7540) on
+  our phones - we used
+  [Organic Maps](https://organicmaps.app/) and [Mapy](https://mapy.com) as
+  clients - but a paper backup is always conveniente, especially because of
+  the size. The Tabacco maps were also more accurate in some specific parts,
+  because they also had some codes for describing each trail's type or difficulty.
+
+### Clothes
+
+Most of the clothes we brought with us were made of some synthetic
+fabric that was extremely lightweight and quick to dry up.
+
+* 4 t-shirts (2 or 3 would have been enough)
+* 4 pairs of underwear (again, 2 or 3 would have been enough)
+* Zip-off hiking trousers that could be converted to shorts (but
+  I ended up almost always using the in trouser form)
+* A full set of "normal" clothes (underwear, socks, t-shirt, shorts) that
+  I used only in the huts
+* A lightweight hoodie that somehow kept me warm amazingly well. I used
+  it for any temperature betwee 2°C to 20°C, as it did not feel
+  uncomfortable when it was too hot for a regular hoodie.
+* A regular cotton hoodie, that I ended up never using.
+* Slippers.
+* A baseball cap.
+* A rain poncho. I did not like wearing it, because it made me sweat a lot
+  and I ended up getting wet anyway. But in some moments it was necessary.
+* Rain trousers. I ended up never using these, my regular hiking trousers
+  were somewhat waterproof, and the rain poncho covered all the rest.
+* Gloves. Temperatures reached close to 0°C,
+  and gettings your hands wet with near-freezing rains is not fun.
+
+### Food and medicine
+
+* The only food we pack were protein bars. We brought 3 per person per
+  day, but this was way too much. I ended up eating one ~100g bar per day
+  on average, because we were often able to eat something
+  (like a slice of [*Strüdel*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_strudel))
+  in the huts we walked by during the day.
+* Energy tablets. Some quick source of energy boost,
+  they were mostly vitamins with some caffeine.
+* Plasters, both regular ones and
+  [blister platers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compeed).
+* Painkillers and other basic medicine.
+
+### Other stuff
+
+* Sleeping bag. A very light one is enough, since every hut provided heavy
+  blankets, but not linens, and guests have to bring their own.
+* One towel, [the most thing to bring](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy).
+* Soap, toothbrush and toothpaste.
+* Wet wipes.
+* Wallet, phone, phone charger and a power bank.
+* A small planner and a pen, to keep a journal of the trip.
+
+At 12kg water included, the backpack is quite heavy. I could have saved a
+couple of kilos, but in the end we used almost everything that we brought.
+
+![Me with my backpack on, at home](../img/19-0000-backpack.jpg)
+
+m4_caption(Ready to go!)
+
+m4_navtable(← Alta Via 2,../, , ,Day 1 →,../day1)