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# Preparation
|[← Alta Via 2](../)|[Day 1 →](../day1)|
|:-|-:|
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.
<p align="center">
*At the starting gate of the
[Leiden half marathon](https://marathon.nl/). Two hours and six
minutes later, I am not going to be smiling like that.*
</p>
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.
<p align="center">
*Ready to go!*
</p>
|[← Alta Via 2](../)|[Day 1 →](../day1)|
|:-|-:|
|
