TRE CIME DI LAVAREDO

Contributed by David Sellars

FACTS

Country: Italy
Location: Dolomites
Round trip: 10 km
Start elevation: 2320 m
Final Elevation: 2454 m
Map: Tabacco n.010 1:25,000

GETTING THERE

Take the toll road from Misurina to the parking lot at Rifugio Auronzo

PARTIAL PLANT LIST

Daphne striata

Gentiana verna

Gentiana clusii

Primula halleri

Potentilla nitida

Thlaspi rotundifolium

Pulsatilla alpina

Saxifraga caesia

Primula auricula

Rhodothamnus chamaecistus

Soldanella alpina

Soldanella minima

Pulsatilla vernalis

Primula minima

The circuit of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo is a wonderful high elevation walk. Before the toll road was constructed, Reginald Farrer described walking up to a ridge near the starting point of this hike in his 1913 book, The Dolomites. He did not complete the circuit probably because without the toll road access it was simply too far.

Head east from the parking area beneath the towering walls of the Tre Cime. Then escape from the crowds by exploring the jumble of limestone boulders fitted with crevice plants such as Primula

auricula, Gentiana terglouensis and Potentilla nitida. The route then turns north over the Forcella Lavaredo, the highest point on the route passing Thlaspi rotundifolium in the scree. Early in the season a snow slope may have to be crossed to reach the Rufigio Locatelli. From there the path heads south west across a shallow valley with Daphne striata and Soldanella alpina and Soldanella minima (pictured above). A pass to the west of the Tre Cime leads back to the starting point, crossing meadows with Pulsatilla alpina and Primula halleri.