Despite the clear blue skies and sunshine, the temperature was hovering around freezing as we set out from La Ritonda, our mountain refuge style accommodation beneath the Pale di San Martino mountains of the Italian Dolomites. Above us, dreamlike peaks daggered towards the blue, speckled with late-season snow. Magical.
Our route would head up towards them, taking us to Rifugio Treviso, high above the valley. Our guide was Peter Moser, an Italian alpinist and subject of a 2023 film, Pionieri, in which he conquers the great peaks of this stunning region in a single outing, wearing Aku’s Rock DFS GTX approach shoes and paying tribute to the original climbing pioneers.
