My friend Cerstin and I caught an early morning shuttle bus from town we were staying in to Lago Brais, the official starting point of the Alta Via 1. The bus was filled with the backpacks of other hikers, and we had to stand as we made our way along the road. The shuttle dropped us off in front of a hotel on the lake, an idyllic starting point.

Lago Brais is an Instagram-worthy location, with a beautiful turqouise mountain lake laying at the feet of majestic white-gray mountains. There was a little dock with a small shack at the end of it, and a line of old wood canoes all tied up. We explored as much of the lake as we could, but it was too big to go all the way around, and we had some hiking to do.

The trail follows along the lake for some time, staying on mostly level ground and not gaining any real elevation. The real trail, and ascent into the mountains, awaited us when we got to the other end. Loose fallen rocks awaited us underfoot as we turned away from the lake and began our trek south.

Once we started heading up, the incline steadily increaseed, and before long we were already taking breaks to catch our breath. Up and up we went along well-marked trails, stealing glances back at the lake as a way of judging how far we had gone, and how high up we were getting. About an hour later the lake was out of sight, and we were surrounded by mountains.

There were some pretty sweet views at the top of the initial ascent. Rolling hills made of pushed up rock from tectonic forces filled our fields of view. I had never seen such interesting rock formations. Some looked like regular mountains, while others looked as if someone pushed a mountain onto its side and then smoothed it out. They were extending into the sky at all sorts of odd angles. Some even looked like they had their tops cut off.

Maybe an hour and a half went by of going up and down these interesting rock formations before we got our first glimpse below of the place that we would be spending the night at: Rifugio Bella. It looked so small when set against the backdrop of these mountains.

But before we turned to head for the rifugio, we decided to do a side trek up the nearby mountain. About 90 minutes later and we were at the top, and it was worth it. It seemed like we covered a lot of distance today, however this was not the case, it was all mostly vertical, because far below us was the Lago Brais, the place we had started at, although it was very small from up here.

We maybe spent close to an hour at the top before the cold wind finally got to us, and we started our descent down to the rifugio. An hour later and we were all checked in. The beds were spacious and comfortable, and the dinner was superb! After dinner we hung out drinking and talking with our new friends! Time flew by and before we knew it it was already 9:30 pm. The sun was already beginning to set

As the sun was setting, I stepped out of the mountain rifugio. I stood there as the sun set, watching the skies turned a deep purple. As the temperature slowly dropped, I stared at the silhoutes of the mountains surrounding me. This is where I belonged, being in the mountains. As I stood there a little fox went scampering by, bringing food back to its den.

What a great start to this trek!