Winter wonderland in the Dolomites
Dolomites
in winter
The beautiful Dolomites…these are the only words describe this location. It has thousand faces and you can never go wrong. But not straight to the middle…
Before you plan your trip to the Dolomites we suggest to answer one key question to yourself:
Do I want to plan the whole trip on my own or leave it to the experts to focus myself only on photography.
We can help You either way. If you plan on your own our posts and guidance will help you to ease you decisions. If you joins us you could focus 100% to your images and improve your skills.
NOW let’s dive into the adventure. That is how the plan looked before departure
We arrived to Tre Cime early morning, wanted to catch the sunrise at Lago d’ Antorno then hike up (or use a snowmobile) to the Three peaks. The plan failed only in two aspects, the sky was full of clouds and could not go up to the top as avalanche warning was in place. Despite we took a few pictures and replanned the whole day.
We decided to drive to the first hostel and stop on the way randomly if we spot something. We made finally ended up at Lago di Misurina and Lago di Landro. The morning was quite chilli and that was the first time we had to use the tire chains.
If you plan your trip that should be a top priority to have it with you.
After arriving to the first accommodation and some lunch we headed to Passo Giau to catch the sunset at 2200 meters. The road conditions were fairly good and cleaned however close to top we had to secure again the chains. From the parking lot there is a small hike to the ridge. If the snow is fresh and deep, snow shoes and trekking poles might be useful.
The view is astonishing from the ridge, you can’t spend enough time here as every moment is unique and different. Especially around sunset, sunrise and at night.
Some “survival” advice for the winter nights:
Highly recommended to prepare some hot drink, food and good company. When the wind blows like crazy and the temperature drops below -10 Celsius, the time turns into slow motion. Wear appropriate clothing, pay attention to the layering system and you’ll be fine. Smart to have fully charged batteries (as well as spare ones) as the cold air drains them way faster. Same applies for the torches and mobile phones. When you’re not using something try to find a warm shelter within your layers. If something appears on your front lens better not to touch it attempt to clean as it will get worse. Also not recommended to change lenses frequently.
Once you’re back to the place you stay better not to touch the camera until it warms up to ambient temperature otherwise it will start sweating in your hands.
Next morning the day started at Passo Giau again in the hope of some nice cloud formations. The plan does not always works…there was no cloud at all on the sky. Straight afterward took our heading to Aple di Siusi (Seiser Alm). That is nearly 2 hours excluding extra stops…photographers always count with extra stops…
Half way we found a really nice spot and randomly decided to come back after sunset for the fantastic composition. Do you think it’s worth it?
PS: to get to this viewpoint you need to hike 200 meters with 150 meter altitude at Passo Gardena. The wind on the ridge was a real killer.
To reach the most iconic spots at Seiser Alm in winter you either need to use a cable car or book a hotel room up there. In summertime hiking would be an option, a really loooong one. After the cable car lift there was an easy 12 minutes “walk” mostly down the hill (just wait till the end). You need to consider that the last cable car runs at 18:00 sharp so better not to miss it…we almost did…at a point on the way back some of us took the wrong decision and walked the hard way…When you cross a sky slope, never ever even think of hiking up on it…we can tell you know, it’s a black run…120 sweaty meters with 100 meters altitude on slippery snow…without crampons we could not make it.
The location is simply stunning…you can’t take enough pictures as you feel you will miss the moment. Don’t need so. sometimes just relax and absorb the beauty of nature
– behind the scenes mobile upload –
The spot is epic, however in winter time the sun falls behind the mountains on our right. So you can cross your fingers for a nice cloud formation and once in a lifetime colours.
You can easily spend here a full day, the best case scenario is to have a sunset – sunrise – Milky way combination. The scene always get more interesting as you approach golden hour, blue hour.
Our advice: always imagine your picture you wish to see hanging in your living room and try to compose the shot accordingly. We will always help you with that on location.
Everyone was so impressed with the location that next morning we went back from a different way. Attempted quite early and with car. We managed to drive in. The plan was to leave the place before 08:00am to avoid the inconvenient meetings…
The spot was so magical that no one realised that it was already 08:30…all started to pack up the gear, one photographer was further away when suddenly a car stopped by us and was a guy popped out and started yelling in German…
Penalty fee is 180 euros and we are not supposed to be here…in a nutshell…vanished from the spot in the next minute.
After the sweaty adventure and retreat we headed to the next target, the ski paradise, Seceda. It offers kilometres of ski slopes in different hardness. Hiking up during winter is almost impossible.
That is how we planned it…go up by using the cable car (half way you have to change to get to the top). A quick time-lapse to give you an understanding how does it feel when you ascend more than 1000 meters altitude.
At the top you have a 360 view, you won’t even blink not to miss a single moment. That gives Seceda’s beauty and challenge at the same time. At the ticket office the guy did not want to sell a one way ticket as he said it’s impossible to come down…we think it differently 😉 …
So back to the plan. Drove up the restaurant Costamula as the ski slope passes just by. Than hiked down the town where the cable car departs. Half an hour walk downhill, 2,2 kilometres. To get to the top would not take so long if there was no crowd and queue. Stay up till the stars come out and make a star trail. Then start descending nearly 6 kilometres with more than 1000 meters altitude.
Let’s see how it worked. Once you’re up there is still a 15 minutes’ walk uphill to meet with the famous Seceda ridge. (from quite a distance). A quick location mapping and a few (useless) pictures, as the sun was still up and there were no clouds at all. Pizza, beer and dressed up for the night time. As the sun started to fall behind the mountains the skiers slowly disappeared. Our group stayed almost alone with the ratraks. There is only one thing you need to be extremely careful with. The cables of the “snow groomers” are often attached to buildings and during night they are quite invisible. With headlamps and appropriate equipment you’ll be fine. Always move in groups and stay close to each other.
During the 150 exposures we had our tea and after nearly 1,5 hours waiting our chins hit the ground…In a nutshell…Someone in the team had his aperture at f22, someone adjusted the iso to 100…on top at a point a ratrak was grooming close and it’s light completely destroyed 10-15 pictures in the middle of the row…that means the final image would have little spaces between the trails…and that is not so appealing…SO let’s take another 80 shots just to make sure we did not stay up for nothing…another 45 minutes before started our 1,5 hours downhill “routine”.
Hiking down was no problem at all, from the car it still took nearly an hour to get to the hostel so we hit our beds at 01 am. Knowing that next day sunrise is approaching we called it a day.
Next morning the last destination was St. Magdalena and it’s iconic church and surrounding mountains. This place is also amazing however if You’re not lucky with the sky (no clouds) it will be challenging to make an unforgettable picture. Unfortunately this morning was like that. Flat, colourless and quite boring from the image point of view. Quickly drove back to the hotel to wrap up the stuff to be on location again when the sun rises above the mountains.
On the way back home stopped by the other church. Still had luck as the sun was at the perfect height to compose with the tower.
Finally arrived to the moment to find our way back home after 4 long and exhausting but fruitful days. It never could be disappointing to spend some days in the Dolomites in any season in any weather conditions. The only limit is our stamina and imagination. Hope you enjoyed our virtual tour and we might see you next time in action.
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
Comments are closed.
