High mountain gravel

We normally tend to think of mountains as a static element. We expect to find them in the exact same way as we left them. But usually, that isn’t the case. It almost feels like mountains have a mind of their own sometimes. A couple of days before starting the trip, my phone rings. “Do you think we can manage it?”, Stefano asked me. “How much snow is there?” We were in the middle of September, and it unexpectedly snowed heavily. People were even snowboarding on the Sellaronda! “Let’s do it anyway. I don’t think it will snow again and with these conditions, it could be even more stunning up there”, I replied.
So here we are. The summer ride and the sunny postcard of the Dolomites we had imprinted in our brains were long gone. Welcome to three days of high mountain gravel with a sprinkle of snow.

We meet up the evening before in Pera, at the beautiful Agritur Agua Biencia. While enjoying a good dinner, we find ourselves glued to our phones, checking the weather forecasts and repeating again and again “it will be ok”.
It’s with this mindset that we are off in the early morning, after having breakfast with the best view of the Dolomites you could possibly dream of. We take a gravel road that goes up and down in the direction of Campitello di Fassa. It’s a good warm-up. The real climb starts after the magnificent church overlooking the village. The mural paintings are one of the oldest and most important things of the Fassa Valley. It takes us a few minutes to arrive at Pian, a group of mountain houses. The road goes through this tiny village, under a tangle of roofs. Then the forest begins.

The air is thin, the snow starts to show itself on the mountain surrounding us. It’s time for a break with a nice piece of cake and some hot coffee. This will be our lunch for the day. We are at almost 1900m of elevation, and we will climb up twice to 2200m. Leaving the refuge, the Val Duron takes us to the imposing rockface of the Molignon cirque. We find it sprinkled with snow and ice, but still showing the vivid pink and brown colors of hotter days. We can’t help but enjoy the beauty of the changing season. We are alone, with our bikes, the mountains, the sound of our tyres on the gravel, the echo of our breath and the depth of our thoughts. What a feeling this is.

We leave the valley and start climbing up to the first mountain pass of the day. Rocks become loose and the trail is also quite steep: we try to stay focused and keep a good pace to avoid wheel slipping while pedalling. We are hit by a little snowfall on the pass but luckily it doesn’t last long. We start descending towards the valley with as a background the Sassopiatto wearing clouds as a hat. The downhill is very long but pleasant, not too technical and wide enough to avoid holes and rocks. We soon hit the asphalt that takes us to the lift Florian. We will start the second half of our trip from there. It’s 3.30pm and we are running late, with still more than 25km to go and 1100m elevation.

The gradient of the gravel road is steady, and we proceed at a good pace. We soon emerge from the woods and get to Mont Sëura. What a place and what a view! It’s hard not to stop every meter to admire it. The Sassolungo towers over us in all its majesty. We feel so small next to its walls. From here on, we enjoy a good portion of the descent. Raja drops down the slope at an incredible speed and barely manages to negotiate the last turns. It's so funny that we can’t stop laughing. The last steep climb though reminds us that it is not all fun and games. It starts to get dark, the wind is blowing, and the temperature dropping; it’s time to hurry up.

The scenery continues to amaze us as we pass through immense rocks that seem to have been spread by an invisible hand. We climb steep slopes and roam the singletracks. It’s for sure a technical piece of gravel road, so be careful. It can also be walked easily if required. We soon arrive at the Passo Sella and its iconic mini cable car. From here, we have two choices: keep riding on gravel and go down to Canazei using the crest going through by the Edicola La Colombela de Ciavazzes, or take the Passo Sella’s iconic road. Due to the amount of snow there, we decide to hit the road. We let go of the brakes and raced until Canazei; what a ride!
We arrive almost at night at the hotel. Our minds are still up there, where it was only us and our bikes. But an excellent dinner helps us keep our feet on the ground. We go to bed straight away, tomorrow will be the longest day of the trip!

On the second day we start pedalling from the Agritur in the direction San Giovanni di Fassa, the nearby town. This is where today’s climb will start. It’s a very nice ride on side roads that develop right next to the main road. The name of the path is very suggestive: Troi de Sent’ Uliana, Sentiero delle Meraviglie (in other words, “path of the wonders”). It’s a stunning ride to start the day, but a few vertical ramps to climb catch us by surprise. Pretty decent legs are required to clear them.

We reach the road that will bring us to the Passo Costalunga and then go down to Carezza. We won’t stay long on the asphalt. From where we are, the view of the Latemar’s peaks is breathtaking. Being close to the main road, we encounter a lot of hikers, so we have to play it safe and keep our speed and line in check as we head towards Carezza Lake. This lake is an insta-sensation and it attracts so many tourists that you’ll find parking and shops right next to it. We ride the path around the deep blue water, stopping to take pictures of the amazing mountains mirrored in the lake.

It’s as if the pines, the rocks, the clouds and the sky were birthed by this green and deep blue water. A pretzel is mandatory at this stage, before getting back on the saddle. We will get to the slope on a gravel path before reaching the road. Fast and fun, we blast through an immense forest where the trees mask the sky, meters and meters above our head. That is for sure the easiest and most bucolic part of our ride.

It’s another story from Obereggen to the top of the Latermar resort, where the asphalt follows pretty much the ski slopes. Stefano pushes hard to go as quickly as possible: this is the challenge of the day. We soon arrive at the pass and go inside the strange giant egg with an open window overlooking the Latemar and rightly called “Latemarium”. It’s like a small observatory turned towards the rock face.
We leave the alpine pastures and follow the road for most of the descent before going back to the gravel path. We go through an immense collection of cut-down trunks, all nicely aligned and stacked. This is the way the Vaia storm left its mark: taking down thousands and thousands of trees. The uphill above Stava village isn’t a difficult one and we enjoy the amazing view. The descent to Tesero is more technical on the upper part but it gets more flowy as we get closer to the town.

Luckily, we still have some energy to clear the last 25km remaining with two steep and brutal ramps. It’s 8 PM when we reach our hotel in Moena. Since we left our cars in Pera in the morning, we decided to eat straight away. The dinner at the Agritur El Mas was spot on, and the owner was kind enough to give us a lift to our cars. From there we drive back to the hotel for the night. Traditions have to be respected, therefore we end up sharing some grappa with him to bring a long day of biking to an end.

Curiously, at the Agritur El Mas, breakfast is served directly to your room, in a bag left outside your door. They have an in-house cheese maturing cellar, so we stopped to have a look at it. The shelves are full of Puzzone di Moena. We can tell from the smell that the name is quite appropriate, as “puzzone” means “stinking” in Italian. It’s on that note that we start climbing towards San Pellegrino. 

We stop in San Pellegrino to eat pasta before taking the lift to the Col Margherita. The ascent is quick and offers us an amazing panorama on the Cima de Costabella, Cima dell’Uomo and the Cima Cadine. Three summits that are above 2700m of elevation. When we get to the gondola at 2500m the wind is strong and cold, but, oh boy, what a view!

Afterwards, we get to ride through a long plateau, where the contours are sharp and the peaks around are imposing. The shadows of each mountain create layers and layers of what seem to be unreal waves made out of rocks, with the snow replacing the froth. We enjoy that bit of descent which gets easier to ride as we carry on.
Then, descending from the Passo Valles, we can’t believe our eyes: streams, waterfalls, incredible ridges. It’s hard to stay focused on the road, as we shout things like: “Look”, and “Did you see that?” “Wow”! We promise ourselves to come back one day.

Finally, the last climb of the day, here we go! We count the turns, as we begin to feel a bit tired. We arrive at the top, encounter some little houses and finally arrive at the Rifugio Luisa. Unfortunately, it’s already closed, so we don’t stop and go straight down to the valley where we will reach the gravel track we rode going up to San Pellegrino. Soon enough we get back to the Agritur El Mas, where we can sit around a warm fire, have a drink, and have a chat with nice people.

At the aperitivo, we discuss these three days of gravel riding in the Val Di Fassa. Each day gives a good overview of the incredible diversity within the Dolomites. We all agree that the most scenic part was around Sassolungo. It’s the one that reminds us all of the images we had in mind before the trip. The second day brought us closer to touristic places and was the most diverse in terms of flora and riding. 

On the contrary, the last day delivered a unique high alpine adventure, with yet another viewpoint over the stunning Dolomites. In the end, we got to see incredible peaks, valleys, lakes, rivers and mountains. We enjoyed the challenge of riding steep slopes and mesmerizing descents on gravel. We even had fun during the few moments spent on asphalt. We came close to the snow, but that made the trip even more exciting. For sure we discovered a very exclusive version of the Dolomites, free from the crowds of tourists that you encounter in the middle of summer. So, what’s the bottom line? Even if the weather plays tricks on you, man up and give it a go, you won’t regret it! It’s one of the most beautiful places to ride in the world.