Cima Sophia: First Trip to the Dolomites

For my reunion with Serhii and Pavlo from Ukraine (and Sviatoslav who didn't join us on this hike), I was designated as the hike planner. I wanted to find a peak that would challenge us a bit, but not be too difficult. After looking at various options around Trento, where we stayed for 2 nights, I settled on the Molveno area, which has several peaks accessible from the town itself.

I spend several evenings exploring neighboring ridges on Komoot, and finally settled on Cima Sophia (2360 m) and Croz dell'Altissimo (2339 m) from this page. Since the others didn't have that much recent hiking experience, I decided to skip the walk from Molveno upwards, and suggested taking the cable cars.

We set off early in the cold winter morning, with everything covered in frost, just like during my previous hike to Rainerkopf (1463 m). We paid for the two-way trip on both cable cars, and ascended to Rifugio La Montanara (1575 m).

A small surprise for us was that nobody except the person at the ticket booth could speak any English. Luckily, we managed with hand gestures like true Italians, and found the way up without issues.

There, we took some group photos for other tourists and took some ourselves, and headed to the start of the hike near the giant bear statue Orso del Pradel.

As soon as we started climbing up, we got hot under the direct sun and had to take off our underpants, jackets, mittens, and just about anything that was not strictly necessary. The trail didn't have any snow at that point, there was no wind, and the views were great, so we just enjoyed the walk.

When we hit the first signpost at a crossroads, we put on our gaiters and prepared for the snow and ice ahead. The trail quickly got worse, with the ground being covered in a layer of smooth ice. We started slipping and sliding, but kept going up, and soon reached Palon de Tovre (1913 m).

I didn't know it at that point, but this was the most scenic spot of the entire hike. The views of the Dolomites were great, the lake in the distance was fantastic, and the sun was shining bright. We took a lot of photos there, and enjoyed the moment.

As we kept going, I started noticing that our pace was way behind schedule, despite all the precautions we took by waking up early. The terrain was getting steeper, and the snow was deeper. I was going first, breaking the trail, and it was quite exhausting. The others were following me, but I could see that they were struggling, especially without waterproof clothing.

After a long climb up surrounded by treetops covered in snow, we finally reached a plateau near the crossroads leading to Pizzo Gallino (2442 m), and took a break. We noticed deep holes in the snow. If you fall into one, it's very easy to get stuck and get injured, so we had to be very careful.

From there, we started heading up, but the trail became even worse. We came across a lone trail runner going down from Cima dei Lasteri (2457 m), who didn't manage to reach the summit, and warned us to be careful and consider turning back. The snow was very deep, and had tons of gaps and holes between rocks, so it was quite risky.

We took notice of his advice and continued our ascend carefully. After some steep sections, where we had to use our hands to climb up, we finally reached another small plateau, where Serhii and Pavlo decided to stop. They stayed there for around 10 minutes, took some photos, and then headed back down.

As I was leaving them, I saw them completely drenched in cold snow water, freezing and being tired. Going back was definitely the right choice for them. They stopped around 46.173356, 10.944032.

I continued my way up alone, breaking the trail through deep snow. The wind picked up, and I had to put on my jacket and mittens again. The summit was still quite far, and I was getting tired, but I kept going.

Several times along the way, I considered turning back as well, especially when slipped and fell between the rocks a couple of times. My fractured finger from the Vordere Kesselschneid (2002 m) hike hasn't healed yet, so I had to be extra careful not to hurt it again.

The deep snow covering any and all marks and signposts didn't help either. I had to constantly check the terrain to look for a reasonable path up. What made it worse, there was no official path to the summit on the map, so I had to improvise.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, I reached the summit of Cima Sophia (2360 m). The views were breathtaking, with the Dolomites all around me, but the lake was hidden behind Croz dell'Altissimo (2339 m). I took a bunch of photos, signed the summit book, and started heading back down. There was no time to waste, as the sun was already starting to set and I started to freeze too.

It took me around 30 minutes from the place I left Serhii and Pavlo to reach the summit, but the descent was much faster. I managed to backtrack my steps, avoiding the deep snow holes, and reached the same spot in around 10-15 minutes.

At that point, I didn't know the others decided to leave, but it was clear from the footsteps they left in the snow. I felt like a true mountaineer, being able to reach the summit and come back safely; and also like a detective, looking at the snow patterns and footsteps to figure out what happened.

I didn't know when the others left, so I shouted quite a few times on the top of my lungs, but there was no response. Considering my friends are not dumb, I correctly assumed they already went down, so I kept going.

When I finally descended back to the lower plateau, I finally saw them standing on the summit of Palon de Tovre (1913 m), looking around for me, but I was too tired to shout again. I just got happy that they are safe and sound, so I hurried to catch up with them.

The rest of the descent was getting more and more easy, as the snow was getting shallower, and the trail was already broken by our footsteps. I kept pushing, constantly being surprised by how far ahead the others were. Although I made a few stops to take photos of the sunset, I was running practically the entire way down.

Despite that, I finally caught up with them near the bear statue, right before the cable car statue. According to Google Maps, the cable car operation closes at 16:15, and the time we reached it was 16:03. To our surprise, the cable car was already shut down for the day, and there was nobody around.

I was really salty for the missed opportunity and wasted money, and I clearly saw others, especially Pavlo, being exhausted. We had to walk down the entire way to Molveno, with no transport we could take. The only saving grace was that the trail down was clear of snow apart from the ski route, so we could walk down without issues and slipping.

We reached the intermediate cable car station soon after, with the squirrel statue and the hotel there. I was disappointed to find out the hotel doesn't have a souvenir shop, only post cards, so I took one for each of us, and returned outside to see a snow plow truck clearing the ski route.

There was no road and no cars going down, so we had to keep going. There was a trail leading down along the cable car poles, which I saw on the way up, so we chose that one. A few hikers going up met us near the top, telling us it took them around 20 minutes from the bottom to reach the station, so we were hopeful and motivated to reach Molveno before the last bus back at 18:40. As a side note, I want to give my regards to the public transport system of the area. The bus operates 3 times per day, so if you miss it, you're stuck.

We walked down slowly, as the guys were exhausted and couldn't walk fast without hurting their knees. When we reached the town, we were happy to make it to safety on time, but it was clear that we would get sick after such an adventure. As a few days have passed since the hike, I can confirm that indeed happened, with all of us catching a cold and having to rest for a week.

In the end, with enough time and a car, this hike would be great even in winter. I'm sure it's even better in summer, although I'd recommend going to Croz dell'Altissimo (2339 m) instead, as the views of the lake are better from there. Otherwise, the hike is definitely manageable, and the cable cars make it accessible to almost anyone.