Shuttling: Pozza di Fassa to Rifugio Paolina
Thursday, July 13
Normally at this point during my recounting of a day's adventure, I'd be describing the accommodations we were staying at. Today was a little different, as we had one more challenge and task to complete. Our accommodations for the night were at the Rifugio Paolina - a hut situated at the base of the cliffs at the southern end of the Catinaccio/Rosengarten group of the Dolomites, and reachable via a convenient chairlift from a nearby pass (the Passo Carezza). The group and the pass were across the valley from us to the west, a little over ten kilometres away by road.
Our plans for the next few days involved doing another traverse, across this new group of peaks. To set this up, we needed to once again reposition our cars. In order to achieve this we needed to undertake a rather complex three-stage car shuttling operation, the first part involving the retrieval of the Hatko Fiat from Passo San Pellegrino, the second part consisting of a delivery of bodies to the base of the Paolina chairlift (where said bodies would take a leisurely chairlift ride up to the rifugio), and the third part consisting of myself and Chris placing a car at the far end of our planned traverse, in the town of Mazzin a little further north up the Fassa Valley - and then rushing back to the base of the Paolina chairlift - hopefully before it closed for the day at 6pm - so that Chris and I could join the others at the hut without having to undertake a strenuous 2+km hike up God-knows how many metres of elevation to the rifugio. A lot of logistics - and even though we had three hours to complete those logistics, it was going to be tight.
Just in time
The whole operation worked out successfully, although only barely: at 3pm (basically as soon as we completed the hiking) Chris and I took my rental car and began driving south and east, back up to the Passo San Pellegrino, where we retrieved Chris' rental Fiat (everyone else stayed behind in the town of Pozza di Fassa to maybe go grab a coffee or something). Chris and I then drove back to Pozza di Fassa, dealing with some amount of traffic congestion. We piled all six of us into the two rental vehicles and drove back down south. Instead of turning east up towards the Passo San Pellegrino, we turned west and drove up a nicely twisty (but crowded) road to the carpark of the Paolina Chairlift, not far behind the height of land at the Carezza Pass. We could look up and see the cliffs of the southern end of the Catinaccio group, right where the Rifugio Paolina was. We dropped Brian, Gillian and the kids off. They had lots of time - over an hour - to get lift tickets and take the fun and scenic ride up the Paolina lift to the Rifugio Paolina. Chris and I got back into our cars to complete the final shuttle: dropping a car off in the town of Mazzin, back in the Val di Fassa and a little ways north of Pozza di Fassa. And then return back to the lift parking lot.
It was close. Very close. Chris and I pulled into the lot at about 5:55pm... just minutes before the scheduled 6pm closing time of the lift. Futzing around as quickly as possible, trying very hard to not to miss some little but critical little piece of gear,we rush over to the base of the lift, which thankfully was still running. A couple of moments to pass through the payment kiosk and we are waiting on the rubber mat of the lift loading area, waiting for the next seat to swing around and whisk us off into the sunny evening. Whew.
Paolina lift and the Rotwand
It was great to be able to relax and enjoy the scenic ride up the lift. The weather was perfect again, with the afternoon clouds and rains we had experienced back in Val di Fassa having drifted off to the east. The lift is about 2km long (perhaps a bit more) and ascends 500m of elevation (about 1650 feet) from bottom to top (1650 feet we would have had to climb if we had missed the lift).
Soon we could see the top of the lift. Immediately next to it is the front deck of the Rifugio Paolina, and we could see some little figures hopping and waving at us. A welcome party!
As we stepped off of the lift, Gillian and Katie explained how they were sure we were going to miss the lift, and had almost resigned themselves to the fact that they'd have to wait a couple of extra hours for us to make the long slog up.
Arriving at the Paolinahutte
Let's turn our attention now to the Rifugio Paolina itself (or Paolinahutte, as it seems to be more commonly referred to in this more German-speaking part of the Dolomites). This hut had a different feel than all of the other ones we'd thus far visited. It had more of an... I don't know... an institutional feel. The floors were finished in that kind of speckled terrazzo you would see in old schools or administrative buildings. The rooms (we ended up getting two rooms, one with 4 beds and one with 2) had a sort of university or seminary dorm type of vibe. It felt more like a 50s sanatorium than it did a quaint swiss-style alpine cabin. But don't get me wrong - the rifugio was still excellent: clean, friendly staff, great food. Just had a different vibe.
The menu here was a little different than the previous three rifugios we had so far visited. Most of us chose a Knödel dish as our main course - dumplings made primarily of parmesan cheese. We hadn't seen anything quite like that so far.
Knödel fatto da Parmigiano
