The impressive climb to two remote mountain huts in the Dolomite Alps

The Dolomite Alps in northeastern Italy are one of the most beautiful and impressive mountain ranges in all of Europe.

The beautiful landscapes of the Dolomite Alps seen from a bird's eye view in three minutes
The surprising Capanna Regina Margherita, the highest mountain refuge in Europe

Italian mountaineers have been dominating these impressive mountains for many years, even fighting and building shelters there. One of the toughest and most frightening battle fronts of the World War I took place in this area, and buildings built by the Italian Army at that time can still be seen today.

A few days ago, the YouTube channel Zen Hiking Switzerland published a beautiful wordless video with a wonderful soundtrack in which we see a mountaineer making a hard climb in search of a remote mountain shelter from the World War I: the Bivouac Buffa de Perrero, located 2,760 meters above sea level on a rock face of Monte Cristallo.

As we can see in the video, the mountaineer's first attempt to reach this refuge failed. However, he did reach the Guido Lorenzi Refuge, 2,932 metres above sea level, on the Cima di Mezzo mountain. This area was the front line of the World War I. As you can see, both refuges are in very good condition.

Here we can see some screenshots from the video, which includes beautiful shots recorded with a drone, like this one we see here, recorded from the Ivano Dibona via ferrata, which crosses the Monte Cristalino massif. These mountain images included in the video are pure visual poetry.

The route has steel cables so that climbers can safely venture along it using their carabiners. In addition, there are also suspension bridges like the one we see here. If you don't have vertigo, you can see it from the climber's point of view in the video.

Here we see the Guido Lorenzi Refuge, with a large Cross commemorating the fallen soldiers in the fighting that took place there during the First World War. The current refuge was built in 1959. It once had a cable car that operated for decades. The refuge closed its doors in 2016, but is still available to mountaineers.

Finally, here we see the Bivouac Buffa di Perrero, named after the Italian mountaineer Colonel Carlo Alfonso Buffa di Perrero, who fell in combat on 5 November 1916. This refuge was built as a barracks for the Italian Alpine troops in the World War I. The refuge was restored by the Italian Alpine troops in 2022 after its roof collapsed due to snow.