Alta Via 1 Hike: The Mountains Called

'I am merely going on a hike…'

I cannot explain how many times I said these 7 words in the weeks leading up to my latest vacation. I did assume I would have some explaining to do when it came to my mother – she does not hike, nor is she familiar with the environment I would immerse myself into for ten days. What I did not account for is the number of friends, colleagues and half-strangers to question why I would vanish myself into the Italian mountains for a few days.

For you see, I am not a hiker.

That is not the image that comes to your mind when you know me. That is not the life I live. I am a worker and for now, I am a consultant, but since the time I learned where Patagonia was on a map, I have craved the adventure and isolation the mountains seemingly provided.

Fast forward through years of sports, careers, moves, schools, celebration, tragedies and excuses and I finally got full of desire and stood with pockets empty of excuses good enough to convince me otherwise. I was under-equipped, out of shape and full to the brim with the stresses of work. Perfect.

And so I deflected with ease the questions about break-ups, tragedies, stress, misdirection and whatever Hollywood built conjecture those whom asked could imagine. It was merely a hike with the intention of becoming so tired that I could break away from thought altogether. A single quote has been emblazoned in my mind for more than 20 years:

I am losing precious days. I am degenerating into a machine for making money. I am learning nothing in this trivial world of men. I must break away and get out into the mountains to learn the news. J. Muir

If it was more than a hike, then it was the point in time where a quote first read in seventh grade had finally delivered its truth to my feet. Packed and ready, I said goodbye to a favorite face and sat back on a train bound for Lago di Braies in the Italian Dolomites and the starting point of my next adventure.

As fate would have it – it was a new type of epic. Sketches in a journal stuffed with maps and guide notes show signs that I collected new stories, new friends and a new level of yearning for getting into the mountains to learn the news. These are some of the highlights of my ten day solo trek...