The Dolomites, one of the world's most beautiful mountain ranges.

It's dominated by 18 majestic peaks and more than 2,000 named mountains.

There are staggering vertical walls, deep valleys and verdant flower filled mountains that will leave you breathless.

I'm Alice Ford, and we're back in northern Norway.

This is the Garden Island, Kauai, Hawaii.

As you guys can see, it is absolutely beautiful down here.

The views are just already stunning.

And we are on our way to Antarctica.

So right now we're having a traditional tea here.

Wow.

As a hiking fanatic, this place has been on my list for a long time.

It's dotted with trails called Alta Villas and mountaintop rifugios where you can stay, eat, and sip on local Italian wines.

The Dolomites straddle the border with northeastern Italy and Austria, and throughout the area there are dozens of small villages and towns, unique customs and beauty all around.

I started in the city of Bolzano, where I filled up on pasta and then took a bus to the small village of Carezza, where I headed up into the Dolomites by ski lift.

Welcome to the Dolomites!

Oh my gosh, I am so excited to be here!

This is the Italian Dolomites for the next four days.

I'm going to be hiking in the Rosengarten mountains, hut to hut and doing some via ferrata as it's a bucket list trip and I am sure the views are going to be absolutely amazing.

I cannot wait to bring you guys along.

The Rosengarten is one of the most beautiful natural areas in the Dolomites, and this is where I'd be basing my climbs for the next few days.

My afternoon began by skirting the side of the mountain range through beautiful alpine meadows, where I could hear the distant sound of cowbells while passing the happy footsteps of other excited hikers.

All too glad to be experiencing the majesty of this mountain range.

My plan that day was to go from Paulina Hutte where I disembarked the chairlift to the summit of Masare on a series of hiking trails, and on one via ferrata, before descending down to my first mountain hut at Roda di Vael.

All right.

The real adventure is about to begin.

I've just made a right up the mountain here.

Route number nine.

We're heading up to our first via ferrata, located in northeast Italy.

There are 2200 named mountains in the Dolomites and hundreds of miles of trails.

To say the landscape is striking is a bit of an understatement.

The steep and rocky towers of rock stick up into the sky like needles, and they're mesmerizing to behold.

Made up of dolomite rock or dolostone, which is a type of limestone.

These peaks were unlike anything I had ever seen before, with a topography of steep and pointy features.

Many of the trails here that bring you to the interior of the range require ladders, stairs, and nearly vertical ascents.

Things were about to get even more vertical while in Bolzano I had rented a rock climbing harness, helmet and a specialty lanyard made specifically for the fixed anchor cables and ladders in this area, called via ferratas.

Now this part of the Dolomites has around nine via ferrata routes, all of which are self-guided and vary in difficulty.

This was my first time doing a route like this solo, and thankfully my many years of experience climbing and working with ropes made me cautious but confident.

I am geared up and clipped in.

I am heading up there to the top of Mount Masare and then back down the other side.

A via ferrata is a protected climbing route that allows non-technical climbers to ascend a steep or sheer sections of mountains on a variety of cables, pegs and ladders while using a harness and lanyards.

Now, these aren't very popular in the US, but self-guided via ferratas are all over the Alps and can be done by anyone with the right equipment and experience.

And I saw people of all ages as young as eight to as old as 70 on the via ferratas here in the Dolomites, Wow!

That was awesome.

So beautiful.

So exhilarating as well.

Going up that via ferrata.

We're at the top now, and I'm just taking in these beautiful views over the Dolomites.

And we're going to head back down the other side of this mountain top and head down to our place for the night at our first rifugio.

Behind me is Roda di Vael.

Where I'll be staying tonight.

Dinner is included.

And breakfast as well.

So luxurious up here in the mountains of Italy.

Today was wonderful.

Just so beautiful.

That way down that I took was definitely not correct.

But, we made it.

We made it here to the hut.

So, excited for, a couple more hours a daylight, a great dinner, and then, a great night's sleep as well.

The hut I was staying.

I had a very famous mountaineer guest, Reinhold Messner.

He was actually the first climber to ascend all 14 peaks over 8000m.

And the first person to solo ascend Mount Everest.

He built many of the climbing routes in the Dolomites and spent much of his early climbing career here, ascending the various peaks.

Just finished dinner.

And the views are getting even more spectacular.

After a well-deserved beer, I enjoyed some relaxation and one of the most beautiful sunsets of my life.

Home for the night.

The trails in the Dolomites are super well-marked, but you will want what is called a tobacco map to read the route numbers as you make your way through the mountains.

Good morning everybody.

It is Day 2 here in the Dolomites.

An absolutely beautiful day.

Not a cloud in the sky.

Today I'm hiking from Roda di Vael , where I said last night to another hut called Passo Principe.

And I'm just going to apologize now, because I'm probably pronouncing all of these huts completely incorrectly.

Today it should be about 3.5 hours of hiking.

Then there's supposedly a really awesome via ferrata on the other side where we'll be spending the night tonight.

That I can do this afternoon.

One of the really special parts about staying in a mountain hut is the early mornings, when no one from the towns are on the trails yet, and it seems like you have the entire mountain range to yourself.

The trail markers here are pretty often on the routes here.

They have numbers that correspond with the tobacco maps, which is what I was looking at this morning.

I'm going to be taking route 541 today, and we've got about 2.5 hours before the next hut.

Leaving the flower field meadows and heading up my first monumental pass took me to another world entirely.

Mountainside was difficult to ascend, was slippery and often jagged rocks in the limestone like material, which gave way often and reminded me of walking on loose gravel roads or volcanic ash.

There are somewhere between 30 and 50 mountain passes in the Dolomites, and ascending them is no joke on the thighs.

That was some steep hiking this morning.

Definitely got my sore legs, warmed up.

We are right now at the top of this pass here where we stayed last night is way behind me.

Over there and down here.

There's a hut called Rifugio Vajolet.

We'll probably stop there for a snack and then continue on to the hut where I'll be staying tonight.

It's so cool because, you know, every every couple hours there's a hut so you can have breakfast at one, you can have a lunch at another, you can have a cold beer at one if you want.

And there's just just so many options here for staying and hiking and just what a unique experience.

This is really one of the only places in the world, I believe that you can do this, where the huts are as close together as they are here in the Rosengarten.

So it's just such a unique and special experience to be able to be here and just so luxurious.

Having all these huts with food means you can pack less in your backpack and experience more.

I'm pretty glad I have a harness right now because this trail.

Had a ladder as well, and there's a lot of people that are going to come and do this trail that aren't planning on doing a via ferrata, so just be prepared for that.

If you are coming to do this and aren't planning on doing the ferratas but hiking, there's still waters and areas where you will have to climb up and things like this.

The hike this morning was long with many passes and steep ravines, but it eventually brought me back to the land of flowers and people.

Okay, we are now with Rifugio Vajolet and the menu here is extensive.

It's like so many pages, tons of pasta dishes.

They have a vegan menu, hot dogs, polenta, tons of stuff.

You can get beer, wine, coffee.

Anything you want.

I think I'm going to be eating a lot of pasta on this trip.

That's good.

Well, this is certainly a busy place, especially at lunch time.

There's not just where I ate lunch, but also another restaurant up here as well.

And it appears that a lot of people come up here, they have lunch or a picnic, and then they actually come up up there where there is a really great view point, and then they probably climb back down and take the chairlift back to the town that they started in.

We're actually going to be going up this way.

This I'm not mad about not going that way because it looks really steep.

And that's where the refuge that we're staying at tonight is Alright round two of the day.

Off we go.

This is what I imagine the moon is like.

Gone were the pretty colors of green and pink and purple.

And all I could hear was the whistling of the wind.

Now, the hiking here is unlike anything I've experienced in the United States.

So steep and varied, with ladders and cables anchored into the rocks where the land has almost but given way to cliff.

It was an exciting and challenging few days here in the Dolomites, and one I'm certainly not going to forget.

I just checked in here to Passo Principe.

Right on the side of the mountain here.

The via ferrata starts over here.

First thing first, claim a bed.

I'm staying in a bed room tonight, so there's going to be quite a few other people.

And, I'm going to pick out what I'm going to have for dinner at 6:30, because I should be back from the via ferrata at that time.

And a menu to choose from.

All right.

It's only 2 p.m., so we're going to spend the rest of the afternoon going up there.

This is probably one of the more challenging via ferratas in this area, so I'm a little nervous.

we're going to be attached to cables the whole time, and I've got my helmet, so I'm excited to see what it looks like up there.

Well, I might already be having a case of I think I'm braver than I am.

So this first part here, there is no cables.

There's a sheer drop off there already were like so steep.

So my nerves are just like, not good right now.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do.

I may end up going down.

I consider myself.

A pretty brave person.

I have a lot of courage then a lot of scary things in my life.

But it's like the older I get, the more my life experience, I guess.

And maybe the fact that people depend on me as well factors into how afraid I get.

I've been waiting here, hoping somebody else was coming up.

And maybe do the via ferrata and I can follow them, but no one's come so.

I just don't know that I have that courage today to go on the via ferrata.

There's no cables in the beginning part.

It looks like there actually used to be cables.

I'm not sure if they were taken down, if they broke, Or if they're supposed to be cables there.

Maybe there isn't.

But it certainly looks like they're supposed to be cables.

My fear is that I'm going to go up 30, 40ft.

See that maybe there's not cables around the corner where I can't see, and then I'm going to be too afraid to go down the way that I came up, because it's really steep.

And, I've been slipping and sliding a lot on this, kind of, like, loose gravel.

So, my confidence is not great.

And I did empty my backpack.

It's pretty much got nothing in it except, you know, my tripods and things attached to it.

So it's not like a matter of of weight like it was when I did Angel's Landing.

It's just hard sometimes.

I think when you're by yourself to be able to push yourself in a way that you would when you're with other people.

I also always err on the side of caution and try to be as safe as possible.

And today I'm just not feeling it.

It's also my birthday, so I think I'm just going to go back down to the rifugio and have a birthday beer.

Right after I film that, someone came up the trail, said I could follow them and off I went, swallowing what I could of my rising fear as I clung to the mountain where cables no longer existed.

Happy to find some courage from a stranger, I was even happier when I could clip into the cables a little way up the trail.

The ascent was relatively long, with many sections devoid of cables, but since there was no chance I was going down the way I went up, I looked ahead and focused on where I would grab and hold on to the rocks.

Getting to the summit meant walking a narrow ridgeline with sheer drop offs on both sides, feeling like I was on a balance beam in the middle of the sky.

I kept my gaze ahead and breathe deeply to calm my nerves.

This was the scariest hike of my life, but it made getting to the top even more spectacular.

Woohoo!

At the top, this is the highest point in the Rosengartens, and sometimes you just need a little courage.

Today that courage came from a stranger, thank goodness, because I would not be standing up here if he hadn't come in, come and gone on the trail before me.

So.

But wow, it's stunning up here.

That was intense.

Back on the trail now.

Heading back uphill.

Back to the hut.

I've missed dinner as it's seven, but.

Accomplished something I didn't think I'd be able to.

So.

Pretty awesome.

What a day.

What a day indeed.

That via ferrata was crazy.

It was really scary.

But we're back at the rifugio.

We just had dinner up some cake, and now I'm going to get ready for bed.

Day three.

Good morning everybody.

I am just leaving the mountain hut that I stayed in last night.

Passo Principe.

And I am heading actually north up towards Tierser Alps I believe that's how you said, that's another mountain hut, kind of on the end the Rosengartens.

And then I'll be kind of making my way back down into one of the Italian towns to spend the night in a hotel.

I did not get much sleep last night, so I am very tired today.

One of the downsides of staying in these mountain huts is that you are in rooms with a lot of other people that aren't always as considerate about making noise.

The moon was also full last night, so I just did not get enough sleep.

So I'm happy to be heading kind of back to a town tonight where I can get a good night's sleep.

But it is a kind of a beautiful day.

It's supposed to rain in a couple of hours, so hope we can get to a lunch spot, before we get wet.

The air going down there, and then way up the other side.

Day three was a race against the rain.

I could feel the moisture in the air and see the clouds rolling in, and just hoped that I would make it to the mountain hut on the other side of the valley before the rain started to fall.

The mountain pass that day was a killer.

It started with a really steep descent on extremely loose and slippery rocks at the bottom.

There was some snow from one of the many glaciers in the Dolomites that have been melting rapidly over the last few years.

It might be a bit hard to tell, but there's actually a big snow field right here.

Blends in with the dirt as it's all kind of the same color, but since we're seeing that, I did want to mention just ten days ago, actually, ten hikers were actually killed on a nearby mountain called Marmolada when I was at the top of the via ferrata yesterday, we could see that there was actually a big glacier up there.

Part of it collapsed and unfortunately killed several people.

Ten people that were hiking the mountain.

Over the last few years.

Unfortunately, with climate change, it's just become more and more common for hikers and skiers to be killed in avalanches and glacier collapses as the temperature warms.

The last two weeks before I came here were unseasonably warm in this area, and unfortunately, it's been melting a lot of this ice and snow.

Yeah.

I'm not going to lie.

Walking on this absolutely sucks.

It's slippery, loose and ugly as well.

the crap part about going downhill is that eventually you have to go back up.

Third of the way up, a little bit more to go.

That was an absolutely intense hike.

Super steep.

That the super slippery scree fields actually met a couple last night from the United States as well, who came down this yesterday and then back up to the refuge where I stayed last night.

And this was their, like, least favorite hike just because it is so steep.

It is so slippery.

I definitely wish I had rented some trekking poles, but the guy with the mountaineering store I actually rented my harness was like, oh, you know, you're fine.

You don't have any problems.

You don't need trekking poles.

Yeah, definitely regretting that after hiking up and down all these big mountain passes.

But it should be a little bit easier now.

There's about 30 minutes until the next refuge.

I don't know about you guys, but I'm ready for coffee.

Last mountain pass here.

And even more stunning.

We're back in the grasslands.

Here in the meadows, there's beautiful green on both sides.

Just absolutely stunning and busy as well.

Holy wild flowers.

Oh, my gosh, this is amazing.

Just every color you can imagine.

So beautiful.

Here we are in the lift again.

Heading back down to the town.

Here, a different town that I started in.

And I will be taking a bus back to Bolzano.

What an adventure.