TravelMarx: One Week of Hiking in Sesto (Sexten), South Tyrol

Sunday, July 5, 2026

One Week of Hiking in Sesto (Sexten), South Tyrol - Five Hikes

Overview ~ Backstory ~ Hike Notes ~ Hike 1 ~ Hike 2 ~ Hike 3 ~ Lago di Anterselva ~

Hike 4 ~ Hike 5 ~ Bonkers for Bunkers ~ Tips ~ Food Photos ~ Trail Photos

Nine views of a week of hiking in Sesto.
Row 1: Hike 1, Hike 2, Hike 3.
Row 2: Lago Anterselva, Hike 4, Hike 5.
Row 3: Val Fiscalina, Moso in the evening, view toward Croni dei Toni.

Overview

This post is about one week of medium-difficulty hiking in Sesto (German: Sexten), South Tyrol that we did in late June. We were based in Moso (Moos), a small hamlet of Sesto at the entrance to Val Fiscalina (Fischleintal). During the week, we did five hikes and one rest-day excursion. Our base was Hotel Alpenblick in Moso.

We chose the Sesto area because it was a practical base for a full hiking week. It offered a good mix of Dolomite scenery, border-ridge walking, rifugi, and history. It also seemed like a place where we would not need to drive every day, which aspect we look for: move our legs, not the car.

From Moso, we could walk out the hotel door and be on trails leading toward Val Fiscalina, Croda Rossa, and military sites from the First World War. With a short bus ride or lift, we could also get up to Monte Elmo/Helm and the Carnic ridge, where Italy and Austria meet unexpectedly on ridges marked with boundary stones and a view.

When we checked into our hotel, we were given a lift card good for cable cars that were in operation. We were also given a QR code to use on the buses running the routes between popular trailheads and cable cars. In all, once you park the car, you can really get around without it. Spoiler alert: we used the car more than we wanted. We could have used the bus for the five hikes discussed here, but we were lazy. When we did drive, it was never more than a few minutes to get to starting point.

Our stats for our five hikes: 69.1 km and about 3,518 m elevation gain with about 30 hours of hiking time (including lunches). The rest day around Lago di Anterselva (Antholzer See) added about 4 km of gentle walking, which counts as recovery, tourism, and possibly penance for whatever was eaten the days before...and I’m talking about you kaiserschmarrn.

Backstory

We used to base ourselves in or around Corvara , usually Colfosco, and spend about a week hiking in the Dolomites in that area. Over time we branched out to other areas: Cortina d’Ampezzo, Merano, Val di Funes, and now Sesto.

Past June hiking experiences:

After our week in Val di Funes, we were curious about another South Tyrol base that could support five or six hikes without too much daily logistics. Sesto caught our attention because it sits in an interesting corner of Italy. To the south are the Sexten Dolomites, dramatic sharp peaks and pale rock. To the north and east are the Carnic Alps, softer in profile but full of border history and long views into Austria. The famous Tre Cime di Lavaredo (Drei Zinnen in German) is in the Sexten Dolomites.

This geography gave the week a nice rhythm. Some days were classic Dolomite hikes with walls of rock, scree, rifugi, and that theatrical sense that the mountains know they are being photographed. Other days were grassy ridges, border stones, old military positions, and the feeling of walking through history without knowing it until you stopped and really looked and asked.

Also, this is South Tyrol, so every place has at least two names, an Italian and a German name. Sesto/Sexten. Moso/Moos. Val Fiscalina/Fischleintal. Croda Rossa/Rotwand. Monte Elmo/Helm. By the end of the week, we were not necessarily fluent in the local naming system, but we were less surprised by it. Some head slapping moments when we finally unraveled word meanings:

“Zinnen” is the German word for “pinnacles” or “crenellations”. “Drei” is three, so The Tre Cime di Lavaredo is Drei Zinnen in German.
Our hotel Alpenblick just means an "alpine view".
Croda Rossa, where two of our hikes took place, is in German Rotwand (red “rot” and wall or rock face “wand”).
On Hikes 1 and 4, we saw boundary stones on the border of Italy and Austria, with Ö or O for Austria and I for Italy. The O is for Österreich, the Old High German name meaning “eastern realm”.

Hike Notes

We stayed in Moso (Moos) at Hotel Alpenblick. For hiking, Moso worked extremely well. It is not just “near” Val Fiscalina. It feels positioned perfectly for Val Fiscalina without actually being in it. There are trails, buses, and lift connections close enough that you can just walk out from your hotel and enjoy the day.

In late June, the area was awake but not yet fully in peak summer mode. Trails are active, rifugi are opening or already open, flowers are out, and the crowds are not at their August maximum. The tradeoff is that you must check openings carefully, especially for rifugi you plan to eat at.

And the weather could be hit or miss with storms in June. Ironically, we didn’t get any storms but instead very hot conditions as parts of Europe were under a heat dome. Do we have to move our June hikes to May?

A few practical notes:

This year we were medium-level hikers in terms of effort. We definitely have done more in past years but took it easy this year. None of the hikes here are meant to be extreme, but these are still mountain hikes. Distance and elevation gains matter.
All distances and elevation gains should be checked against your own GPS tracks before publishing.
The names below use a mix of Italian and German, because that is how the area works. Pick one name system to use in your internal naming system and be prepared to encounter both names on signs, maps, lifts, and menus.
We used lifts strategically. This is not cheating. This is using available infrastructure to get higher sooner and preserve knees for the parts of the day that look better in photos. Also, given the unusual high temperatures we encountered, it was nice to start higher and cooler, even if for a few degrees.
We planned many hikes around rifugi or malghe. This is typical Travelmarx behavior. A hiking route with a good lunch stop has persuasive power that pure scenery cannot always match.
We tried to avoid long drives. One reason Sesto worked so well is that several hikes could begin directly from Moso or with short connections. (As we noted, buses are frequent.)
One of the most famous mountain huts of the area Rifugio Locatelli (Dreizinnenhütte) opened on the last day we were there. We did not do the very popular hike from Val Fiscalina to Locatelli for that view of the Tre Cima that everyone wants. We started in Val Fiscalina and took the path to Rifugio Comici instead. We estimated that there were ten-times more people on the Locatelli trail!
We did half board at Hotel Alpenblick, which meant that we had breakfast and dinner at the hotel and just worried about lunch. This can be a convenient option for three reasons: 1) After a long day of hiking you just need to return to the hotel, unwind, take a swim, clean up, and roll down to dinner. 2) In a smaller place like Moso, the choices for dining out are more limited. 3) This is how these places sort of work!
If you get half board, there is plenty to eat. Each night the menu changes, and you get options between vegetarian or meat dishes or just about anything. They work hard to provide variation.

Hike 1: Sillianerhütte and Hornischegg (Monte Arnese)

Hike 2: Croda Rossa - Anderter Alpe - Bellum Aquilarum

Hike 3: Rifugio Comici (Zsigmondy-Comici Area)

Track Summaries
Hike 1: Sillianerhütte and Hornischegg (Monte Arnese)

Hike 2: Croda Rossa - Anderter Alpe - Bellum Aquilarum

Hike 3: Rifugio Comici (Zsigmondy-Comici Area)

Hike 4: Loop Hike Above Malga Klammbach

Hike 5: Croda Rossa to Opera 10

Hike 1: Sillianerhütte and Hornischegg (Monte Arnese)

Duration: 6 hours (including lunch)
Elevation gain: 610 m (2000 ft)
Length: 12.1 km (7.5 mi)
High point: about 2,550 m
Lunch spot: Sillianerhütte
Start: Helm / Monte Elmo area (top of cable car). We drove to the valley station from Moso, but the bus works fine too.
Hike type: Out and back, with minor variation coming back.
Scenery: Open, border ridge walking between Italy and Austria

This was a good first-day hike because it immediately lays out the geography of the region before you. To one side were the jagged Sexten Dolomites. To the other was Austria. We were walking on a Carnic ridge, grassy, broad in places, and marked by boundary stones that made the idea of a border feel strangely flimsy and casual. Can I really put my feet on both sides of the boundary stone and be in two countries at once?

We started via the Helm / Monte Elmo area (top of cable car) and made our way toward Sillianerhütte, continuing toward Hornischegg (Monte Arnese). The Dolomites appear as a serrated wall in the distance, while the ridge itself feels open and airy.

During the hike, we passed through traces of World War 1 and 2. In fact, throughout our week in Sesto, history kept reappearing. See the bunker section below.

Hike 2: Croda Rossa - Anderter Alpe - Bellum Aquilarum

Duration: 7 hours (including lunch)
Elevation gain: 877 m (2,877 ft)
Length: 17 km (10.5 mi)
Lunch spot: Rifugio Rudi
Start: Moso center. This was a leave-the-car home day.
Hike type: Loop.
Scenery: Views toward Tre Cima, Val Fiscalina, plus World War I history.

This hike combines mountain scenery with the historical remains around Croda Rossa (Rotwand). The loop route took us through areas connected to the mountain war, including the Bellum Aquilarum open-air museum and traces of military infrastructure.

The strange thing about these places is how easily beauty and violence occupy the same landscape. You look out over Val Fiscalina, admire the peaks, and then notice the remains of positions that were never meant to be picturesque. The mountains are doing their usual indifferent mountain thing, while humans have left behind evidence of having made everything much more complicated.

We started by a long slog up to Croda Rossa Prati (where the cable car ends up). You can cut this part off if you’d like. From the prati, we left the civilized part and followed something called Sentieri degli Alpini (CAI100) until we came to a point call Bellum Aquilarum and then turned back on a loop to have lunch at Riguio Rudi. After lunch, we took CAI19A down to Val Fiscalina (not a pretty trail at the end) and walked back to Moso.

It gave context to the landscape. Without the historical remains, Croda Rossa would already be scenic. With them, it becomes more layered and harder to treat as just a backdrop.

Hike 3: Rifugio Comici (Zsigmondy-Comici Area)

Duration: 5 hours total (including lunch)
Elevation gain: 799 m (2,621 ft)
Length: 13.4 km (8.3 mi)
High point: 2,230 m (7,316 ft)
Lunch spot: Rifugio Comici
Start: Parking lot in Val Fiscalina. We drove but again, the bus is perfectly fine (and cheaper).
Hike type: Out and back.
Scenery: Classic Sexten Dolomites hike into a dramatic rock basin
Highlights: Val Fiscalina, rock walls, Rifugio Comici, classic rifugio lunch

We almost skipped this hike, which would have been a mistake. This is a recurring theme in hiking: the day you almost do not do becomes one of the days you remember most clearly. Is there aa German compound noun for this?

The hike toward Rifugio Comici takes you into the heart of the Sexten Dolomites. The scenery becomes more enclosed and dramatic as you move deeper into the mountains. Rock walls rise around you, and the scale shifts from “nice alpine walk” to “we are very small and should perhaps order lunch.”

Rifugio Comici is a classic destination for the area, and it worked well as the center of the day. We like a rifugio that feels earned. This was the hike of our five that had the “inside the Dolomites” feeling. All other hikes were more views across a landscape; this one felt like entering the landscape.

If someone had one substantial hike from Val Fiscalina and wanted a classic Sexten Dolomites experience, this would be high on the list.

You start on the same parking lot / last bus top (here) to do any of the following:

Enjoy the area around Hotel Dolomitenhof
Walk to Rifugio Fondovalle (Talschlusshütte) - family friendly
Continue on to Rifugio Locatelli or Rifugio Comici

The trail to Locatelli and Rifugio Comici starts the same but diverges right after Rifugio Fondovalle. Some hikers make a loop between them. On the day we were there, 1 out of every 10 hikers was going to Comici and the rest to Locatelli. Why? Locatelli gives you the classic Tre Cima view that everyone wants to snap. We took this photo back in 2021 (see this post) and didn’t feel we needed to repeat it.

Rest Day: Lago di Anterselva

Duration: Depends, but < 1 hour
Elevation gain: minimal
Length: about 4 km
Scenery: Alpine lake.
Start: Anterselva Lake Car Park on west end of lake or we saw parking at Platzl am See at the east end of the lake.

After several hiking days, Lago di Anterselva was our recovery outing. The loop around the lake is easy, scenic, and civilized.

The lake is beautiful, though perhaps less dramatic than we expected. This says more about our expectations than the lake. Once you have been staring at Dolomite walls all week, your internal drama meter becomes badly calibrated. A perfectly lovely alpine lake can start to feel like it should do more tricks. Add to that, it was quite busy. And to think we chose this lake instead of the more famous Lago Braes because this was said to have less tourist pressure.

The drive up the valley was pretty, and we met a couple on the trail from Cremona who were also staying at our hotel. A small thing that made the day a little more special.

On the way back to Sesto, we stopped at Latteria Tre Cime – Mondolatte in Dobbiaco and had an okay lunch. We were most excited to try their cheese plate, which we ordered, but found the cheeses to be bland. To add injury to insult, the museum only seemed open to tour groups and when we tried to pull open the door, it was locked. Last strike: the onsite grocery store had nice mountain/local products, but that you could find anywhere – it seemed.

Hike 4: Loop Hike Above Malga Klammbach

Duration: 5.5 hours (including lunch)
Elevation gain: 732 m (2,401 ft)
Length: 12.4 km (7.7 mi)
High point: 2,563 m (8,409 ft)
Lunch spot: Malga Klammbach
Start: Tre Cime cable car (mountain station). We drove to the valley station, but a bus was possible.
Hike type: Loop.
Scenery: High ridge walking with panoramic views; a continuation of hike 1.
This may have been the prettiest hike of the week. Good weather helped, and so did the decision to begin high using the lift. We are not purists. We are people with knees, appetites, and a finite number of vacation days make such choices.

You could consider this a continuation of hike 1. Starting with the Tre Cime cable car put us quickly on higher ground, where the views opened up and the walking became panoramic. It was also surprisingly quiet, which is always a bonus in the Dolomites, where the difference between “trail” and “procession” can depend on the hour, the month, and the proximity of a famous parking lot.

Hike 5: Croda Rossa to Opera 10

Duration: 6.25 hours (including lunch)
Elevation gain: 500 m (1,640 ft)
Length: 14.2 km (8.8 mi)
Lunch spot: Rifugio Rudi (second lunch here)
Start: directly from Hotel Alpenblick / Moso. Our second leave-the-car home hike.
Hike type: Out and back.
Scenery: Accessible final hike combining views and history. Not crowded at all.

For our final hiking day, we did a route from Croda Rossa to Opera 10, starting directly from the hotel. Unlike hike 2, we didn’t walk up to the Croda Rossa prati. We took the cable car.

This hike combined some spectacular scenery along the northeastern flanks of the Croda Rossa peak and historical military sites. By this point in the week, the repeated appearance of military remains had become part of how we understood the area. Sesto is not just a hiking destination with history attached. The history is embedded in the hiking.

Bonkers for bunkers

One unexpected theme of our week in Sesto was bunkers. What started as curiosity about a few ruined military structures near Sillianerhütte turned into a crash course on the Vallo Alpino del Littorio or Alpine Wall, Mussolini's vast Alpine defense system.

On our first hike, near Monte Arnese and Sillianerhütte, we came across concrete ruins that at first glance looked like World War I relics. After digging into their history, we learned they were more likely part of the late-1930s Italian frontier defense network. The reinforced concrete construction, standardized military design, and location along the border ridge all point to structures associated with the Guardia alla Frontiera, the specialized troops responsible for manning Italy's permanent border fortifications.

The story behind these fortifications is surprisingly complicated. Italy began building defenses along some of its borders in the early 1930s, but the situation changed dramatically in 1938 when Austria was annexed into Nazi Germany. Suddenly, South Tyrol bordered Hitler's Germany directly. Even after Mussolini and Hitler formalized their alliance in the Pact of Steel, Mussolini apparently remained wary of his northern neighbor. Construction accelerated between 1939 and 1940, and work continued until the autumn of 1942. In South Tyrol, the system became known by the sarcastic nickname "Linea non mi fido" — the "I don't trust you line."

A few days after our Sillianerhutte walk, we visited the Opera 1 Bunker Museum in Dobbiaco. This private museum helped connect the scattered ruins we had seen on the trails into a coherent story. The Dobbiaco barrier was built between 1939 and 1942 as part of the Alpine Wall and was intended to block movement through the Puster Valley, one of the most important east-west corridors in the region.

The most surprising thing we learned was that the story did not end with World War II. The Alpine Wall was never activated during the war and many structures were abandoned afterward. But when Italy joined NATO in 1949 and Cold War tensions rose, military planners saw renewed value in these mountain defenses. Beginning in the early 1950s, many bunkers were reactivated, modernized, and incorporated into NATO defense plans. At Dobbiaco, eight of the twelve original works were recommissioned between 1951 and 1952, receiving upgraded anti-tank capabilities and other improvements.

On our last hike of the week (hike 5), we found ourselves standing at Opera 10 near Passo Monte Croce di Comelico, exploring a bunker on our own after a hike from Croda Rossa. Reaching it required some scrambling up a washed-out slope, but it felt like a fitting conclusion to our bunker education. The bunker was one small piece of a much larger defensive system built to guard strategic invasion routes through the Alps. Like many Alpine Wall structures, it later became part of the Cold War fortification network that remained operational until decommissioning began in the 1980s and concluded in the early 1990s.

What struck us most was the layering of history. These mountains preserve traces of multiple eras of conflict: the First World War front lines, Fascist Italy's defensive preparations from 1938 to 1942, and decades of Cold War planning. The landscape today feels peaceful and remote, but for much of the twentieth century military planners saw these valleys and passes as critical corridors that might one day determine the fate of Europe.

Construction of the Vallo Alpino del Littorio stopped abruptly in 1942 because Italy no longer had the political, military, or economic capacity to continue the project. The halt was not due to a single event but to a convergence of pressures that made further fortification impossible and pointless such as:

Italy’s military collapse and shifting priorities
The fortifications were already proving ineffective
Changing geopolitical realities
Resource exhaustion and economic strain

Photos from the Bunker Museum (Dobbiaco)

Photos of war-related buildings in and around Sillianerhutte and Helmhaus

Photos of Opera 10 - Passo di Monte Croce di Comelico

Tips

Late June is a good compromise between weather, flowers, rifugio openings, and crowds. It is not risk-free. As always, check lift schedules and rifugio opening days.

Use lifts strategically. A lift-assisted start can turn a good hike into a better hike, especially if it lets you spend more time high and less time grinding up through service roads. And this would be the one gotcha we’d signal about this area. It had more dirt road trails that we like to be on. When more than a third of the hike is on a dirt road it quickly gets boring. Maybe it’s because this is a ski/mountain biking destination in the lower altitudes and we are responding to that?

Learn the bilingual place names. You do not need to master German, Italian, and local usage, but knowing the pairs helps: Sesto/Sexten, Moso/Moos, Val Fiscalina/Fischleintal, Croda Rossa/Rotwand, Monte Elmo/Helm.

Do at least one hike (if not more) that is not centered on the famous Tre Cime. The area has much more to offer than the headline attraction.

Do not ignore the history of the area. Around Croda Rossa and the border areas, the First World War remains are part of the landscape. Plan ahead to see the Bunker Museum in Dobbiaco at least if not other war-related landmarks.

Plan around rifugi, but verify openings. A closed rifugio is just a building with excellent views and no lunch, which is not the same thing according to Travelmarx.

Stay in Moso if you want practical access to Val Fiscalina and Croda Rossa. Sesto proper is nearby, but Moso felt a little smaller and more special, and especially convenient for our week.