The best alpine flower walk in the Dolomites?

[David Sellars]

I am sure everyone has their favourite alpine flower walk in the Dolomites but a recent trip along the Cresta de le Sele just blew us away.  We went up there on July 16 to try and find Androsace wulfeniana which was reported to be there in Jim Jermyn’s book, Mountain Flower Walks, the Eastern Alps.  We did not find the plant in flower but pretty much every other alpine plant to be found in the Dolomites was there in profusion. There are two reasons why the plants were so abundant; the ridge crest alternates between limestone and volcanic rock every 100 m or so and the sharp crest provides northerly and southerly aspects.  For example on the north side on volcanic rock there were flowers such as Androsace alpina, Androsace vitaliana and Ranunculus glacialis.  In limestone crevices there were plants such as Potentilla nitida,  Saxifraga caesia and Androsace helvetica. 

The ridge starts at the Pas de le Sele at 2530 m and runs southwest to a high point marked on the map as Acholet at 2582 m.  Beyond Acholet the going appears to become more challenging so we stopped at the summit where there is volcanic rock supporting fine flowering specimens of Primula glutinosa and Eritrichium nanum.  I was particularly pleased to find Saxifraga bryoides in flower.

For me the best alpine flower walk should have a profusion of choice alpines, excellent views and relatively easy access.  The views to the Rosengarten, Langkofel and Pala Group were outstanding.  The Cresta de le Sele can be easily reached from the Passo San Pellegrino using the Costabella chair lift that whisks you up from 1906 m to 2273 m.  From there it is only another 250 m of of ascent to the Pas de le Sele. The path along the crest is narrow and only those who are confident in slightly exposed situations should attempt the route along the crest.

A map can be found at this link:

http://www.italiantouristoffice.se/sv/docs/360.pdf

[Maggi Young]

Easy to see why you warn about the crest, David!  Super plants and the views are spectacular -what a place!

[krisderaeymaeker]

Super plants and super images David ! Please let us see more of that .........

[ranunculus]

This is a new ridge for us, David … looks spectacular … oh that we could be permitted to see these images a little larger, Maggi? 

[Maggi Young]

Images for the forum must be under 200kb - but  it is possible to post photos of much greater pixel size than the recommended 760  maximum width if desired -  such photos under 200 kb will still give superb  reproduction on the screen.  Many do complain if photos are so large as to require scrolling on an average screen.
It is always possible to enlarge any picture onscreen of course  by (control/scroll) of course - and those with good original focus will still be  beautiful - as can be seen from David's pix.

[Maggi Young]

Ian has just made the excellent suggestion to me that if David would like to write up this walk for the International Rock Gardener the photos could be larger there.........    Sometime that chap has a great idea... 

editor@internationalrockgardener.net   

[ranunculus]

    Sounds good!!! 

Ian has just made the excellent suggestion to me that if David would like to write up this walk for the International Rock Gardener the photos could be larger there.........    Sometime that chap has a great idea... 

editor@internationalrockgardener.net   

[David Sellars]

Yes indeed Maggi, it is an amazing place.  This is our fourth trip to the Dolomites and we have never before found such an impressive natural alpine rock garden.  Cliff is right; it is spectacular.

The ridge walking is not as intimidating as it looks in the photos. Most of it is quite easy with only a couple of places where extra care is needed. At some locations there are paths on the north side and the south side of the crest so you can get up close to the plants growing in the crevices in the shattered rock.  And to cap it all there is a splendid refugio at the Pas de le Sele.

The ridge was the Austrian front line in the 1914-18 war so there are some tunnels through the crest and excavated lookouts.

For Kris, I am going to post 20 more images all taken on July 16. The photos show just some of the plants we saw along just over a kilometre of the ridge.  I sense that this year was a heavy snow year in the Dolomites and that it has been a cool spring and cool early summer.  In other years, July 16 may be a bit late to see all the plants in flower.  Here are the first five photos.

[David Sellars]

Here are five more images from the Cresta de le Selle.  The view of the Rosengarten is across the top of the knife edged crest with Eritrichium on the south side of the crest.

The photo of the typical shattered rock is on the north side of the ridge and, if you look closely,  the crevices are full of Androsace alpina.

[David Sellars]

Here are the next five images.  in the photo called "rock garden" the plants include Eritrichium, Arenaria sp, Saxifraga paniculata, Saxifraga  moschata and many others

[David Sellars]

Last five 

It was amazing for us to find so many flowering alpines in such a relatively small area.  Other plants that we noted that are not included in the 25 photos posted, were Linaria alpina, Aster alpinus, Silene acaulis, Saxifraga caesia, Thlaspi alpinum, Thlaspi rotundifolium, Anemone baldensis, Veronica sp, Arabis sp, Armeria alpina, Phyteuma sieberi, Erinus alpinus, Leontopodium alpinum, Acinos alpinus, Ranunculus seguieri, Dryas octopetala and Achillea clavennae.

[ruweiss]

David, thank you so much for showing us so many fine pictures
from this floral paradise.

[krisderaeymaeker]

It is paradise , you are right Rudi .....

[Lori S.]

Wonderful plants and views!  Thanks for posting.

[David Sellars]

Today (July 25)  dawned fine and clear with a sunny forecast so we headed back up to the Cresta de le Selle. We had been so overwhelmed by the richness of the flora on July 16 that we were sure we had missed some species.  Plus we hoped to get more photos in clear weather.

Unfortunately it soon clouded over and by the time we got to Cima Acholet, about a kilometre along the ridge, the wind was blowing and cold rain was driving. It did not dampen our enthusiasm for the location though and despite the fact that we had last been there 9 days ago, there were still plenty of flowering plants.  Some new images follow.  Sorry about the grey skies. We were grateful to escape to the Refugio where they do an excellent Apfelstrudel.
    Arenaria sp.
    Aster alpinus
    Gentiana terglouensis.jp
    Ranuculus glacialis and Refugio
    Saxifraga paniculata