Gear

A friend is off to Villabassa in the Dolomites next week and we've been discussing which clothes would be most appropriate. It'll be walking ,most/every day - no climbing involved. Anybody been out there at this time of year and able to provide some feedback?

TIA

I've been to the Dolomites in early/mid September several times and my experience is to expect anything! Hopefully it'll be sunny shorts & t-shirt weather most of the time, but I've also encountered torrential rain and thunderstorms, and snowfall that blocked the roads. Up above 2000m this combined with very strong winds created conditions as bad as any I've encountered in Scottish winter - we struggled to get from the cable-car to the hut, and even with hat, gloves, 100-weight fleece, windproof and Paclite we were quite chilled very quickly. That said it only lasted a few hours.

Sorry, that maybe doesn't help much, but it really is one of those cases of "hope for the best, prepare for the worst".

I was there in June and July this year and would agree with Matt; we were around 2500-3000m and had 90 degree heat, sleet, and serious thunderstorms.

Think Scottish Winter kit......

Weather forecasts (not eminently reliable here and here

I've just got back from my 3rd trip there (all in early Sept). It was hot and sunny all of last week but we were lucky. In the past we've had every kind of weather there in Sept.


It really depends what routes your mate is doing. If they are staying low then normal walking kit will suffice. If they intend to stay or camp high a lot then they'll need full winter kit just in case the weather turns nasty and blocks any routes.