Along the crest of the three towers runs a line drawn in 1752 by the Treaty of Rovereto between Maria Theresa of Austria and Doge Francesco Loredan: it divided the Holy Roman Empire from the Republic of Venice and drops vertically, exactly above the summits. Today it separates Dobbiaco from Auronzo di Cadore and German from Italian; until 1919 it was the state border with Austria-Hungary, and between 1915 and 1917 the front line ran here. Trenches, tunnels and barracks are still visible on the massif and on nearby Monte Paterno.
What to see
The three summits are named for nothing but their size: the Cima Grande in the middle is the highest at 2,999 m, the Cima Ovest reaches 2,973 m, the Cima Piccola stops at 2,857 m. The north face of the Cima Grande is one of the great north walls of the Alps, partly overhanging and for decades held to be impossible: Emilio Comici from Trieste climbed it in 1933 with Giuseppe and Angelo Dimai from Cortina, after three days and two nights on the wall. A few months later Comici drew the Yellow Edge up the south side of the Cima Piccola. The ordinary routes are far older: Paul Grohmann reached the top of the Cima Grande on 21 August 1869 with the guides Franz Innerkofler and Peter Salcher, the Cima Ovest fell exactly ten years afterwards, on 21 August 1879, to Michel Innerkofler, and the Cima Piccola on 25 July 1881 to Michel and Hans Innerkofler.
The profile changes enormously depending on where you stand. From the south, at Rifugio Auronzo, you look at the southern flanks mirrored in Lake Misurina; from the north, at Rifugio Locatelli, you face the compact front of the three walls, the most reproduced image of the Dolomites; from the Landro valley the peaks line up edge-on and look almost like a single mountain. The plateau at their feet works as a watershed: the Rienza rises here and ends in the Adriatic, while the streams running north-east reach the Drava, then the Danube and the Black Sea. The area north of the group, inside the Tre Cime Nature Park, has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2009.
Visiting
The starting point is Rifugio Auronzo (2,320 m), at the end of the toll road up from Misurina: parking spaces are few and fill early on August days, so the Dolomiti Bus shuttle from Misurina is the sensible choice, along with the buses from Cortina, Auronzo and Calalzo di Cadore and those from Dobbiaco. The loop around the massif starts at the hut, a wide track with no technical difficulty: one kilometre east is Rifugio Lavaredo (2,325 m), then the path climbs to Forcella Lavaredo (2,454 m) and carries on to Rifugio Locatelli (2,438 m), below the north faces. Walking up from the valley floor is possible by many routes, from Lake Landro along the Rienza valley, from Val Fiscalina, from Val Campo di Dentro, but those are half-day approaches.
Our editors' tip
Start early and go anticlockwise, towards Rifugio Lavaredo: by mid-morning the toll road is saturated, and the north faces only catch the light in the afternoon, when the sun swings west and lifts the three towers off the background. Carry a proper jacket even in August: the group is sheltered by the ranges around it, but when a cold front passes, fog, wind and snow arrive within hours. And on the stretch between Forcella Lavaredo and Monte Paterno, stop at the memorial built from the rotor blades of the army helicopter that came down on 9 July 1974: it is a reminder that these are not tame mountains.
