As some of you may have assumed from looking at the pictures I have shared from my short-content account 
After arriving in Sexten on Thursday late at night, Friday was the first day we would be able to explore the beautiful Dolomites with their world-famous Three Peaks of Lavaredo - or as we call them, the "Drei Zinnen". And of course, this beautiful mountain formation was also the goal of our first hike in the Dolomites.
Since, due to a lack of climbing experience, climbing the "Drei Zinnen" themselves was no option yet, we decided to go for the via ferrata (a secured climbing route) leading to the Paternkofel, a 2744 meters high mountain right next to the famous peaks. The Paternkofel doesn't only make up for an amazing view on the Drei Zinnen, but is also a mountain with a lot of historic significance, as we will see later in this post.
The start of our daytrip was in the valley Fischleintal, more exactly at the parking space Fischleinbodenhütte right next to the hotel Dolomitenhof. I think we payed like 5€ for a whole day of parking, which seems quite fair to me. From there, we took the marked trail 102, which was promising to take us to the famous Drei Zinnen in around three hours of walking time and close to 1000 meters of elevation.
After you leave the parking lot, the first twenty minutes were a chilled walk to the end of the valley, marked by the Talschlusshütte. After you turn to the right of the valley there, the hike gets exhausting. But every meter of attitude you climb is rewarded with an even better view of the surrounding mountains.
What we have read about the hike before turned out to be true. The three hours of hiking were accompanied by many scenic views and amazing impressions of the Dolomites. We were still happy that we had made it that far, when we finally reached the famous Dreizinnenhütte (Tripadvisor link) in front of the Drei Zinnen.
Luckily we got a nice table and had the opportunity to recharge with a yummy meal and a refreshing wheat beer before going for our main target, the Paternkofel.
A little warning before we continue with our hike: If you should plan to sleep over at the Dreizinnenhütte, you should make your reservation months ahead - Due to the fame of the location, spontaneous sleepovers there are unfortunately not possible, as the lodge is usually fully booked out for weeks or even months.
and myself!
!
After enjoying our break and doing a little photo session with the Drei Zinnen, we walked to the so called Frankfurter Würstel - a stone formation that obviously reminded somebody of the famous sausages. For us, it was the starting point of the via ferrata up to the Paternkofel. And now, history of mankind comes into play. The via ferrata includes dozens (they felt like hundreds) of steps through tunnels that have been made during World War I.
The mountain peak we were trying to reach, was a very important strategic point in the mountain war between the Austrian and Italian forces around a hundred years ago. Hundreds and thousands of men have died where people nowadays are standing with their smartphones and making Instagram stories. When walking up the secured climbing route, you pass many tunnels and bunkers that have been made during those dark times. (Side note: Taking a flesh- or even better headlight with you is mandatory for this hike!)
I don't want to go into too much historic details in this post, but I have digged out some interesting videos and links for people with a deeper interest in what has happened up there in the past. If you belong to those people, I can really recommend following this link for some original pictures and checking out the video series "The Great War on the Alps" by the Youtuber Millstream Films and Media. I have embedded the first two parts, because they deal with what happened around and even in the mountain Paternkofel mentioned in this post. However, I can really recommend watching the other four parts as well!
After we had left the part with the old war tunnels, we were only a few meters away from the desired peak. The view back at the climbing route was stunning.
Unfortunately, the weather got a worse and we had a little trouble finding the right route to peak after the secured part of the via ferrata had ended. We actually should have listened to the meaning of the word "right" and turned to the right. Unfortunately, we decided to go left, which lead us to those rocks
We still made the peak with some semi-dangerous freestyle climbing, but I really would recommend talking the way safer route to the right, if you ever should get there as well.
At the peak, we enjoyed the view, which was quite amazing despite of the cloudy weather, with the Radler we brought with us.
And while we were enjoying, my iPhone was working for me and recorded this little time-lapse video of the Drei Zinnen. I really love the action of the clouds, I hope you do too!
Soon after this video we continued with our hike, as the time was already quite late looking at the long walk back to the valley that was in front of us. We choose a different route for the descent, doing about one more kilometer of the via ferrata along the so called Gamsscharte. With the rising density of fog, it was quite a spooky atmosphere. Spooky, but still beautiful.
Finally, after around six hours of pure hiking and/or climbing time, covering more than 18 kilometers of distance and 1600 meters of elevation difference, we arrived back at the parking lot.
Of course we had deserved some delicious Italian pizza for our activities, so we stopped by at the Pizzeria Martina on our way home. We had to wait around 15 minutes for a table, but the waiting time was absolutely worth it, as the Pizza was great and the special beer they offered was as well! But of course, we only drank one bottle, as there already were some big plans for the next day. After dinner, we finally arrived at our home for three days, the Hotel & Appartments Strobl right next to the church of Sexten. It's nothing luxurious, but if you are just looking for a clean and cozy place to sleep plus a good breakfast, it is definitely choice worth considering. And if you are as lucky as we were, you even get the apartment with the ping-pong table in front of it.
to lose even after leading 5-0? 😜Back at home, we fell asleep within minutes. Fortunately, as the next day turned out to be even more exhausting. If you are curious what we explored the next day, be sure to not miss the second part of this mini-series about our trip to the Dolomites!
See you,
Martin
P.S.: If you want to get some more impressions from the Dolomites while waiting for part 2, I can recommend this old post (Climbing on an old via ferrata of the First World War in the stunning Dolomites) by 
Disclaimer: All pictures in this post have been taken by me or my friends with our smartphones and edited with the app Snapseed. You can use the pictures if you want, but please don't forget to mention me as the owner. Furthermore I want to make clear that I didn't receive a single cent from any of the brands/restaurants/etc. mentioned in this post!