This was to be the highlight walk of the week, inspired partly by Alpine Exploratory's Stage 4 of the Alta Via 9, and Collett's "Sella Shelf" walk. I had the walk notes for both and Rifugio Maria to Rifugio Franz Kostner was an amalgamation of the two.

The start point was Passo Pordoi, reached in around an hour on the 472 bus from Corvara. The Sass Pordoi cable car then took me from 2,238 m to Rifugio Maria at 2,950m, where I started the walk.

The first part was simple, a short walk of less than a kilometer to Rifugio Forcella Pordoi at 2,848m. From here I descended a scree slope, rather reminiscent of the scree slope at Forcella Lagazoi on the Alta Via 1. The tricky part was to be confident about the 626 path off to the left, as it is not signposted. The AE notes told me that it was marked by a simple pole, and this was not obvious at first sight. It is in an area where you have come off the scree and are in the middle of an area of large rocks. Once on the 626 the route was simple to follow, except that it was very rocky in places and the path was not obvious. Also, the path had washed away in several places making it tricky to cross the resulting gully. The high cliffs were on my left so it was a case of following the cliff line; sometimes right up against the rock and in places under an overhang. I suppose rocks and stones fall from these cliffs from time to time, but you don't have to think of this as you walk beneath them! It was quite a lonely trail and I did not see anyone else until I reached the junction with the path 628 which comes up from Ossario del Pordoi. A small group of ladies with a guide had just come up as I reached this point, and it was nice to have some company on the trail. Eventually we came to another junction where the 626 meets the 637, and this led to Rifugio Franz Kostner. I got my first glimpse of Rifugio Franz Kostner after walking 5.1 km, but there was nearly 3 km to go at this point. As I reached Franz kostner I could see the Vallon Chairlift in the distance; at first sight it did not appear to be running and it was already 3-40pm. I pushed on to the chairlift station fearing it might close at 4 pm. For Euro 19-40 I purchased a single ticked to take me down the vallon Chairlift and the Boe cable car to Corvara.

It had been a tiring day, particularly due to the nature of the path underfoot. I waited for the shuttle bus to take me back up to the Panorama Sporthotel at Arlara, but the bus was full before I could get on! rather than wait another 30 minutes I decided to walk, which added another 110m of elevation to my efforts for the day.