Rifugio Baion

Rifugio Baion is an alpine hut in Cadore. It sits at 1826 m. Reported capacity: 45 beds.

Hut to hut on foot

Nearest staffed huts on walking trails from Rifugio Baion: Rifugio Ciareido (~1 h), Rifugio Bajon (~1 h 03 min), Rifugio Cerca (~1 h 06 min).

Estimated times for an average hiker, based on distance and elevation.

Staying at Rifugio Baion

The Marmarole’s friendly front porch: a family kitchen at the end of an old military road, two valleys away from the crowds.

The Marmarole are the empty quarter of the Dolomites: a wild, jagged group between Auronzo and the Piave valley that most itineraries skip entirely. Rifugio Baion “Elio Boni”, at 1,826 m above Domegge di Cadore, is the gentle way in. It is the kind of hut where the manager remembers your name by dinner, the plates come from the Cadore tradition, and the terrace looks at peaks you will struggle to name because nobody photographs them. That is the point.

Staying the night

45 beds: 24 in small rooms of two to eight with bathrooms on the corridor, plus a 21-bed dormitory. There is a proper shower and the simple comfort level of a hut that hosts more families and locals than trekkers. Open from late May, earlier than the high huts.

The food

Authentic Cadore cooking is the draw: canederli, casunziei, game and polenta done the way the valley eats them, at valley prices. People drive up the military road just for Sunday lunch, which tells you what you need to know.

Booking reality

Refreshingly easy by Dolomites standards: phone or email, and outside August weekends you have a real chance walking in. If the famous huts’ booking wars have worn you down, this is the antidote.

Getting there

By car from Lozzo di Cadore up the old military road (~16 km, narrow, with regulated alternating one-way times in summer). On foot from Domegge (via Grea or Deppo), from Calalzo on trails 260/261, or from Auronzo through Val Da Rin. From the hut, Rifugio Ciareido is an easy ~40 min away across the Pian dei Buoi plateau.

Good to know

• The Baion–Ciareido loop over Pian dei Buoi is one of Cadore’s best easy family walks; the two huts pair naturally for a lazy weekend.
• The southern Marmarole trails from here are genuinely lonely: carry a map and tell the hut where you’re headed.
• This is the quiet-Dolomites experience people claim no longer exists.