I’m standing alone on a ledge high in the Italian Dolomites, a few metres from a vertiginous drop to a valley floor far below. With the sun slowly dipping below the jagged horizon, the frigid alpine air is turning my fingers numb and I can no longer feel the buttons of my camera. “Dinner’s ready,” comes a shout to call me back inside the nearby mountain hut, Rifugio Son Forca (pictured above), perched at an elevation of 2235 metres on the side of Monte Cristallo.
The warm window glow and promise of a hearty meal beckon, having built up an appetite hiking more than 15 kilometres through the Ampezzo Dolomites National Park to get here. But a spectacular show is about to begin and it’s something I’ve come across the world to see: The enrosadira. Enrosadira, or alpenglow, is the natural phenomenon of the Dolomites reflecting the fiery colours of sunrise and sunset.
