Justus Rehn

You step off a train after a weekend away and you can see it. Two days. That’s all it took. A little more wind. A little more grey. Nothing has moved yet, but something already has.

Autumn doesn’t start on a date. It starts on a day you notice.

At first it feels uncomfortable. Then, if you let it, it becomes the most beautiful thing the year has to offer. The colours. The mood. The way everything turns a little more deliberate.

Every autumn I catch myself doing the same maths. Eighty summers, eighty autumns, if you are lucky. I stop before I get to my own number. So I make sure to spend what’s left somewhere that deserves the season.

For me that is hiking in the Italian Dolomites. The Schlüterhütte (Rifugio Genova) sits at 2306 metres in the heart of the Puez-Odle Nature Park of South Tyrol. From up there the paths run in every direction and you have to choose one.

I have been coming here alone. That took some getting used to. It still does.

One day I would like to share this with someone who sees the beauty in it. Until then I will fight for the time, because up here I can finally think.

Every path, every turn, every breathless moment at the top changes something.

The sweat, the burn, the wobbly knees on the way down. It is supposed to feel like that. It reminds you that you are fully in it. That you have more control than you think.

The light changes before the leaves do. Maybe we do too.

Enjoy your autumn.

Justus

—
From THE DOLOMITES COLLECTION II