A WINTER ELOPEMENT IN THE DOLOMITESKristina & Cristian

April 16, 2026

Kristina and Cristian picked the two most photographed places in the Dolomites and then went in winter, when there is nobody there to photograph them but me.

Lago di Braies and Passo Giau in summer are a scrum. Coaches, tripods, a queue for the rowing boats, a drone somewhere overhead. Go in the cold months and the same places empty out completely, the boats frozen in, the roads half shut, the whole postcard under a metre of snow with nobody in it but the two of them. That is the version worth having, and it is the one almost nobody sees.

It was cold in the way that stops being a number and becomes the thing you plan the whole day around. Short bursts outside, back to the car, hands on the heater, out again. The trade for the suffering is a good one: in winter you get these places to yourselves. No audience, no queue for the good spot. Just Kristina and Cristian, a lot of white silence, and, in a few frames, a dog that came along for it.

Lago di Braies

Lago di Braies is the one you have seen a thousand times, the wooden boathouse and the little red boats, except every version you have seen is green and full of people.

A frozen curve of Lago di Braies below the peaks, a Dolomites winter elopementKristina with her bouquet in the snow, a Dolomites winter elopement
Dawn light over the snowy Dolomites, winter in Italy The Braies valley under snow, the couple tiny in the trees, Dolomites winter elopement The Lago di Braies boathouse on the frozen lake, elope in the Dolomites in winter

In deep winter the lake freezes hard enough to walk on, the boats are pulled up and iced over, and the boathouse that in summer has a queue outside it is shut up and empty. Kristina and Cristian had the whole place to themselves. There is another elopement at this lake on the site if you want to see the same water without the ice. This is what Braies looks like once the season turns and everyone goes home.

Cristian on the red boats by the Braies boathouse, the Dolomites in winter Walking the snowy shore of Lago di Braies with a dog, Dolomites winter elopement The frozen lake and snowy peaks at Lago di Braies, Dolomites, Italy
Snowy peaks reflected in Lago di Braies, a Dolomites winter elopementKristina and Cristian embracing on the frozen lakeshore, Lago di Braies
The couple tiny on the frozen lake below the peaks, the Dolomites in winterTwo figures on the frozen lake beneath the mountains, Dolomites winter elopement
Kristina walking the snow in her dress, Lago di Braies, Dolomites The couple among snow and rock at Lago di Braies, a winter elopement

They walked out across the ice toward the far wall of the valley, which in the Dolomites means a couple of thousand feet of rock going straight up out of the snow. Two people look very small, very fast, against that. Then the sun came around the peak and turned the whole basin gold for about twenty minutes, and I did the only sensible thing, which is stop talking and work.

Kristina and Cristian on the snowy rocks at Braies, Dolomites, Italy The couple embracing below the Braies peaks, a Dolomites winter elopement

Passo Giau

Passo Giau is higher, wilder, and for half the year you cannot even drive up to it.

A bare larch and the couple below the snowy towers, Passo GiauThe couple walking hand in hand at Passo Giau, a Dolomites winter elopementA lone larch and the couple in the snow at Passo Giau, the Dolomites
The jagged snowy peaks above Passo Giau, the Dolomites in winter Kristina and Cristian walking the snowfields of Passo Giau, a winter elopement The Dolomites panorama from Passo Giau under snow, Italy

The pass tops out above two thousand metres, and in winter the road over it is often shut behind gates. When it is open in the cold it is one of the great empty places in the Alps, all jagged towers and open snowfields with the odd bent larch for scale. Kristina and Cristian walked it in wedding clothes, in a cold I could feel through two jackets. There is another elopement up here on the site from warmer months. This was the harder, colder, better version.

Long winter shadows across the snow at Passo Giau, Dolomites winter elopement The pyramid peak of Ra Gusela above snowy Passo Giau, the Dolomites Kristina and Cristian below the peak at Passo Giau, a winter elopement in Italy The couple crossing the snowfields with the Dolomites behind, Passo Giau

By late afternoon the light went long and pink across the towers, and the two of them were still out in it, walking, in no hurry to be warm. That is what an elopement gives you, in the end: no timetable, no room full of people checking their watches. You stay until you are done, and you are done when you decide you are.

Walking toward the peak at Passo Giau, a Dolomites winter elopement Kristina and Cristian close together in the snow, Passo Giau, Dolomites The couple walking the ridge below the towers, a Dolomites winter elopement Kristina and Cristian at the Cinque Torri in winter, the Dolomites Last light on the peaks as the couple walk the snow, Dolomites winter elopement

If you have been looking at these two places and quietly deciding you want them without the crowds, a Dolomites winter elopement is how you get that. Bring a warmer coat than you think you need. I will be the one asking you to stand still for one more minute in the cold, and you will be glad you did.

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