Blog Posts in Category: Dolomites

The Punta Anna via ferrata is a classic route which climbs Punta Anna and then continues onto Tofana di Mezzo by combining three via ferratas: Ferrata di Punta Sant Anna, Ferrata Guiseppe Olivieri and then Ferrata Gianni Aglio. It is a long route which is graded 5c, so a fairly serious undertaking. Usually this route would finish at the lift station at Tofana di Mezzo, however at the start of July this lift was not yet open. This meant we had to descend using two other via ferratas (Ferrata Lamon and Formenton) which also involved climbing another peak, Tofana di Dentro. As the book gave this day 12 hours we reluctantly had yet another early start. The walk into the route from Rifugio Dibona was a harsh wake up in the morning as it was very steep. We arrived at the base of the route at the same time as another British couple, who we ended up spending the entire day with which was a lovely addition to our day. The climbing was very interesting as it was mainly focussed on rock and was also fairly technical whilst also not. Read the full article…

With a poor afternoon forecast we decided to have an early start on the Tomaselli via ferrata in order to avoid the crowds and make sure we were back down before the rain arrived. Apparently this route used to have the reputation of being the hardest via ferrata in the Dolomites. We joined the many other vans sleeping at the cable car station, which meant that we had as much sleep as possible before our early start. The morning was beautiful as there was not a cloud in the sky. The walk out of the car park was fairly brutal, and did lead to us questioning our decision to not use the lift, however the views were fantastic which did somewhat make up for the hard ascent. We made great time to the start of the route, as we were there before the cable car even opened. The start of the route was tricky, but not overly interesting as it required lots of cable pulling, interspersed with lots of very loose ledges. The second half of the route was significantly better than the first half. The rock was solid, the. Read the full article…

Due to a deteriorating weather forecast we decided to relocate to the Dolomites. On our first day we decided to climb the classic Giovanni Lipella route up the Tofana de Rozes. As it was a weekend we had an early start to avoid queueing on the route, which worked out really well as we didn’t have to wait for anyone all day. The route starts from a car park up a gravel road at 2000m, which made for an excellent overnight van camping spot. We woke up in the morning to rain which was a bit unexpected, but left the van anyway on the promise that it would soon clear up. The initial walk certainly woke us up and got the blood flowing, but we were soon at the Gallerie del Casterletto. The Gallerie del Casterletto is a set of tunnels which were created by the Italian military during WW1, and were fairly impressive due to the amount of height that was gained as we travelled through the tunnels. We ignored the sign to our route which exited the tunnels before the end, and climb to the top of the. Read the full article…

After a leisurely start we headed over to the Sella pass to do the Delle Mèsules via ferrata, unfortunately we discovered that the pass was closed to cars every Wednesday during the summer when we got to the bottom of the pass. Thankfully it turned out that we could get a bus up to the start of the route, it just meant that we had a defined finish time as it would be a very long walk back if we missed the bus. The short walk to the start was under the impressive Sella towers. The start of the via ferrata was the most sustained part of the route, with excellent climbing but some fairly long sections of cable which made it feel fairly exposed. After this first section of steep climbing there was an easier but unprotected section, this included a short chimney, an exposed ladder and then a climb up into a rift. We decided to get a rope out here and quickly moved together up this section. After exiting the confines of the rift, we moved around onto an exposed face. The climbing up this face was amazing. Read the full article…

We had a later than planned start as we found out that the via ferrata that we had planned on doing was closed after we had driven to it, paid to park and started the walk in. Due to being in a stunning valley we decided to go for a short walk where we were, before heading back over the pass we had just driven over to do the Brigata Tridentina via ferrata which is a very popular via ferrata. We were hoping that with the late start we would be able to avoid the crowds, but it was not to be. Thankfully for most of the via ferrata there wasn’t too much queuing. The first section of via ferrata was fairly short and straightforward, apart from the wet rock. A hot walk in the sun lead us to the second section of via ferrata which was were all of the good climbing was. We quickly made our way up the impressive face, with lots of excellent scrambling on good rock with some exposure thrown in for good measure. Most of the climb was in the shade, which was no. Read the full article…

With thunderstorms predicted for the afternoon we wanted a quick morning out was in order. Just above where we are staying is a classic short via ferrata called Piz da Lech. After a quick amble into Corvara we took the two lifts up to near the start of the via ferrata. It had started to look cloudy, but after a quick discussion we decided that we probably had enough time to finish the via ferrata. The route was fantastic as the cable provided excellent protection but it was not necessary to use the cable, all of the moves could be done by climbing the rock. Towards the end of the via ferrata there was a short bridge over a steep gully and then some ladders up the steep final headwall. A short walk lead us to the summit where we were able to enjoy the contrasting views from the rocky high mountains to the lush green valleys below. After a fairly quick descent we were soon back at the lift station and were able to enjoy lunch in the sun with a stunning view of the dolomites. As it turned. Read the full article…

After a very wet first night in the Dolomites we woke up to a fantastic day so headed up for a classic via ferrata. We decided on Via Delle Trincee / La Mesola which is predominantly a ridge traverse which provided stunning positions and views of the Dolomites. The start of the route was the crux which provided a sharp warm up, this climbing quickly lead to amazing exposure and stunning views of the Dolomites. After the first section of via ferrata we found our first evidence of the WW1 heritage, in the form of a lookout tunnel and a traverse with evidence of old buildings and fixtures in the rock. A steep down climb lead to the end of the second section of via ferrata, and most of the good climbing. The final section was filled with history with numerous WW1 buildings and lots of tunnels. This was really interesting but it must have been a hard place to have served in the war. After navigating our way around the tunnels we soon came to the end of the via ferrata, and make a quick descent down to the. Read the full article…