Dolomites Questions

[Jim]

I haven't been climbing in Europe for 15 yrs, and never in Italy. I'm planning a month-long trip for July and trying to mix some Refuge hiking, Via Ferrate, and some climbing. I'd rather avoing lugging all my gear and may opt for a few days of guided climbing. The Via Ferrate hookups and hiking will be done with my wife, who has no problem up to 5.8 and doesn't mind the exposure, but doesn't like steep snow. May likely start in Arraba, with nothing yet planned. I've got the new Via Ferrate guides and I'm looking for suggestions from your personal experince on:

 

Favorite Via Ferrate routes

Places to stay

Is it necessary to have a car or is public transport ok?

Suggestions for climbing objectives (10c max) & guides

Anything you think useful.

 

Thanks.

[barkernews]

Jim,

I just returned from the Dolomites days ago.

I went skiing, so don't have a lot of specifics regarding routes (we wussed out and took a pretty laid back vacation.) Arraba's nice... it's just not as easily accessible. I'd suggest Ortesei/St Ulrich. It's well situated and realatively cheap. It's about US $50 to ride by train from Milan to Bolzano, then a US $10 bus ride to Ortesei. I'd avoid renting a car as long as your rack/gear situation is pretty reasonable. It'd be a piece of cake to lug a standard rack and two ropes up there without a rental car. St Christina, which is a short bus ride up the road, may provide better access to mountains like Langkofel or the Sella Group... but there's fewer lodging options. PM me if you have more specific questions. Maybe we'll see you up there this summer!!!

[czycat]

Hi Jim,

 

In my expereinces over there I've particularly enjoyed the areas around Cortina - the Cinque Torrei, routes around Falzarego Pass/Lagazoui, and also out at the Tre Cimi de Laveredo. One of my favorite routes is the Spigolo Giallo on the Piccolo Cima de Lavaredo (the Yellow Arete of the Little Tower of Lavaredo). That one in particular is an incredible line to an awesome summit, and about 5.9/.10a, some 10 pitches. I'd recommend getting on a route or two in the area before hand, just to get used to the rock and style of climbing.

 

I'd recommend the Cortina Guides for that; I've met a couple and they are world class climbers. Other spots? Maybe the Vajolet Towers and the Sella Group.

 

For Via Ferrata, I enjoyed the West Ridge of the Marmolada, though it took a little work to get up to the base of the route - its the highest peak in the area. We also did a challanging one on the peak east of the Tofana de Roses, not far from Cortina. In the end, there is so much to do, and so much history, you can spend a trip just getting the idea...

 

Hope that helps - e-mail me at czycat@yahoo.com if I can help you with more beta.

 

Cheers,

Jeff

[mvs]

I've been to the area twice, even had dinner with czycat over there one time!

 

For the first trip we stayed in Cortina and I also think the Cinque Torrei is a great place to start. You can knock off 3-4 towers in a day, up to 6 pitches each, from 5.3 to 5.8 or so. Outside of that area we climbed:

 

Torre Piccola Di Falzarego, 7 pitches, 5.5, nice and exposed.

Monte Averau, SW Face, 7 pitches, 5.6 - some loose sections, but a spectacular traverse and escape from a cave.

Torre Wundt, South Face, 7 pitches, 5.5 - combine with a stay at Rifugio Fonda Savio, very beautiful.

 

Two fun via ferratas I did in that area are Col Rosa (Ettore Bovero route), and Tofana di Rozes (Giovanni Lipella route).

 

On another trip we stayed in Selva Gardena, a great base. A really enjoyable climb was:

 

Sassolungo, North Ridge, "27 pitches", 5.6 - lots of simulclimbing required, some fun pitches, an amazing looking mountain from a distance, and a challenging descent.

 

We did several via ferratas, all really fun:

 

Piz Boe, Cesare Piazzetta - some great vertical sections, a suspension bridge, and apple pie at the hut!

Pisciadu, Via Ferrata Brigata Tridentina - my wife's favorite, great view, not difficult, again a hut ending!

Bec de Mesdi, Via della Trincee - fantastic traverse of several spires. The start is very steep. Awesome view of Marmolata.

Via Ferrata Monte Albano - a very "difficult" route, made really fun by rock shoes. It traverse an "Index Town Wall" cliff above the town of Mori.

 

Finally, hut-to-hut hiking is awesome there. We made a three day trip going north on Alta Via One. I would have been really happy to just keep that up for two weeks.

 

Our first trip was in June, with great weather. Our second trip was August/September, with pretty bad weather. Every day it rained, but we still got out and enjoyed it a lot.

Have fun, I myself can't wait to go back.

--Michael

[David_Parker]

I did a 2 week trip in '00. We did west ridge of Marmolada with enough snow that the cable was burried in spots. Too much snow/ dicy weather for S. Face routes. Still worth it. We also went to Cinque Torre. I did the via ferrata out of there in a blizzard. We also did the Tofana di Roses out of the Dibona hut. There is another famous ferrata close by. We then went to Tre Cime and climbed the Picolo although I wish I did the Grand on one of the easier routes. We also did a great and fairly long ferrata with cool tunnels. We then went to the Civetta group but ran out of time. There are great ferattas and moderate, really cool pinnacles to climb near there. Cortina is sort of central, but you don't need to stay there too much. We had a rental car and would highly suggest it for at least part of your trip. Driving those mountain roads in the Dolomites is as much fun and a great "sport"! All my photos are on slides and I'd really like to get them digitalized so I could share. The trip was really fun, great people, amazing terrain. Most of the mountains look like they'd be 5.11 and up, but there are actually moderate routes on huge faces all over. Bring your helmet though!

[Jim]

Thanks all. I may bug you in the near future with a PM, phone call, or at Pub Club for some details. I'll have 4 weeks and some flexibility about a car rental for some of that. Looking forward to it except the dollar vs Euro thing.

[mvs]

Oh yeah, we rented a car too, it worked out really well, and as David said, the driving is fun. David, the via ferrata with the tunnels, was that on Tofana des Rozes? I think it is Lipella, that was really cool. When we did it it was "closed" due to snow, but we got through all the same.

[David_Parker]

We did the Tofana di Roses (Giovanni Lipella route) from the Dibona hut. I wore plastic koflachs and carried an ice axe due to much snow on top. Cool tunnel on that one.

 

The one we did near Tre Cime (Drei Zinnen) also had tunnels. I don't remember the name. All these tunnels were built in war time as the Dolomites are really neither Austria or Italy in the minds of the Sud-Tiroleans that live there because the border has shifted back and forth. They'd just as soon be their own country or don't really care. Speaking German, Italian or English seems to work for most everyone. Some of the friendliest people I've ever met. I especially like how they support each other by buying their goods in the town they live in. Costco wouldn't have a prayer!

 

FYI for those who aren't familiar. All those cool scenes in Cliffhanger were filmed on via ferattas in the Dolomites. The last scene where the helicopter gets hung up on that long steel ladder and rips it out was probably arranged becase CAI, (club alpinism Italiano) who manages and maintains the via ferattas decided it needed to be replaced.

 

I wonder what anti-bolt enthusiasts would think of all that hardware in the Dolomitie wilderness?

 

Who has a source on Via Ferratta and Refugio books. At the time we had to order them from the UK. Are they in the US now?

Edited January 12, 2005 by David_Parker

[cj001f]

Who has a source on Via Ferratta and Refugio books. At the time we had to order them from the UK. Are they in the US now?

The Cicerone guides are available from Amazon. When did you go that you ran into the routes being closed for snow?

[mvs]

We were on that Lipella route in June and it was closed for snow. We bought short ice axes at the Cortina co-op (great store) and did it anyway, it just made it more varied. David is right, very friendly people.

 

I found a book called Klettersteigatlas Alpen, which has the entire set of via ferratas in the alps. It is only available in German and Italian so far as I could tell. Amazon in Germany has it: http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/3765439312/302-9043760-7433655.

[Jim]

I have the Cicerone two volume guide. Very nice, put together by some English folks. I heard that the old one, which was a translation from German was not so accurate. The Tabacco map series also help.