Dolomites, 15th-28th July 2006
Several of us in the Ochils Mountaineering Club decided it was time for a club trip to the Dolomites. About twenty of us flew out to Milan Bergamo and headed up to Corvara.
Jen and myself decided on a lazy first day at the Cinque Torre, having arrived at the camp site after midnight the night before
Cloud burning off Tofana di Rozes
We decided to climb the North Face of Torre Barancio, a 4 pitch route with the crux being this crack on the second pitch, about Severe 4b
It was quite bright in the sunlight at the top!
The Croda da Lago ridge
Some cloud lingering on the Tofana
The next morning, Monday, we headed up to climb the Falzarego Towers. We got to the base of the route before anyone else, but by the time we had racked up fifteen other people had arrived! We decided it would be no fun climbing something so busy, and headed back down to go for a via ferrata instead
Edelweiss, edelweiss...
The approach from the Lagazuoi cable car station to VF Tomaselli
There were quite a lot of people kitting up for the ferrata, so we raced on to get there before them
A large ledge not too far from the top. A few minutes before, one of these people had dislodged a small boulder and sent it tumbling towards Jen, who was luckily able to duck back under an overhang to avoid it
The steep slab just below the summit
The Tofana from the summit
Looking back across the Lagazuoi battlefield
The knife-edge ridge of Lagazuoi Grande
Across to Croda da Lago
The descent ferrata
Walking back out. We teamed up with a Dutch couple we had been chatting to earlier, and ended up in the pub for a couple of drinks. This ferrata had been one they had really wanted to do, so they were very pleased to be finishing their holiday on a high note
We got up early on Tuesday and headed back to the Falzarego Towers, starting climbing before 0800. We were well ahead of the queues this time. The first pitch was a bit scrappy and about Hard Severe 4b
The view across to the Cinque Torre, Croda da Lago and Monte Averau
From then on the rock was sound and the climbing was great
Pitches 2 and 3 headed up a wall and chimney at about Severe, then after that it was all V Diff or easier apart from one slightly harder pitch high up on Torre Picola
The top of pitch 4
Torre Grande was a poorer route - the upper half of it being very broken and loose - but the second pitch on it followed a delightful S Crack and was the best (and probably hardest) pitch of the day. We than had to make a loose scramble down the back of Torre Grande to join the descent path
We headed around to the Pordoispitze on Wednesday intending to climb Mariakante, up the towers on the upper left here. Unfortunately, Jen wasn't having a great day, and we retreated after the first pitch. We went back down to the car and got the ferrata kit, then went back up and climbed VF Cesare Piazzetta
The route proved steep and strenuous but unimaginative - a bit of a cable haul over very polished rock
We crossed a chasm higher up by way of this bridge
At least the scenery was good...
We were getting a bit tired by Thursday, so we took the lazy option of taking lifts up to the Boèseekofel to climb a chimney system in the middle of this face
Awash in a sea of rock
The climbing was easy but great - every pitch looking harder than it was, and mostly being V Diff
The final pitch climbed through an overhang on large holds and was a bit harder (about Hard Severe). It then finished up this chimney
At the summit of the Boèseekofel
The weather had been pretty much perfect, but the forecast wasn't so good for Friday, with rain and maybe thunder predicted for the afternoon. Jen, Dave Scott and myself headed up early to climb the first Sella Tower. The first pitch was a bit scrappy
The second climbed an entertaining and highly polished chimney to this ledge; the third climbed cracks above to the shoulder of the ridge
Dave looking pleased to have topped out on the final pitch, which involved a short, hard but well protected corner that was more polished than anything else I've ever climbed, yet still very enjoyable!
The descent involved an abseil (not mentioned in the guidebook...)
Wild flowers at the base of the tower
The forecast for Saturday was for rain and thunder by the late morning, and it wasn't wrong. Jen and myself went for a walk around the Croda da Lago ridge
The weather held for the first section, but broke as we approached the refuge
We hid under some trees for a while and this cow decided to lick my shoe
After a while we headed on through the showers. The lightning was very spectacular over the mountains
We descended back down the valley past Cima Cason di Formin, a great route we'd climbed two years previously. The showers kept coming
On Sunday we headed West to climb Torre Firenze, a 12 pitch supposedly 'classic' climb. It turned out to be mostly made of dirt, rubble and vegetation, with about 10m of interesting climbing in the first half. For once, the crux proved easier than the guidebook suggested, being just a couple of steep well protected moves of Severe
There was a not-too-bad 15m groove pitch and then a very nice 15m pitch up an arête at half way (both about V Diff), then more dirt, rubble and vegetation
I raced up the upper half, as a thunderstorm was growing on the hill across the valley. It broke as we descended, but didn't quite reach us
Our day was brightened up when we spotted this shop on the way back to Corvara
We felt like having an easy day on Monday, as did these moths
We slept in a bit and went up VF Brigata Tridentina above Corvara
This VF was very enjoyable, having been constructed so that the rock could be climbed at all points without resorting to pulling on the cable. It was also quite long
There was a ladder and some steps on a steep chimney and wall high up, though
The pinnacle the ferrata ascend is separated from the mountainside by a chasm, spanned by this bridge
There was no stopping Jen - she had heard that the refuge did good applestrudel
An Alpine chough by the refuge
We packed up our tents the next day and headed for the hills - to Refuge La Varella under the Neunerspitze. The plan was to climb the Messner Direct, an impressive looking slab route on the South face
I needed to psyche myself up for this one, so I headed up that afternoon for a wee look on my own. The slab can be seen to the left here. Note the flutings on the rock in the foreground - the limestone around this area is very waterworn, and there's a lot of karst landscape
A bit closer ... and now I knew I was going to do it
A goat guarding the way back to the refuge.
La Varella was a great place to stay, with private rooms, hot showers, and a good choice of courses and drinks on the menu. There was a spectacular thunderstorm that night, and we were lucky enough to be in a room with a skylight
Heading up the next morning
Looking West from under the Neunerspitze...
... and to the South. The Marmolada can be seen at the middle back
To the East
On the first pitch I had placed a poor nut at 10m and clipped a piton at 25m, and was 3 or 4m from a good two-bolt belay on our 60m ropes when Jen shouted up "two metres!"
Luckily, I was just able to reach on rope stretch after she took me off belay. After that, I noticed another belay point 10-15m below and further right (facing down).
This picture is of the second pitch from the belay I took at about 30m - there was good gear at half way
Jen following up the second pitch
Our third pitch. After this the route followed a corner system
Looking West from the top of pitch 3...
... and from the top of pitch 4. A dark cloud was growing over our summit, so we hurried on
The corner pitch - perfectly pleasant, but a bit of an anticlimax after the slab
The summit. The dark cloud had blown away, but we could see showers over the Tofana and some other large hills
There's a short via ferrata on the descent along the ridge
Someone we met on the walk out
Just two climbing days left, as we wanted Saturday to be a rest day. We pitched the tent at Cortina and got a good night's sleep, then headed East to Misurina to climb Punta Col de Varda by way of a very enjoyable chimney system
Evening light from the camp site
Saturday was our last climbing day, and we took it easy by going back to the Cinque Torre where Jen led the normal route up Torre Lusy
This tower fell over in the Spring just a couple of years previously. Luckily nobody was on it at the time
A pair climbing something quite hard looking on the Torre Grande
Perched boulders. Note the climbers behind them
We were lazy enough to take the cable car back down. We headed back to the camp site at Corvara to check for a top Jen had mislaid, then headed South to Bergamo to finish with a relaxing day in town.