Süd Tirol August 2010

One of the first weeks in August, I went on a climbing/biking/hiking trip with Felix to the Dolomites in Süd Tirol, Northern Italy. I had traveled around this area last October with my dad and stepmom and wanted to go back to take a closer look.

We packed our bikes and climbing equipment into Felix's van, bought some maps, and headed down south. We had a vague idea of doing sports every day, all day, someplace in the mountains.

We spent a few days near St. Ulrich (Ortisei), which is just SE of Bressanone. We did some great biking, although we found that the Dolomites are extremely rocky, which makes mountain biking hard. Many of the trails marked specifically as bike trails on the maps were so ridiculously rocky I don't know who could have biked that stuff! We had to carry our bikes over large boulders or down tiny switchbacks and up some hills that were so steep I almost passed out pushing my bike!

(The main towns and passes we stayed near in Süd Tirol)

So we headed for the rocks and became completely enthralled with Klettersteige (aka Via Ferrati). We spent most of our days exploring the local routes.

During World War I, major battles were fought in the Dolomites between the Austro-Hungarians (who, at the time, controlled the region) and the Italians. The Via Ferrati were originally created by the Austro-Hungarians during this time in what, one guide book said, was the largest mountain fight in the history of the world! They affixed permanent cables to the rock using large sturdy anchors for movement of troops and equipment high up in the mountains. This was quite a feat, and most of the casualties of the war in this area was to movement of equipment through the mountains and not the actual fighting itself.

The Italians won the land back at the end of WWI, and these climbing routes have been maintained, and added on to, since that time. Klettersteige are like simpleton's trad climbing. No real skills are necessary, and the only equipment needed is a helmet, harness, grippy shoes, and a lanyard. It takes a few hours to climb up a massive, 500m rock face instead of dozens of pitches and many hours with ropes and gear. I'm a big fan.

(Here is Felix on the first Klettersteig we explored near Sas Rogais. You can see the fixed lines bolted into the rock and the lanyards he used for protection. We did this Klettersteig in a big cloud, so we couldn't see much except the rock directly in front of us. And Italian teenage couple warned us not to go because of the snow and cold, but we mostly missed out on the views. )

(The clouds and Mars-like landscape where disorienting. As we descended below the cloud line we ended up in a valley much closer to the Sas Rigais Rifugio, our end point, than we thought. )

Our third day we spent climbing just below Grödner Joch at an enormous rock face called "Frea". Felt great to do some easy multi-pitch climbs on super grippy rock.

(The view from Frea reminded me of those model train sets where the grass is always too green)

But soon it was back to Klettersteige. This day we did the Lipella Klettersteig near Passo Falzarego which started in a cave created by soldiers during WWI to move troops and gear up to a good vantage point. We climbed ladders into the entrance of the cave.

(This is at the top of the ladder looking down to the start of the climb. You can see the old ladder made of wood next to the newer metal one - all the routes were impeccably maintained. )

(Climbing through the cave was a little like climbing up to the top of a church tower with the circular steps missing. There were occasional holes blasted out to the side of the mountain to keep an eye on the enemies during the ascent.)

(A special dynamic lanyard is used during vertical sections due to the high fall factors)

(Felix walking along the Lipella Klettersteig on the west edge of the mountain overlooking Val Travenazes)

(I am the small black line in the center of the photo standing on the featureless flat-ish tan section of the mountain)

(You can see others climbing above me - three black dots to the left of my shoulder)

(Felix near the pyramid-shaped peak at the end of Lipella Klettersteig)

(We hiked down from the peak on the other side. Riffugio Giussani, snuggled between the boulders of "Mars" looks like a birdhouse in the distance at Felix's knee-level, but it really takes 1 1/2 hours to walk there from here)

(Military buildings used during WWI, built directly into the rock, seemed to be used for a while as a Rifugio, but now abandoned).

The following day, we explored Klettersteige P.ta Anna and Olivieri, located along the ridge of Tofana di Mezzo, the next peak West. The city of Cortina lies in the valley below. The mountains surrounding Cortina have many ski pistes and all are connected by the same ski pass - seems like an outstanding place to check out in the winter!

(Where's Felix?!)

A bit of an epic adventure, thunder clouds rolled in part way through our climb, and we could hear the buzzing of electricity in the iron cross at the top of the final peak!

(During our Seilbahn descent, we could see the Bus di Tofana, a large hole in the rock which we hiked over during the Klettersteig. We hiked along this edge with each foot facing a different valley)

The day afterwards, we explored the Ferrata Strobell along the E. face of Pomagango and then the Passegg lata della Croda.

(Passegg lata della Croda was more of an intense scramble along the face of a steep cliff than a Klettersteig, but the views were worth it!)

Where to next?! Now that I'm back in Germany, I crave the fresh pasta which we cooked every night for dinner - it became addicting, and every night we added a few more ingredients to the sauce.

(Klettersteige around Cortina. Tut mir leid, some of the shots are a little jerky)