(BREN 8)
PREFACE
Over the past few years via ferratas in the Italian Dolomites have become more and more popular, with new routes developed and old ones improved. This guidebook is the second in a series of two published by Cicerone Press which covers the whole area of the Italian Dolomites.
Volume One takes in the Eastern, Northern and Central areas of the Dolomites. Volume Two covers via ferratas in the Southern Dolomites (with routes on the Civetta, Schiara and Pala mountains) as well as the Brenta in the west. Additionally (and not, as far as we are aware, previously published in any English-language guidebook) routes are included around the northern end of Lake Garda and the Piccole Dolomites north of Vicenza. Here the mountains are generally lower and you can enjoy ferrata climbing over a much extended season, with some routes climbable for most of the year.
A word of caution
The information about each of the routes in the book was correct at the time of research.
As the old saying goes ‘the only thing constant in the mountains is change’. It should be noted that factors such as rock fall, detached cables and building work may result in routes being re-routed or even closed for safety reasons. When these things happen it may be some time before CAI, or the local Commune, can spend either time or money repairing or re-cabling routes up to a good standard.
Please treat each route with respect and concern for your own safety.
New Routes
Although the Dolomites is already very well covered, new routes are continually being created, or old, forgotten routes restored. We try to keep users abreast of the most recent developments by describing any additional routes in the Updates area for this book on the Cicerone website at: www.cicerone.co.uk/380/updates. The information we include here includes sufficient detail about the routes – their location, length, difficulty and seriousness – for you to know whether they are suitable for you. This should enable you to take full advantage of any visit to these beautiful Dolomite mountains.
Graham Fletcher and John Smith, 2015
This climber is clearly unaffected by the exposure on VF Stella Alpina (AGORD 5)
INTRODUCTION
In volume one we asked the question ‘Are the Dolomites the most beautiful mountains in the world?’ Well, 13 years later, we still think so. With explosive shapes and unique colours the Dolomites can be regarded as the crown jewels of the European alpine range. Via ferrata climbing is a way of enjoying the sheer magnificence of this awesome mountain environment, where you will be stopped in your tracks by amazing views and mountain situations.
Many via ferratas were originally built to aid the movements of alpine military units during the First World War, and now they represent one of the major attractions in the Dolomites. They are, in effect, a range of protected routes, with fixed cables, ladders and even gorge-spanning bridges, which aid ascent to places normally reserved for expert rock climbers.
In recent years, old wartime routes have been restored and many new routes added to give a network of routes around the whole Dolomite region. Some of the new ferratas are ‘sport routes’, often technically quite hard, as you will see from our assessment of the grades.
Routes are regularly checked, maintained and waymarked by the Italian Alpine Club, the CAI (Club Alpino Italiano). You will also see reference to SAT (Societa degli Alpinisti Tridentini), which is the CAI’s largest section, with more than 20,000 members in 76 sections. SAT has 39 refuges and 12 bivouacs, and maintains over 6000km of paths, including via ferratas, and thus plays a major role in maintaining the Dolomite environment.
How to use this Guide
This guide departs from the usual convention of listing routes by reference to the geological group in which they lie. Instead routes are grouped according to the best point of access to help you decide where to set up base. This has inevitably involved a few fairly arbitrary judgements, and many of the valley bases are sufficiently close together to enable you to tackle several different groups from a single location. Information is also included on the availability of cable cars and jeep taxis, which can make getting to the start of the route considerably easier and conserve your energies for the climb.
The availability of maps is covered in ‘Map Availability and Place Names’ below. Most via ferratas are indicated on the maps in popular use, although errors in location and naming are not unknown. You should also note that as the Dolomite mountains are characterised by such swooping, vertical faces, maps can only give a fairly diagrammatic impression of topography. This means that it is not always easy to visualise the vertical dimension of a route, especially the gradient to be encountered, nor is it easy to visualise the exposure involved until confronted by it! Even some of the technically easier via ferratas will take you into some extremely exposed situations, as indicated in the route descriptions; this has been taken into account in the assessment of grades.
The lovely town of Arco is dominated by its castle
The route location diagrams for this guide are just that – diagrammatic. Their purpose is simply to help the reader locate the route on the appropriate map. Note that their scale varies, depending on whether it is more helpful to place the route in its wider context or to give more detail. The diagrams are not a substitute for a properly detailed map for use on the hill.
The times given in the guide assume a reasonable level of fitness on the part of the climber and, just as important, no undue congestion on the route. However, these timings are for guidance only, so whilst a fit and experienced via ferratist will frequently complete a route more quickly than the guide time, it is possible that the busier and more accessible routes will require twice as long as the guide time.
The expression ‘via ferrata’ tends to be used as a generic term relating to any protected route. However, there is other nomenclature used locally which you will come across. ‘Sentiero’, ‘sentiero attrezzato’, ‘sentiero alpinistico’, ‘percoso attrezzato’ and ‘cengia’ (Italian for ‘ledge’) are some of the other terms in common use. To avoid confusion, this guidebook has adopted the terms used locally. You will, incidentally, often find that routes called ‘sentieros’ are easier than those referred to as via ferrata routes. Whilst some sentieros are fully equipped with cables, ladders and stemples, many are little more than extended traverses of mountainous areas, involving less challenging terrain. Here, the need for protective cables is limited to the more exposed passages encountered. Nonetheless, you should note that even though some of the easier sentieros have limited hands-on climbing, they often have considerable exposure! (Note: while the plural of ‘via ferrata’ is, of couse, ‘vie ferrate’, this guide uses the anglicised form, ‘via ferratas’.)
Route Groupings
Several foreign-language guidebooks exist to via ferrata climbing, using slightly different approaches to grouping routes, although most are based on geological groups. This book, however, organises routes around the most convenient valley bases in which to stay, or from which to approach the routes (although routes are cross-referred to mountain groups in Appendix 3). As with all systems this leads to some anomalies or overlaps. It is important to stress, however, that this is a guidebook: given a map, some local knowledge and, most importantly, some time to spend enjoying the Dolomites, you will work out your own itineraries for your via ferrata days. We hope you have as much fun in the Dolomites as we have,
