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climbing at Dolomites Italy

newmexican

10-Jun-2006
10:00:29 PM

I'm going to be in Italy for a week of climbing 15-22 september - does anyone know what the areas are like ? accomodation and will it be easy to find people to climb with - I am considering going with a guide if all else fails - any information would be great!

Jodie

ant

12-Jun-2006
1:00:59 PM

Hey Jodie,

Hung around Cortina D'Ampezzo last September for about a week. It's a pretty busy town that time of year, lots of tourists, but probably the best base for climbers in the dolomites. In addition to the extremely expensive Tre Cime di Lavaredo (25 euros to get in each day), there are some awesome long multi-pitch alpine rock routes around, on peaks such as Monte Rosa (there is an english guide available for the Dolomites area, but I don't have the details)

If you're looking for a partner you could also try to find one at some of the mountain crags such as Cinque Torre (which is a ski hill in winter).

And the food is great!!!

Eduardo Slabofvic

13-Jun-2006
10:09:25 AM

I have made 4 trips to the Dolomites over the last 10 years and am just starting to know my way around
there. It is a really big area with many Valleys and many groups of crags.

Camping Olympia, a camp ground out from Cortina will have the greatest concentration of climbers. I
have always gone there with a partner, and you may be better off trying to find a partner over the net
before hand, as the climbing is remote from most of the campgrounds. Also try the camp ground in
Canazei. I like the climbing in this valley better than around Cortina. The Cattinaccio group is very
accessable, and Marmolada is near by. If you don’t have a partner to climb with, the walking is excellent,
and the Via Ferrats are also excellent. Staying in the huts is also very good. They are much better than
huts in the Alps, as they are like hotels, with a bar and a restaurant where there is a menu to choose
from. Single rooms are also plentiful.

There are heaps of guide books with the most recent one being in German. Don’t get the Ciccerone
English guide as its topos are very inaccurate. There is another English guide called something like
“Dolomote Classic Climbs”. It has better topos, but mostly older routes. There are two newish guides,
the German version mostly covers the area around Cortina, and the Italian version covers the whole
region. It doesn’t matter if you don’t speak the language, as your reading a topo, and you can learn a few
key words from a dictionary.

Tre Cimi de Laverado is the only place I’ve had to pay, and if you go there, get there early. If your there in
holiday time for Italians, then thousands of people will go there and it will be hard to find a park. This is
the only place where I have found this to be an issue.

Try and stay on the grey rock, it is quite good. Orange rock is O.K., but loose, yellow is extremely loose
so be very careful on that, and do not touch any white rock as it won’t support your body weight, it just
disintegrates into thousand of little crystals.

You’ll need trad gear on all but the modern routes.

newmexican

14-Jun-2006
5:47:24 PM

thanks guys this info is fantastic - looking forward to getting there now!

vwills

14-Jun-2006
11:12:04 PM

I spent 2 weeks in the Dolomites September last year with a vetted internet date. It worked out pretty well, having a car is preferable to get around. Most of the time we were based near Canazei (illegal camping in the forest near a ski run halfway up the hill to the Sella towers- much nicer than the car park atmosphere of the camping ground in town). The remainder of the time we spent around Catinaccio/ Rosengarten before heading to Arco.
Climber numbers are dropping off by that time so it may be difficult to find someone in town.
Most of our time was spent doing climbs out of the 50 classic climbs in the Dolomites, the best of which was the Big Micheluzzi on Piz Ciavazes, the Steger route up the Vajolet tower, and the 18 pitch route up the East face of Rosegartenspitz. We did climb the 1st and 3rd Sella towers as well but the rock quality was pretty average. Be prepared for very manky pitons, chossy rock, old wooden stakes rotting in cracks and sandbag grades.
For some light relief you can go sports climbing. There is a good book out by Gabriele Bonanno, available in Canazei, called Arrampicate Sportive which covers the Val di Fassa region and includes modern multipitch sports routes as well as most of the short routes and has English, Italian and German descriptions of the areas. Cansla, Frea and Passo Gardner all had good routes with solid bolts.
There are many Via Ferrata in the area.
The scenery is jawdroppingly stunning.

Eduardo Slabofvic

15-Jun-2006
10:09:48 AM

The Vajolet towers are great. I did the Delago (South West Arete) and the Winkler Crack. The Delago
route is one of the best routes I've done anywhere in the world. Excellent rock, pretty good gear, and great
moves and position. We were first on the route, and by the time we got down, there was a party on each
pitch and 4 parties waiting in line at the bottom, so get on it early. The Winkler was a bit loose in the
crack, but great fun none the less (it was supposed to be the hardest route in the Alps in 1887).

These routes compare well to the one I did Punta Emma, which is the group opposite, can't rember the
name of it, but it gave a whole new meaning the the term "loose rock". I didn't do the East face of
Rosengartenspitz, but it looks like the choise route on that group.

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