A couple of weeks ago, I spent four days in the Dolomites with Gareth and Jamie. We were there to try some Via Ferrata, and it was a lot of fun. We flew into Venice and hired a car, since the Italian train company had cancelled the train we originally planned to get. As it happened, having the car made things a lot easier and not that much more expensive.
We arrived in Misurina late on Thursday night, where it proceeded to pour down all night. It stopped momentarily when we got up, but over the course of the day we alternated between glorious sunshine and absolute downpours. After taking the chairlift to Col de Varda (opens 09:00, €4 single ticket), we spent the day on the Sentiero Bonacossa, with a detour after lunch onto Via Ferrata Merlone. The route goes up the west face of Cima Ciadin de Nord Est, but we had to abandon on the ‘airy traverse’ due to a combination of running out of time and a sudden downpour turning the pitch into a waterfall. It seemed like a great route, and when the cloud cleared as we were stood at the bottom of the route, it turned out we weren’t actually that far from the summit.
We carried on along Sentiero Bonacossa as far as Rifugio Auronzo, where we stayed the night. If anyone’s thinking of staying there, we paid €14/night (€11/night with a BMC membership card). The food’s good and the beds are fine, but don’t forget a sheet sleeping bag.
Day Two entailed a walk to Rifugio Locatelli alle Tre Cime de Lavaredo, and then an ascent of Torre de Toblin via the north-west chimney VF route. Descent was by the ‘normal’ route, with small detours into a variety of old tunnels and machine-gun posts. Rigufio Locatelli does a variety of great lunches for ~ €8, and after indulging appropriately we following Sentiero de Luca/Innerkofler to Forcella del Camoscio. From here it’s a small detour to the summit of Monte Paterno, which gives excellent views of the whole region. The sun shone the entire day, including over the remainder of the route which traverses the mountain back to Rifugio Lavaredo.
Lavaredo is a great hut; small and friendly, and the fact that you have to share a table with someone else for dinner means you’ll definitely get chatting with other people.
The forecast for Day Three was thunderstorms, so we got a reasonably early start to do the VF route running from the east of Monte Paterno to Forcella del Camoscio. It’s a long, uphill walk in, and the actual VF section isn’t that long. There’s a few bridges and it’s quite good fun; it’s a shame it ends just as the fun really begins.
From the forcella, we reversed the previous day’s route through the galleria tunnels to Rifugio Locatelli, wolfed down another great lunch, and walked back to Rifugio Auronzo via the north-west side of the Tre Cime de Lavaredo. As it was, the weather held out until we were about 50m from the Rifugio, so everything worked out pretty well in the end.