Via Ferrata

Has anyone done this in the Dolomites, is it worth it? Do you have to use a guide? Any info would be helpful.

D

They are on my tick list, I haven't done them. Check out this link.
alavigne.net/Outdoors/Featu…

This is from a Canadian guy that is a staple resource for Adirondack hiking material and from his pics and whatnot I want to go myself.

Yep, this is on my lifetime list of must do's. Most of those were put up during WWII so there is a history aspect I find fascinating as well. Gawd it looks fun and scenic.

Spiro wrote:Has anyone done this in the Dolomites, is it worth it? Do you have to use a guide? Any info would be helpful. D

The wife and I did a couple a few years back, and I would highly recommend it.

They are really fun. When you get to Cortina (Spelled Wrong) you can get a topographic i map from any of the shops that shows the climbing routes and Via feretta routes. You can even rent the gear from some of the shops, Harness lanyards etc. Some of them are from the wars but some of them are put in by the cities more recently. I would highly recommend doing some of them. You don't need a guide just a harness and the load limiting lanyards. On some of the harder routes some people used a piece for belaying. We didn't need it. Have fun.

I did several via ferratas on my rest days this past summer. They are a blast!! Never have I climbed mountains from the inside out. I thought the 2 best cable routes were at the Tre Cima Di Lavaredo area.

So...most people have a harness with dynamic lanyards to clip into the ladders and cables...Not a bad idea considering the routes are slick and exposed in some areas...i girth hitched a double length runner to my waist, but in retrospect, I would have been more comfy in a light harness w/ a daisy.

Dont get caught in a storm! I also witnessed an epic rescue near tofana in the cortina area....imagine a mountain with steel/iron cable from top to bottom...quite the conductor!

No guides are necessary.

As they say in Italia: En Boca A'Lupo!!

Popularity is growing around the world too. There are via ferrata at Nelson Rocks West Virginia, Ogden Utah, Colorado (rumor), Whistler BC, Monterrey Mexico, Cusco Peru, and Kinabalu Malaysia. More are planned for the US. All the euro brands (CAMP, Petzl, etc) sell via ferrata gear and BD is even copying their designs.

I've done quite a few of them on three separate trips. Really fun, especially if you have non-climbers with you. Great hut-to-hut circuits that allow you to go for a hike/ferrata, lunch in a hut, another hike/ferrata, then sleep in a different hut. Repeat for a week without coming down if you want. Hot food & beer always available - hard to beat! You only have to carry a sleeping sheet, change of clothes, & maybe a couple lunches in case you're not near a hut. Amazing history too. Some of the memorials will wet your eyes.

I would highly recommend good maps. I had to order them from England and they're not cheap. You'll need them once you're there anyways though. The Kompass series is excellent and show which parts of routes are ferratas and which are just walking. Also shows relative grades. There quite a few web sites that list all the ferratas with difficulties & length, and you can pick a region that way so you don't have to buy every map. I bought one book by Hofler & Werner and found it nearly useless. You absolutely do not need a guide when there unless you can't follow well-signed hiking paths. Every path, intersection, hut, and ladder section is well-signed and easy to follow.

If you have any climbing experience at all, you will find every ferrata quite easy - so don't worry about doing the "difficult" ones. You do need some slightly different equipment - read up about it beforehand, but you can easily buy stuff there.

The scenery is incredible and unlike anything in the US, but bring good clothes. We encountered a 2-foot snowstorm in mid September one trip and had to bail. Other trips were in August and including a lot of rain & fog, with only a couple really sunny days.

Some of the huts have outstanding limestone sport climbing right out the door, but then you'll have to schlep a rope & draws around with you.

Here's Julie on one above Leysin last summer. It was high and very exposed. Super fun after a morning of climbing

Hank Caylor wrote:Most of those were put up during WWII so there is a history aspect I find fascinating as well.

I think a bunch of the historic ones are WWI vintage...Italy v Austria.

Did the Ferrata Lipella on the Tofana a couple years ago, on a rainy non-climbing day. Super fun. Goes up ladders and thru quite long tunnels with ports for shootin' folk. Crazy.

Yeah, no guide needed. Most of the well travelled ones are very well marked. The one just outside Grenoble (up to the Bastille) even has a how to board at the bottom explaining the gear needed and the route.

That's it we need a war so we can put these all over the place. Can you Coloradans fight with Utah, and Wyoming and get this started. No need to scwabble over ethics during war time. In the mean time we will see what we can do about Mexico, and maybe wage war on Colorado City, get some in the Grand Canyon as well.

While I wait, I will dream of doing this in the dolomites.

The Precipice in Acadia has a very minimal via ferrata, which is a great little stroll. No gear required, which means tons of people freaking out, midway. Pretty entertaining.

imo the best maps for the dolomites
tabaccoeditrice.com/eng/map…

Here's an English-language guidebook to Via Ferratas of the Italian Dolomites:

It's available from Amazon.com

The Dolomites are awesome. Here are some photos from my trip there a few years ago: ??

I did a good number of these back in the seventies. Among those that I liked the best, in no particular order:

1. Mesules in the Sella Group
2. Alleghesi on Civetta
3. Tomaselli on Cima Fanis Sud
4. Stella Alpina on Agner
5. Sentiero delle Bocchette in the Brenta Dolomites
6. Bolver-Lugli on Cimon della Pala
7. West Ridge of Marmolada.

There are many others, including the aforementioned Lipella on Tofanza di Rozes, where I learned the importance of wearing a helmet. I would definitely recommend trying a couple of those routes, though I have the impression that they have become very crowded in recent years.

The area around Cortina has perhaps the highest concentration of ferratas of "historical significance" (WWI, as Brian points out.) Via Cesco Tomaselli (#3 above) is one of them.

Brian in SLC wrote: I think a bunch of the historic ones are WWI vintage...Italy v Austria.

Right on with the correction. I come from a VERY military based family and me being a climber as well, that just makes the vintage Via-ferratas that much more alluring. This whole thread makes my mouth water. I wanna wanna sooooo bad!

Several people have mentioned just using daisy-chains or runners rather than the dynamic runners specially designed for via ferrata. The problem is that the fall factor in via ferrata can be much larger than 2 because of the short length of the runner. To account for this the specially designed runners have screamers built in absorb the shock. Daisy-chains are not designed for the loads generated in these falls and are therefore unsafe to use for via ferrata.

I've done a couple, one on the Colodri near Arco. Mostly sport climbing but there's a via ferrata winding up the largest cliff in the area, and another on my honeymoon on the Gran Cir, at Sella Pass near Corvara. I'll have to dig thru my photo archive and maybe upload a couple of pics.

Wanted to do more but the ski lifts weren't running yet and some have long approaches without them. Started doing the Piz Boe, but a long hike. Plus no rental car to reach better ones like the Pisciadu (the one with the hanging bridge they show on Cliffhanger).

We just used a sling with two opposed biners and stayed on easy stuff. If you venture on harder things, it wouldn't be a bad idea to buy one of those dynamic jobbies they sell. While the anchors appear bomber, as a general rule you probably don't want to shock load anything. Buy one in one of the larger towns lower down because the smaller villages may not carry them.

I'd love to go back and do lots more, especially when my kids get bigger and can come with. There a good book available thru Michael Chessler. And the vintage WWI ones look REALLY cool. It's a shame that people were killing each other up there rather than enjoying those beautiful mountains.

Nice, this helps me make a decision. It sounds and looks great.

D

What do you guys think about just using a screamer and locking beaners instead of buying the special equipment?

The cables are too thick to clip a normal locking biner to - even a huge one. You need special biners. You could rig a sling-screamer combo, but you'd need 2 screamers (or better zippers, the longer screamers), since you need a couple (as you unclip from one cable for instance).

We almost got on the one in Leysin a few years ago since it was near some climbs we were doing, but there were lots of cool routes, and as my girlfriend said, "We can do via ferrata when we're old."

On petzl's website they list the gate opening of their special via ferrata biner, the Vertigo WL as 24 mm. They also list the gate opening of the Williams screwlock as 25 mm. I would think the limiting factor would be opening the gate enough for large cables, right?