Late September in the Dolomites?

Hi Folks,

I'm planning a trip to the Dolomites later this summer and may have to move my dates from my original late-August plan to mid/late September (the week of the 19th-22nd). We'd been looking at staying and climbing around Sella pass but had seen that it's higher elevation and were wondering if the postponed trip may risk running into snow/frigid routes. We'd also considered a few other alternatives (Tre Cime, Cinque Torri, etc) so if those are more amenable to September weather, that'd be great to know as well. Really, any advice you have one way or the other would be great to know.

Thanks,

Matt

Stick to south facing routes and you should be still fine at that time—tre cime will be very cold(!).  Snow can start to happen already that month but in general September is a very stable/dry time in the Dolomites in my experience.  Plus all of the tourists will have left by then, with the downside that most rifugios and lifts will be closed.  

Collusiv has good points, especially the thing about no tourists(which is nice) and early closure of many refugios. It's kinda a gamble. Last time I was there, we aimed for early September, and woke up to a foot of snow and ice our first day, but on an earlier year it was warm and dry.

Great to know, thanks! I think we're going to split the difference and move our trip to the very end of August/start of Sept.

September in Dolomites, you can climb almost any route.

Last year I did the last climbing in late October.

You can contact me if you want any advise after you fix your plans

cheers

cristiano

Thanks for the offer Cristiano! Sent you a message.

I took the advice here and booked the end of August/start of Sept.

End of August early sept, in Dolomiti, you will seriously struggle to climb anywhere south facing.

But conditions are good, we are having a very dry season and more than hot.

By 'struggle to climb anywhere south facing' do you mean it'll be too hot? Otherwise, why would the south facing routes be an issue? Or did you mean to say 'anywhere north facing' (since the sun won't hit those) because it'll be too cold?

Im not sure what Kinobi means.  It’s definitely too hot for south faces at the moment given the heat waves, but it’s a stretch to say it will remain that way through the end of august to September.  I’ve lived in the region the last two summers and can say that late august/early September is usually a perfectly fine time when you will have many options of things to climb.  Last late august there was already a bit of snow that melted quickly and then September was a very stable month with great climbing weather.