First weeks of June - Chamonix or Dolomites?

My partner and I are heading out of Istanbul the first week of June and wanting to get into some alpine terrain after dry warm beaches (tuff lyfe, I know) - I'm curious what people think in regards to conditions of the alps at that time? It seems like a pretty low snow year (I saw somewhere that Chamonix only got 6 inches of snow in Feb?!), but obviously that can change quickly. I haven't looked into the snowpack of the Dolomites, but it seems a bit higher elevation and that time potentially being a bit early. Curious of anyone has any words of wisdom?

Dolomites are big area with different conditions. In the beginning of June is possible to climb some routes on Passo Falzarego, Passo Sella, Cinque Torri etc, if the weather is good.

Thank you! Yes, it seems like a big area where we can be somewhat flexible and research southern aspects. It seems the snowpack this year is also quite low, so I'm trending that direction.

1) what do you have in mind route wise?

2) conditions in early June can be all over the place

3) do you have/are able to rent a car? Having transportation makes sure you're able to change location on a dime. Going from one valley to another with public transport within a reasonable time frame can be difficult. 

Keep an eye on the weather and snowpack, but it might be a good time to get into the high Alps, e.g. Mont Blanc, before the summer heat makes them melted out and dangerous. But that's only if you want to go mountaineering.

I don't have anything to add, Tim, but I'm following along.

Does anyone have a good resource for judging the snowpack in the Mont Blanc massif? It looks like the Chamonix area got some recent precip (rain in the valleys, big snow up high).

Victor Machtel wrote:

1) what do you have in mind route wise?

2) conditions in early June can be all over the place

3) do you have/are able to rent a car? Having transportation makes sure you're able to change location on a dime. Going from one valley to another with public transport within a reasonable time frame can be difficult. 

1) We're kind of open, we're climbing sport in Kalymnos to kick off the trip but happy to bring a rack and twin ropes if we want to do some moderate alpine (up to 5.9ish for my partner). The dolomites seem to advertise a decent amount of sport, but feels weird to go to such an epic range without hoping to climb something bigger. I can't yet tell if we can fall back on sport climbing if the weather is crap up high, or if all the single pitching falls into the same regions.

2) It does seem that way! Good ol' mountain nature doing mountain nature things. It looks like Dolomites gives some of optionality since it's a big area, though I'm not sure how true that is in regards to driving time and needing places booked to stay in advance. Not sure the best towns to set up shop up, wether we'd stay in one place for a week or bounce around and hope the weather pans out with where we end up.

3) We'd definitely rent a car for the Dolomites, or possibly even a van to sleep in if it's necessary/not impossible to drive in the mountains. Having a real roof over our heads is nicer if it ends up pissing rain though. Do you know if it's easy-ish to bounce around with a car and book rooms day to day, or does it get pretty booked up in advance and itineraries should be pre-sorted?

Thanks so much for everyone's input, really appreciate the context for the place and getting excited for an overdue trip!

In the Dolomites it should be reasonable to escape to drier sport routes lower down if the weather is uncooperative. For instance, Arco is basically in the Dolomite foothills, but even closer to the main areas you should find decent climbing in the valleys in June unless you are unlucky enough to get hit by an extended storm system. The Rockfax guidebook includes a number of ‘valley venues’, so is worth checking out.

In the last years June has been very dry and warm, ideal for climbing in the Dolomites. This winter (so far) we had really poor snow in the eastern alps. So I would expect nice conditions for rock climbing.

Sport routes are not common in dolomites, normally you find bolts only on high difficult lines (> 5.10).

let me know if you need more betas.

Free camping with van is allowed for short stay.

cristiano

a Ball wrote:

I don't have anything to add, Tim, but I'm following along.

Does anyone have a good resource for judging the snowpack in the Mont Blanc massif? It looks like the Chamonix area got some recent precip (rain in the valleys, big snow up high).

Chamoniarde is pretty much the go to resource for current mountain conditions. Also, if you're in Chamonix, it's easy to walk into the office of the mountain guides and get good info on route conditons. 

Thanks for the great responses - for the Dolomites, is it possible to stay in one town like Cortina for the week (with a rental car), or is the climbing too spread apart for it to be wise to be staying in just one place? Wondering if I should try getting ahead of booking a place or if that is unwise.

Tim Opsahl wrote:

Thanks for the great responses - for the Dolomites, is it possible to stay in one town like Cortina for the week (with a rental car), or is the climbing too spread apart for it to be wise to be staying in just one place? Wondering if I should try getting ahead of booking a place or if that is unwise.

One can stay in Cortina but there are better places. Driving a hour to a climb is not any big deal, the roads are fun and scenic.