Vacation Dolomites

Sunday 20: Climbing at the 5 Torri

Thanks to a misunderstanding we didn't have the trad gear with us, so we were a bit limited in what we could climb. Still a beautiful weather day.

We climbed in the klettergarten-like zone on the NE face of Torre Latina. Was kind of cold and dark.

We did many of the routes in the sector - a mix of 4s and 4+s maybe a five. Seemed steep and harder than the grades.

Monday 21: Kleiner Lagazuoi  

Settore Destro: the 8 leftmost routes.

G climbed the leftmost 4b normal and then top rope with approach shoes and the second 4b only lead in approach shoes.

Beautiful climbing; the 5b's didn’t seem hard at all. Super fun. 

Rained like hell, with hail, as we were heading back to the car.

Tuesday 22: Kaiserjägersteig and down through the tunnels 

Questionable weather today with low clouds and a forecast of rain in the early afternoon. Still a nice easy alpine hike up the Kaiserjägersteig. Pretty much no views from up top because of the low clouds. Really cool trip back down through the tunnels. Minor rain starting as we head back to the car.

Wednesday 23: rain and indoor climbing in Cortina

 

Thursday 24: Kl. Lagazuoi and Hexenstein

Once again somewhat questionable weather, but we decide to do a multi-pitch route on the Kl. Lagazuoi West face. Greg decides to bail after the first pitch of this due to the low clouds and wet rock (in retrospect this probably wasn't the right call, but it seemed right at the time). Afterwards we have lunch in a tunnel entry, do some random scrambling looking for a possible scrambling route up the Kl. Lagazuoi, then head over do some climbing at the “Sass de Stria” crag on the Hexenstein. 

Routes: 

• Gatto Vecio 5a 
• Welcome in Padania 4a, greg only, in trail running shoes 
• Semi de Papavero 5b 
• The slabby bit next to that in top rope (greg only) 
• Non Stringere 5b, Andrea did this in the rain 

Lovely rock, but the pockets were all still wet from all the rain.  

 

Friday 25: rainy day 

 

Saturday 26: Hiking at the Passo de Giau

We park at the pass and then start out in the snow and wind (it's cold) around the N side of the massif. Fortunately we are out of the wind after not too long. Nice hike to the Rif. Cinque Torri then up to the Forcella Nuvolau and back on the S side of the massif to the car. Nice hike in wintry conditions.

Sunday 27:  Lago di Sorapis hike

Park at the Passo Tre Croci, walk past all the cars (!), and then follow the nice path  (there's even a bit of sun), passing loads of people to the beautiful Lago di Sorapis. It's pretty quiet when we get there, but within 5 minutes there's a crowd (!)... this has got to be an instagram spot. :-) 

Back along the same trail for a bit and then up, up away from the crowds and around the shoulder into the dramatic and snowy bowl under the Cime del Laudo. Across the bowl and up to the Forcella Marcuoira, then along the ridge and down to the other side. Here the trail isn't really clear because of the snow, but someone has been this way before, so we can follow the tracks. Following the trail back down, through the woods, and back to the car. Decent weather at the beginning of the day, but things definitely deteriorated as the day went on.

 

Monday 28: rainy day (not climbing because the gym wasn't open) 

 

Tuesday 29: Lagazuoi hike

Not the best forecast, so we opt for another alpine hike. Take the gondola up to Lagazuoi and then hike down the other side across the bowl and through the snow towards the Forcella del Lago (repeating, backwards, the last part of our trip in 2004). The plan is to go up through the pass between Fanes and Gr. Lagazuoi, but by the time we get to the base of that couloir it's pretty obvious that it would be a bad idea in these conditions. So back along the way we came and then around the corner (in the sun now, yeah!) to the Forcella Travenanzes. From here we decide to go ahead and see if we can get up to the pass (and bivac there) from this side. So we follow the trail through the snow up to the Forcella Gasser Depot (mostly pretty easy going there despite the snow... one dodgy bit towards the end due to ice falling from above) and over into the next bowl. Here the snow is deeper, but we still make good progress and eventually make it to the pass. We can't find the bivac (which is a bit weird), so we find a wind-protected place and have some food and then head back the way we came. From Forcella Travenanzes we head back down the 402 to the parking lot and our car.

 

Wednesday 30: 5 Torri climbing

Finally decent weather! It's not super warm, but it's warm enough and the sun is shining. Off we go to do some multi-pitch.

• Torre Quarta Bassa Normalweg (III+) 
• Torre Inglese Ostwand (IV-)  
• Torre Grande – Westgipfel, Bergfuehrer weg : stopped after the first pitch because the wind was really unpleasant and there was a super slow team in front of us (but mainly because of the wind)
• Torre Latina Normalweg (III+) 

 Nice climbing.

Thursday 1: Lagazuoi climbing 

We've got good weather again so we head back to Lagazuoi and (finally) do a multi-pitch up the Kleiner Lagazuoi: the Via del Buco (IV) in the left sector. There are two Austrians there in front of us, but they let us go first and don't end up causing any stress. Super fun, easy alpine climbing. Not loads of protection in place, but the belays have bolts and there are enough bolts along the way that it's generally not too hard to find the route. We even get to use the occasional cam or sling along the way. Once we top out we have a food break and then walk down the second half of the Kaiserjägersteig and back to the car.

We definitely didn't get lucky in terms of the weather on this trip and didn't get in nearly as much climbing as we had hoped. Still, there were some super fun days and the crap weather and snow had some drama of its own. ;-)

We could probably spend two full seasons in Cortina and not exhaust all of the possibilities for doing fun alpine multi-pitches... definitely need to head back and do some more!

The Schwalmere Southwest Ridge

We found the description of this on the SAC Tourenportal earlier this summer, yesterday was the day to do it.

We got a super early start (train at 5:20 from Basel) and did train-train-bus to Kiental. Amazing how many people were on that train from Bern (standing-room-only between Spiez and Reichenbach) and how many of them wanted to go to Griesalp (glad we weren't on either of those two buses). Anyway, we were underway shortly before 8.

along the Spiggebach

The route starts gently up out of town, then a lovely stretch along the Spiggebach (sooooo nice!). Up, up, through the woods (we're taking it slow today) and the first food-and-view break shortly before the Schindlere. It's super quiet, we see a few trail runners headed to the Schwalmere, but otherwise no other hikers. Now along the forest road a bit until the path turns steeply uphill (the normal route to the Schwalmere continues straight). Up, up through the forest until we run out of trees. Past the alp at the p1952 and another food/view break (the views are soooo good, the conditions are soooo good) and then further along the path until it meets the end of the SW ridge of the Schwalmere. Here (after 8 km and about 1000m of vertical) we leave the marked path and start the ridge itself.

views

At first it's easy hiking up through the grass, past two other people finishing up a break at p2228 (they end up continuing into the face and traversing to the normal path), and then the first scrambling followed by some steep grass to get to the Britterehöreli. The rock isn't really great (slate, pretty loose in a lot of places), so the scrambling requires quite some concentration, but the grass is nicely stepped. From the peak we have a nice view further along the ridge (and all around... this is really a fantastic ridge for views; of course it's also a T5 ridge, so enjoying those views means stopping!) and are comforted by the description telling us that the intimidating next tower is a lot easier than it looks. 

quick break before the crux

The descent from the Britterehöreli is normally the crux of the tour - quite steep grass, really exposed - but someone has outfitted it with a rope (which is even in good shape) and that takes a lot of the scary out of it. Onwards we go, mostly staying directly on the ridge, until the Glütschhöreli, which we first go around (there's a long overhanging rock section) and then climb up the side to regain the ridge. 

views along the long ridge to the Schwalmere

Onwards we go over p2511, and then we're on the final bit of ridge up to the Schwalmere. Up, up, with some good scrambling mixed in, until we reach the peak. We've been taking it slow all day (7.5 hours to the peak with breaks, the description calls for 6.5) and have a deadline to catch the last gondola/bus back, so we keep the food break and view enjoyment (the panorama really is spectacular) pretty short. We've got 2.5 hours and the description says 3 hours, so we switch into fast-descent mode and head down along the red-white trail. 

descent on the red-white trail

It's a nice descent through a lovely landscape (it's weird to be totally alone on a red-white path in a landscape like this!) and we make good time. Past the lovely Lobhörner, past the first other people we see below Sousegg, and down to the buildings at Suls. Here we take a short break to refill a water bottle and cool off hands and heads before continuing down, down, to the gondola at Sulwald. We're there 15 minutes before we need to be... we made good time.

past the Lobhörner

This was a great (though quite long) ridge tour. It's a bit surprising that we didn't know about it until this year, but I suspect this won't be the last time we do it. :-)

Track (this is drawn by hand, not clear what happened with the track from my watch):

Stats: 19.6km, 2090m up, 1519m down, 9:45 total