The Dynamite Dolomites

View of some Dolomite peaks near Cortina, Italy

I am currently sitting here in Lucca, Italy (more on that later), with some time to blog a bit, and I am reflecting on our experiences in the Dolomite mountains of Northern Italy.

Joanne after tackling a challenging part

Joanne and I live in the Rocky mountains of Colorado, so I am surprised at my previous lack of awareness of this strikingly beautiful area. Driving into the Dolomite region, as we wound our way through lush green meadows crowned by vertical rock cliffs of white (and a bit of pink) to Corvara, was simply mind-blowing. Wow, we were going to be up in those mountains soon, using iron cables as anchors! No photos or videos I viewed in prep for the trip could do this place justice. I was very psyched.

Ed & Tracy

Over the next few days, we spent time with friends, Ed and Tracy, on the rocks and cables, doing climbs far more vertical than I had expected, and we stayed in some remote (and not so remote) rifugios, which make Colorado's huts look like lean-tos in terms of food, wine, accomodations, etc. Our starting place was Corvara, but we moved on to the slightly larger Cortina later in the week (which was declared "capitalist" by one of our hotel hosts).

Crossing a wobbly bridge

It was amazingly fun, and the steep cliffs and heights quite often got my attention. I did not expect the via ferratas to be like climbing. I expected them, especially the easier ones, to be more like hiking, but along cliffs where being clipped to the cable provided extra safety. But except for the opportunity to use the cable as an aid to climbing ("cable hauling", as it is derogatively called), doing the via ferratas is, indeed, climbing! Like Joanne, I took full advantage of the cable where necessary, and even then, it was often quite challenging. There were also really fun parts where we climbed ladders or crossed bridges (and these bridges moved!). But keep in mind: unlike climbing, our harnesses were clipped to a very strong iron/steel cable. The security of this is undeniable. As you climb, you move your carabiners, one at a time (so one carabiner is always attached to the cable) to the next point on the cable. It's heavy-duty. And the hikes down from the top never dissapointed, revealing an endless series of gorgeous views (the picture at the top of this post is one example).

Moving to a new cable segment

We did not all do every via ferrata, and Joanne talked a bit in her post about the fatigue from doing them. Some days were pretty rainy, and when the rock is wet, it is very difficult to use footholds, especially. But after 4-5 days of doing this, we were physically beat - in a good way.

We knew the next segment of the trip would be far different: warmer, flatter, and filled with city life and history - with food that would be more "Italian". The Dolomite region is very German/Austrian due to its heritage as being part of Austria before the war, and its food and language spoken reflects this. As Joanne said, I got to use some of my German in the Dolomites (especially at the most rustic rifugio, Kostner), and this was a pleasant surprise for me. Farther south into Italy, we knew we would be doing food tours, seeing art and architecture, and visiting places we have heard about all of our lives (and no iron cables will be necessary). So on to Bologna, Florence, Verona, and other nearby Italian cities! I am not sure I have had enough of the Dolomites, though. We must return some day.