Climbing Italy’s WWI mountain routes in Val Gardena
In the cliffs of the Dolomites, perception can be far from reality. On a rocky peak near the famous Tre Cime di Lavaredo Mountain, I hang from a cliff, my toes balanced on a thin metal step, with nothing but air beneath me. Looking down causes small moments of terror, but I’m still as safe as when I sit down in a meadow.
Even though I looked like I was rock climbing, I clung to the rock as strong as a lichen on one of the nearly 600 ferrata (railroad) routes that dot these northern Italian mountains. These protected routes, using fixed equipment such as ladders, wire bridges, iron steps and cables bolted to cliffs, are now found in mountains around the world – Australia’s first via ferrata route opened on Mount Buller in 2023 – but they originated in the Dolomites during the First World War to help transport troops across otherwise inaccessible terrain.
I came to the Dolomites for a week to explore this sublime world. My base is the Val Gardena valley, best known as a ski resort but also an excellent starting point for the Via Ferrata.
There are nine ferrata routes around the slopes of the valley, ranging from one of the easiest in the Dolomites to cliff epics. I’m starting from Gran Cir first.
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This rocky peak is just a few minutes’ walk from the top of the Dantercepies cable car. At the top of a mountainside valley, I step into my harness and begin climbing the mountain over a narrow ledge. A metal cable runs along the cliff beside me, and my harness is equipped with two lanyards with carabiners that I attach to the cable.
Today only half the people on Gran Cir are equipped, such is the ease of the route. It may look visually intimidating (a giant boulder) but it’s little more than an over-the-top challenge and a chance to experiment and build confidence with via ferrata techniques.
Stopping almost next to Gran Cir is my next via ferrata destination, Piccolo Cir. Although its name means ‘small’, it is a step up in challenge and exposure over the ‘large’ Cir.
Despite this, this is a popular route where even novices choose to test themselves, and soon I find myself in the most unexpected of tails, suspended on the face of a rock. Delays are frowned upon, giving you the chance to pause and enjoy the views: the mighty Sassolungo, the mountain that dominates Val Gardena; sharp-edged Odles peaks; and the huge gap between my legs as I climbed to the couch-sized peak.
There are other via ferratas in Val Gardena, including a climb that ends next to the balcony deck of a shelter restaurant at the top of Col Rodella, but it’s Tre Cime di Lavaredo, the Dolomites’ most famous mountain, that beckons.
Although Tre Cime itself does not have ferratas, the neighboring Torre di Toblin does. In World War I, this imposing peak, which resembles a castle tower, was used by Austrian soldiers as a lookout point for enemy troops on the mountain plain below. A wartime cave shelter marks the start of the climb, and another will be passed on the descent.
My climbing partner is a former mountaineer and rock climber, and as he begins heading toward the cliff, I expect to hear comforting words about the ease of it.
Instead, my heart sank when he called out, “This is quite the climb.” But I’m getting behind him. The first 20 meters are the most complex; It looks for a foothold in the rock, but beyond that the climb settles into a long series of metal ladders, iron treads, and cracks in the cliff.
Sometimes the stairs lean over 90 degrees, leaving my backside seemingly suspended above oblivion. But slowly, step by step, rock by rock, I climb towards the top. Finally I step over an edge and am at the top of the Torre di Toblin, with the abstract peaks of the Dolomites lining up around me.
The views of Tre Cime from Locatelli Refuge and Forcella Lavaredo below me are probably the most famous views in the Dolomites, yet each of these views is magnified, facing Tre Cime rather than facing it.
I have to go down now.
DETAIL
Fly
The closest major airport to the Dolomites is Venice. Emirates flies to Venice from Melbourne and Sydney, connecting in Dubai. To see emirates.com
To climb
The Val Gardena tourist board publishes an e-book guide to ferratas around the valley. Equipment rental is available from Intersport in Val Gardena. To see valgardena.it, valgardenasport.com
The author traveled at his own expense.
Andrew Bain is a Hobart-based writer and writer who has been writing about travel and adventure for over 25 years, often feeling at home outdoors and in remote places.
