Yes, we managed it to organize a week of ice climbing
despite a bad weather forecast for almost the whole alps – Cogne and Chamonix
would get a dump of 1-2 metres of snow, Kandersteg too warm. We found not much
ice – but still enough for 5 full climbing days in the Dolomites/Italy!!!
2 years ago I had been in the Dolomites for climbing the
south face of the Marmolada, but I never had been there for ice climbing.
Jeroen suggested to go there. We found a nice appartement at airbnb. Yasna and
Danilo were great hosts and we spent 6 days close to serrai di sottogudda, the
second major ice climbing spot in Italy besides Cogne/Aosta.
The climbing area is located in the gorge below the
Marmolada. Normally there are 29 ice and mixed lines climbable, rated from WI 2
to WI 6+. This year had been very dry and a lot of ice falls hadn’t build up
enough. We climbed different routes between WI 3+ and 5+. Generally good but
thin ice. The routes felt hard for the grade but we really enjoyed! One day we
went to Kolfosco/Corvarra.
Here are the routes and some pictures. Enjoy.
Good topo from Mario Sartori, 600 ice routes in the Alps.
- Monday: excalibur, 110m, WI 4+, spalla della roccia, 45m, WI 5
- Tuesday: Damocles, 100m, WI 4, unknown route (first pitch), 50m, WI 4
- Wednesday: Cathedral right hand finish, 100m, WI 4+, Cathedral central finish, 100m, WI 5, del sole 60m, WI 3+
- Thursday: excalibur, 110m, WI 4+, toperope, cascata della traversata, 80m WI 4+
- Friday: Cathedral left hand finish, 90m, WI 5+, Catheral central finish, 60m, WI 5, Cathedral right hand finish, 60m, WI 4+
start of pitch 2
Jeroen on the pillar of pitch 3
early morning preparation at the foot of the Cathedral,
start of pitch 1 right line of the Cathedral
second pitch of the right line, in the background you can see how steep and thin the left line is!
Jeroen on the pillar of the right hand finish of the cathedral during our second ascent of the route on friday
