UKC

in september, went to alps to via ferrata and loved it looking at going to dolomites in may. ordered the guides ect and the exciting part of planning is starting.

looking for any advice on where is good to go, places to stay any experiences

cheers for any advice =]

In reply to linal66:

Some on here have way more experience than me, but for what it's worth:

We went to the Dolomites this summer to do VF. We drove there and took our time, via Ghent, Munich and the World Cup final ina bar in Heidelberg. It is a long drive. We camped at Corvara - expensive but lovely toilet block and a superb view! Corvara is a great location for VFs, althopugh in itself it is just a load of ski apartments and tourist shops, with little character, just like the other small towns.

We did the Pisciadu, Piz da Lech (cable car up from Corvara village, then chair lift), the via Trincee (- drive to Arraba, then cable car up - great tunnel, WW1 stuff and view of the Marmolada) and then the Sandro Pertini over in the beautiful national park in the next valley.

These can be crowded, especially the Pisciadu, so get to them early if that bothers you. None were desperately clogged, however, and there was a good atmosphere on all of them.

We did do one other, a little one on the col of the valley on the way out. It was very accessible and so crowded that it wasn't fun.

I had done one VF before, my wife had done none, and we were fine with these. If you did what we did, you wouldn't regret it, trust me - the views are to die for, and the locations constantly amazing. I thought it was an incredibly beautiful place. If you have done any actual rock climbing, it feels absolutely non-scary, whatever the exposure, since the gear is constantly totally bomber. As you approach each start, the verticality of what you are facing makes you apprehensive, but once you are on the routes, they are just a joy.

Next time I would go for more (I think) mountainy routes, like the Posnecker and the Marmolada routes, and try to stay high for more than a day by staying refuges, but for a first go, I think what we did was great

I took advice on here from James Rushforth (have now bought his guide) and Chris the Tall (see his UKC article), but when we there we bought and used the Austrian guide book that was in the Corvara shops.

This one

http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/3902656077/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_3/276-52692...


Don't know what the snow cover will be like in May?

Have a great trip!

In reply to linal66:

Cortina D'Ampezzo is nice to stay in - it's the trendy destination, so you might find accommodation is a little more expensive, but many of the apartments in the area are second homes so many are available to rent when the owner isn't using them.

If staying in Cortina I can recommend the Ferrata Degli Alpini and the Micheli Stroebel - both 3B so interesting yet still beginner friendly. If you go in the main summer season (May is tad too early I think), there are loads of lifts which can take you to some really high altitude ferrata, but unfortunatlely we missed the lift season (although we also missed the storm season - why these two coincide I'm not sure). However, don't despair as there is still plenty to go at and it's likely to be quieter. If you do venture to the higher routes bear in mind that some may still hold snow in May.

In reply to linal66:

May will be too early for anything north-facing as there will still be snow in the couloirs which will stop you unless you take ice gear and a rope. Even stuff in the Brenta has impassable snow on it in July. You may be OK doing the ones in the Sarca valley at that time of year though due to the lower altitude. The views & ambience are different to the ones higher up, but they're fun none the less and generally involve less hassle.

In reply to linal66: we camped in corvara ( camping colfosco ) and had a great time. As above there are several nearby vf on the way to the summit of piz boe (3,200m) also brigata tridentina is a classic, also gran cir and another just up the valley - have fun!

In reply to linal66:

There's some good destination articles on here which give you lots of detail. In terms of VF's to do, it depends on your abilities. If you are looking for a concentration of harder routes, Civetta and Marmolada have some very long routes which are quite adventurous. There is also Monte Agner which is considered by many to be the hardest in the Dolomites. At the other end of the scale there are some great routes around the Cantenaccio, the Santener Pass VF would make a great intro, or there's the Denti di Diablo and Roda di Vael, or the traverse of Cantenaccio d'antemoia - all in a small area and excellent routes. Around the sella there the is Piz da Lech area, not done of them but they sound nice, the Brigata Tridentina which is excellent, the Possnecker which is long hard and great or the Cesare Piazetti which again is hard. There's as some one else mentioned the Via delle Trincee which is truely superb, one of the best I've done. You just won't be short of things to do, if anything its tricky to decide what to do!

As for places to stay, I'm biased as Casa Alfredino is our new climbers and skiers lodge in Val Pettorina at the foot of Marmolada...