UKC

VF Tomaselli yesterday: Some great free climbing, and the descent was already snow-free.

Thanks to all those who recommended Tomaselli -- The upper dihedral pitch is about the most interesting single section of free climbing I've done on any cable-protected route so far - (but perhaps that's because I'm just not good enough to climb free some of the sections on Rino Piseta or the new Tabaretha).

Overall a great outing, the hiking and descent along with the climbing. (Actually just hiking the trail 20B loop is rather spectacular and interesting, if you have non-climbing travel partners).

I had brought crampons and ice axe in case the somewhat north-facing cable descent route still had snow, but it turned out that the route is nicely designed for snow to melt off early. Then it carefully deposited me at the top of a south-facing slope which had melted to scree (steep enough so I would gladly have used my crampons had it been covered with firm snow).

(A small firm snow-patch just below the bottom of the ascent VF route, but that worked in my approach shoes, with some careful stepping on faint old footprints. Lots more snow on the slope just North of the Lagazuoi lift -- north-facing, could be tricky first thing in the morning, but mostly avoidable on rocks on its east side -- I don't know because I started by hiking up from Passo Falzarego much earlier on trail 402.)

I climbed the ascent VF all free except 2 meters of the traverse at the start. Lots of thoughful interesting moves, from my memory seemed like some French sport grade 5a sustained (likely not much more than 5b) - (except I have no idea how hard the traverse move is to do free).

A bit more easy (exposed) wandering than I was expecting after the first climbing section, but worth it for the upper pitches. I found it helpful to reassure myself on the navigation by glancing at the topo from the German-language AlpinVerlag.at guidebook.

. (VF Tomaselli is N of Passo Falzarego + Lagazuoi lift,
. . GPS latitude/longitude N46.548 E12.017,
. . more details at www.roberts-1.com/c/v/e/11a

Ken

In reply to kenr:

What a strange concept - climbing a VF "free". How on earth can you manage to avoid all the ironmongery?

In reply to Erstwhile:

You simply don't pull on the cables - not really a hard concept to grasp. I guess it would be tricky on the more modern routes, but those in the higher mountains of the dolomites are often simply cables on rock.

In reply to Monk:

Why not climb a route? Surely the whole idea of a ferrata is that it's equipped to make it easy. It also strikes me that trying to avoid using the metalwork by climbing the ultra polished rock makes falling and potentially impaling yourself on an "ignored" spike a real possibility - trying to free climb a ferrata has to be more dangerous than free climbing an easy route.
Sounds daft to me, but each to his own inferno I suppose.

In reply to Erstwhile:

I'm not denying that. Some of the potential falls are far worse than lead falls. The reasons that I have free climbed via ferratas is when I have been in mixed ability groups. It's just a bit of fun, really.

In reply to kenr: climbing VF's 'free' means you don't have the hassle of the rope and rack, you're not committed and you can do them on your own. I personally cablehaul, but when I get stuck in 'traffic' (Brigadata Tridentina for example) I 'freeclimb' as it relieves some of the boredom waiting for fat italian women to get out of my way!

In reply to Erstwhile:

but less dangerous than unroped scrambling.

I enjoy climbing rock, but don't much enjoy climbing ladders. So if I'm out with other people doing a VF then I try to make it more interesting by climbing the rock

VF Sci Club 18, new climb in the last couple of years, and close to Cortina d'Ampezzo. I climbed it this afternoon, mostly free -- great experience for me ...

Imagine the interesting free climbing in the upper section of VF Tomaselli, in the difficulty range of French sport 4c-5c.

Next imagine a cable-protected climb with like five times as much of that.

Next imagine climb with an approach hike less than one-fifth of VF Tomaselli.
And the descent is a gondola lift just 150 meters from the top of the climb.

Finally imagine lots of that climbing interspersed with loose rock.

I was all alone. Blue skies, sunny day, but climbing mostly in the shade.

Ken

P.S. GPS latitude/longitude . . .
* parking at base of Falloria lift in Cortina: (N46.538 E12.141)
* approach starts from Mandres lift mid-station: (N46.535 E12.158)
* bottom of via ferrata: (N46.534 E12.170)
* top of via ferrata: (N46.532 E12.171)
* gondola lift top station: (N46.533 E12.173)

approach hike: 285 vertical meters over 1.4 km horizontal
cable-protected climbing: about 325 vertical meters