The Via Ferrata Col Rodella
Monday, July 17
We got up and were ready for the opening of the breakfast hour at the Rifugio Sandro Pertini. Today was Monday, July 17, 2023. This was the last day of our adventuring together in the Dolomites, and as a finale, we had one last ferrata we wanted to tackle.
Mists on the Sasso Piatto
There wasn't too much to say about our morning departure from the rifugio, other than that we were marching along the trail back towards Passo Sella before 8am. Our target ferrata was a short one - up the southern face of the Col Rodella - which is itself situated back near Passo Sella, and so that was why we were now heading back in that direction. The morning was once again beautiful, building on a four-day streak of great weather that we were now having.
It didn't take very long for us to walk back along the trail before we could see the distinctive asymmetrical form of the Col Rodella directly ahead. It was back-lit by the early morning sun - a hazy, featureless outline. Pulses quickened. We knew it wouldn't be too long before we'd be experiencing some Via Ferrata excitement!
Super extravagant donut line
Starting up the only real climb
We soon arrived at the low pass below the Rifugio Col Rodella. From here, a smooth gravel access road led steeply upwards to the top buildings of the Campitello lift, which are situated on a shoulder below the peak itself. We climbed up this road (really the only steep bit of walking on this hike) to these buildings. The road then led around on the small shoulder and ended near the suspension cables and support buildings of the cablecar system itself.
Top station, Campitello Cablecar
A faint path led across the meadows and under the wires of the cablecar. This path leads to the lower starting point of the Col Rodella ferrata. We began following this path just as the first load of visitors from the valley came up on the day's first run (at 9am) of the cablecar.
After passing underneath the cablecar run, the faint path turned uphill and approached the base of the southern cliff of the Col Rodella, which now loomed high above us. We could just barely see the tips of the communication towers on the summit - most of the towers were hidden behind the bulk of the cliff itself.
Soon we were at the base of the cliff and next to the orange/red metal plaque marking the start of the wires. We stopped and got our gear on, along with the little bit of nervous excitement that always comes when tackling a new and unknown route. Would a grade 3 be uncomfortable for anyone in this group? So far everything I'd observed hinted that they'd be fine - especially given the short length of this climb. And yay! It looked we were the very first climbers on the route this morning. That's always nice.
The wire led off on a moderate angle to the left. Within a short distance, however, a prominent chimney was reached, and the ferrata went straight across it and then climbed a steep, blank bulge of bedrock on a set of closely-spaced stemples. Airy, but nothing technically hard.
Beyond the steep stemple section, the ferrata wire started to wind back and forth over the now fairly exposed face. There were definitely a few sections where a lower-grade ferrata would have provided some metal aids, but here on this grade 3, you were left to find your own footholds in the rock. It was more challenging, but nothing crazy. Looking down, it appeared that the Hatkos were doing just fine (perhaps a bit too much in the way of bum violations from Evie, but overall, just fine).
We got more comfortable with the route the higher we climbed (just the usual settling-in-to-things effect). Katie, Brian and I established a pretty good pace, and soon we were turning around to wait for Chris, Gillian and Evie to catch up to us.
About fifty minutes had passed by the time I arrived at the upper Ferrata plaque. Metres above that I could see the railing and the tables of the terrace of the Rifugio Col Rodella. Quite a cool juxtaposition to be on a climbing route, pop off the top of it, and then immediately (like within a few metres) have a place to sit and drink beer - in complete service and comfort. I topped out and positioned myself up on the terrace, ready to capture hero shots of the group finishing the climb.
Waiting for the stragglers
Topping out with a Welcome
And so that was that. That had been a fine, short, sporty and interesting route. No trouble with grade 3 for this team, which is good to know. I think we'll have to tackle some more (and longer) of these on future trips, hm?
A sit down with some drinks and snacks was well-deserved. We sat for a good hour and a half, chilling and reminiscing about our eight-day odyssey across this (frankly quite tiny) stretch of the Dolomites we had been playing in. Despite some mis-steps, especially at the beginning with my bad route-guiding and difficulty-estimating, and with the difficulty we had securing accommodations over the weekend days... it had all gone quite well. Lots of great experiences, no real mishaps, and only minor annoyances (I'm sure Katie is thinking of Evie as she reads this).
Hiking down from Col Rodella
It was after noon-hour by the time we sauntered down from the Rifugio Col Rodella's rooftop deck. It was a trivial and short walk back down to the main trail and from there down to the car-park, and we arrived before 1pm.
It was now time to say good-bye, as we were all heading off on the next phases of our respective ongoing trips in Europe. The Hatkos were heading off to Venice for a few days, before heading north to Poland; Brian and I were heading off in our rental car back to Stuttgart. We got the camera set up on my tripod and took some celebratory / horseplay final group shots.
Thanks again, guys! You were all great, and I sincerly hope we can do it again in the not-too-distant future.
Interactive trackmap with photo points - July 17, Col Rodella VF - click map to view
July 17 Dolomites - Hike Data
Start Time:
7:45a.m.
End Time:
12:45p.m.
Duration:
4h59m
Distance:
5.46 km
(3.39 mi)
Average Speed:
1.1 km/hr
(0.7 mph)
Start Elevation:
7514ft
(2290m)
*
Max Elevation:
8177ft
(2492m)
*
Min Elevation:
7292ft
(2222m)
*
End Elevation:
7292ft
(2222m)
*
* : +/- 75 feet
Total Elevation Gain:
920ft
(280m)
*
Total Elevation Loss:
1132ft
(345m)
*
* : +/- 75 feet
Elevation Graph
Heading to Stuttgart
Before I sign off on this Dolomites trip report, I'd like to add a bit of an Epilogue and perhaps an invitation to continue reading. The journey Brian and I were undertaking to head back to Stuttgart was not the end of respective voyaging in Europe. In fact, far from it. We were heading back to Stuttgart to set up and prepare for the grand adventure of
The GTS Chronicles, where I and my auto enthusiast buddy Luke were going to receive two Porsche sports cars from Porsche Gmbh and drive them around Europe for three weeks (with Brian as one of our support crew). That trip report will be available (it isn't yet) sometime early in 2024. In the meantime, I encourage any interested readers to peruse the Instagram feed of the GTS Chronicles, where a timeline of photos and video vignettes are already in place. You can link to the Instagram feed here:
@gtschronicles.
Final Note: regarding our accommodations during July (which is the second-busiest month of hiker visitation to the Dolomites), Gillian and I coordinated to book our rifugios and accommodations approximately two weeks out from the start of our trip. What we discovered is that we were generally able to reserve spots for six people in a string of connectable (via hiking) rifugios, during week-nights (that is to say, sunday night through thursday night. Friday and saturday nights were a different story - much harder (although not impossible) to find six available spots. That fact is why we ended up structuring the weekend part of our trip as we did (with the hotel stop in town at the Hotel Piz Boe) - we were unable to find a route solution that kept us all in mountain rifugios over that time.
The above advice will be modified depending on one's actual month of visit. If journeying in June or October, my guess is that rifugio bookings will be very easy to get, even on weekends. If journeying in August - the month of ferragosto, then you'll probably have a hard time any day of the week.
