The Dolomites and Via Ferrata 2007

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Friday, July 27

The Kaleidoscope Walk

A scenic and short little ferrata had caught my eye while flipping through the Fletcher/Smith ferrata guidebook. It was called the Sentiero Astaldi, and from the pictures it looked like an extremely scenic ferrata that traversed through some unusually colored rock strata (unusual for the Dolomites, that is). It was very short and very easy, and so we opted to do this as our 'climbing' for the day. The rest of the day would be spent driving westwards to the Brenta.

The location of the Sentiero Astaldi is directly underneath Punta Anna - the steep and extreme ridge we had climbed just two days before! As we approached the route, we could look up and see just how high, steep and dramatic the Punta Anna route looked - especially from down here, near the Rifugio Dibona, where we parked before starting out on our Sentiero Astaldi hike.

A tale of two routes

Path 421

Hiking up

Because the route grade was so easy, we elected not to take any ferrata gear at all. The guidebook described it more as a hike with a handrail, and we had become pretty proficient at harder ferrate, so we were fairly comfortable with this decision.

We hiked steeply up through pleasant meadows, switchbacking our way to the start of the route in about 20 minutes. We could see now see the colored strata that the route traversed - a series of titled, soft, slope forming rock, interspersed with harder layers. Above these soft layers, the thick, dolomitic bulk of the Punta Anna rested, it's hardness reflected in the sudden verticality of the cliff above. It was fascinating to think of the billions of tonnes of force of the Tofana Group resting on top of this gentle-looking soft, pretty rock.

We climbed way up there!

Junction

Colorful

We started off westward on the Sentiero, enjoying the easy, traversing ramble. The route sticks right up to the top of the soft layers, right up against where it makes contact with the vertical walls above. There are many excellent viewpoints, where the dark ochre-red slopes contrast with the green of the valley below and the pale color of the mountains all around.

The trail is a little airy in spots, but the footing is very good, and the handrail-like wire is always there for reassurance. In all, it took us less than 30 minutes to traverse the entire trail, which ends at a grassy ridge.

Rounding a corner

Exploring the rock

Cool ledge

After a quick break on the grassy ridge (from which we could see the dots of climbers on the much more difficult Punta Anna ridge far, far above), we strolled the easy twenty-minute walk back to the car. In all, this was a perfect little quarter-day jaunt through very pretty scenery.