The Dolomites and Via Ferrata 2007

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Tuesday, July 17

Climbing con Calore!

Mountains behind the hotel

For today I had planned a ferrata which would be 'the next notch up' - a '3C' ferrata on the Fletcher/Smith scale. Because we were still in the Riva del Garda area for another couple of days, I chose something close by. Not far to the north of Riva del Garda, past the historic old town of Arco, is a small place called Pietramurata. This little town is nestled under the big wall of the east fast of Monte Casale. The route up this wall is called the Ferrata Che Gueverra, and is a fairly big ascent, starting at on the edge of town, at under 1,000 feet (300m) elevation, and climbing up to the top of 5360-ft (1635m) Monte Casale.

Given our rather late finish the night before on the Gaetano Falcipieri / 52 Tunnels route, we were again up not as early as I would have liked - especially given the heat. The day was yet again another hot and hazy affair, with high temps in the Riva area of around 37 degrees C. Our guidebook specifically warns about doing this route in high summer when the heat can be really high, so we were somewhat concerned and aware of the heat -- but not enough to dissuade us from giving it a shot. According to the guidebook, there was an open rifugio just off of the summit, and we'd use that as a fluid refueling stop.

Start of Che Guevera Ferrata

The area surrounding Riva is the only area for which I did not have a good topographic map, and that fact came back to bite me with this outing (more on that later). Using the crude maps I had on-hand from regional tourist handouts and the ferrata guidebook, I decided to park both rental vehicles down in Pietramurata, one at the start point and one at a point where the described route re-enters the town. Using the two vehicles in this manner saved us a kilometre or two of road walking at the end of our day.

A second sign

The start of the Che Guevara route is beside an active quarry operation in Pietramurata. Amidst the clanking and clanging of heavy machinery, we hiked up towards the huge wall towering above us.

Right by the quarry

The trail initially has good markings, but near the back edge of the quarry it became less obvious: there were several side trails that were unmarked, and I didn't feel completely sure of the route the guidebook was espousing, so I explored each one.

Our objective

We ended up on a faint path that led up to a very tiring talus slope ascent. Fortunately, this awkward and off-route excursion did seem to end up rejoining with the a more promising-looking path, but not without the price of more wasted time (we were trying hard to get altitude under our belts before the full heat of the day hit us) and a lowering of morale. There's nothing more morale-draining than a frustrating 2-steps-foward-1-step-back scree slope!

Initial cables

Once up at the base of the cliff, we traversed right (i.e., north). Soon we reached steeper terrain and the start of some very new-ish looking silver cabling. We were still not absolutely-positively sure this was the right route, but it did sort of fit with the guidebook's explanations.

courtesy DBoyd

Way above the quarry

We donned our ferrata gear and quickly headed up: The eastward-facing wall above us was soaking in the heat from the morning sun, and already it was quite hot. The heat drained a little more morale from us, and thoughts crept into my mind about possible retreat. Would our situation eventually dictate it?

The initial cabling went up over moderately steep rock, with excellent handholds and footholds. It was fun climbing, but I was a little worried about our late start, the heat, and our potential for being off-route: was there perhaps a newer different ferrata that we'd accidentally stumbled upon??

courtesy DBoyd

Quarry and Pietramurata

Approach trail

See the star?

After a few hundred feet of climbing on the new cables, the route switched back to trail, and wandered up over weaknesses in the ever-steepening terrain. Already the quarry was far below us, dizzyingly so, but still more than close enough for us to hear the clanking of its machinery.

courtesy PChen

Climbing to the start

Finally, after some more unsure route-finding, we came across a bit of ferrata and route-marking that definitively matched a passage in the guidebook. Whew... so we *were* in fact on the right route! Good - this was a nice mental load off my mind. Now, if we could only get up into some sort of breeze...

We plodded up through the stifling air, eventually reaching a sloping plot of land with a small bit of forest. Above us, the trail clearly wound up to the base of the 'real' part of the wall. We scanned back and forth along the expanse of white-grey rock, looking for the telltale spider-thin jointed black strand that would mark the path of the ferrata wire. Eventually, we spotted it. Sure enough, it went pretty much straight up!

courtesy PChen

Just before the real start

The main wires

Main Start of Ferrata

The base of this wall (and a very large red-painted 'ferrata Che Guevara' on the wall) marked the start of more serious climbing. It was also the point of no-return: if we went up from this point, it probably would make more sense to continue up and over the top rather than to retreat downwards. We crouched in the shade of an overhanging crag and discussed the pros and cons of continuing. Pu felt that his Szechuan upbringing made him more than able to handle the heat, but he was concerned about the rest of us, especially Jenn. In the end, the tantalizing hints of breeze, the lure of higher, cooler terrain, and the promise of some beer at a rifugio on top tipped the balance into continuing the climb.

The next stretch of climbing was quite fun. The rock was very steep - in most places not completely vertical, but still, very steep. In places the wall was quite smooth, and with few holds - but in these areas there were stemples and other aids to help. Overall, the climbing wasn't that hard. The exposure was certainly big in places!

courtesy DBoyd

Pu's clean climbing

Climbing on Che Guevera Ferrata

Jenn and big walls

The guidebook warned of a long stretch with no shade, and this was the section we were now on. Blessedly, a breeze started to caress us as we moved higher onto the wall. It was a little cooler, too - no doubt the effect of decreasing temperature with altitude. We were all fixated, though, on a patch of forest and shade described in the guidebook that marked the end of the major ferrata climbing. A chance to relax in a shady spot again!

courtesy DBoyd

Stemples and Slabs

Up, up, up the wire went, zig-zagging back and forth along ledges in places, and in others forging straight up some completely blank-smooth slabs (although with stemples, so the technical difficulty wasn't very high).

Eventually, as predicted, we reached a patch of steeply sloping forest, and we took a much needed break in the shade of the trees. From here on, we knew, the ferrata was mostly over, and all that was left was some steep hiking to the summit area. A cool drink at the Rifugio above was now a much closer prospect!

courtesy PChen

Pu high above

Beautiful valley floor

Finally - shade

A few tens of minutes later, we reached the route guidebook on a shaded bit of wall. Beyond that, we arrived at a series of beautiful rocky lookouts. The breeze was much stronger here, and and the temperatures much cooler.

courtesy DBoyd

Approaching a lookout

Andrew at routebook

Looking south

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