Europe - Asmir's Wedding, Dolomites, and Italy - Riva - June/July 2010

Return to alavigne.net home

NOTE: You have javascript disabled in your browser. This presentation will continue to function, but with only basic capabilities. In order to view this presentation will full capabilities, please enable javascript in your browser, then refresh this page.

[< Previous Page]

[page 1] [page 2] [page 3] [page 4] [page 5] [page 6] [page 7] [page 8] [page 9] [page 10] [page 11] [page 12] [page 13] [page 14]

[Next Page >]

Chapter 7

Descent from Cima Carega
Tuesday, June 22

Tuesday dawned completely clear, crisp, and sunny. The bad weather had finally gone for good and it looked like we were going to have a completely sunny day. Our objective for today was fairly straightforward: we would start by hiking along the scenic Costa Media ridge, then climb down an easy ferrata to Passo Pertica, where we would join our ascent route from the day before and walk back down to the car. On paper it didn't seem like much, and I figured we would be back around lunchtime.

Morning at the rifugio

Warming up on deck

After a simple but sufficient breakfast at the rifugio, we got ready on the sunny but cool deck of the rifugio, then headed out southwestward along the crest of the Costa Media ridge. This was a beautiful walk on a very nice path, mostly on the very crest of the ridge, but occasionally bypassing minor summits.

108 along Costa Media

Costa Media ridge

Side-path

The ridge gradually loses elevation and ruggedness as it proceeds away from Cima Carega, with the steep slopes on either side gradually lessening and become more gentle and grassy, and with a few patches of dwarf conifers appearing here and there. We stopped at a couple of the more prominent sub-peaks along the way - first at 'Cima Madonnina' - marked by a large white madonna statue, and secondly at 'Prayer Flag Peak' - which was adorned with tibetan prayer flags. We took a nice long rest and snack break at Prayer Flag Peak.

Looking back up ridge

Deep Blue Flower

Beautiful traversing path

Down the Costa Media Ridge

Towards Madonnina Peak

Jenn arrives at Madonnina Pk

Madonnina Peak

Pu and Vicentine Alps

Lower Costa Media

Hiking to Prayer Flag Peak

Jenn at Junction

Prayer Flags Closeup

Relaxing mid-morning break

Prayer Flag Peak

The Brenta Dolomites

The Ortles?

Departing Prayer Flag Peak

From Prayer Flag Peak, we left the main path and headed along a steep path down the north side of the ridge to the Sentiero Alpinistico Angelo Pojesi - an easy-grade ferrata that would take us down to Passo Pertica - a spot about 30 minutes' walk from the car.

Heading down to Ferrata

Mr Classford

Steep path

The path down to the ferrata was mostly over grassy terrain, but it was fairly steep, traversing across steep gullies with some exposure, and required a bit of care. In about 20 minutes or so, we reached the top of the ferrata. We geared up and started down. The first bit was simply more steep walking, but with the protection of a cable.

A bit further down, actual climbing was required. There were a fair number of stemples and aids on anything that was remotely steep. We made slow progress, though, because we tried to practice our downclimbing with touching any of the aids. The day was fairly early and we were in no rush, so... what the hey, right?