Via Ferrata Brigata Tridentina, Dolomites, Italy
Ian Scott
Sept 2006
The Passo Gardena above the Dolomite village of Corvara sees one of the
most popular via ferrata in the Dolomites, namely the famous Tridentina.
This starts at a car park a few hundred metres down from the summit of the
pass. The car park is large and is often full by 9:00 am at weekends and
during the peak season. Tridentina is a grade 3B via ferrata with 750m of
ascent. The first stage of the route starts after a short, level walk
through light undergrowth of around 10 minutes. The route starts up a
stempled cliff with some traversing over slabs with good wire protection
and reasonable footholds. The route finishes with a set of stemples that
leads to a ledge. The path passes between two massive boulders and
continues through scree rocks and undergrowth for around 20 mins to the
foot of the main cliff. Those that do not wish to complete the main route
can continue along to the Val di Mezdi and a walking ascent to the top of
the route.
The main route starts up a large wall and consists of stemples and
traversing generally upwards and leftwards and then alongside a waterfall
where an escape can be made if desired. The route continues upwards and
leftwards with some exposed moves on to a near vertical ladder. Eventually
the route levels off and traverses around the rocky tower to a famous and
fearfully exposed suspension bridge that can be viewed from the road up
the Gardena Pass. After the obligatory photographs for the brave the route
finishes with a short 20 minute walk to Rifugio F Cavazza al Piscaiadu
across rocky steps and scree. The rifugio offers excellent refreshment
that is very welcome after the two to five hours spent on the via ferrata
and is located at a junction of many mountain valleys in the Sella plateau
region. The Dolomite scenery is inspiring! Descent from the rifugio is made either down Val da Mezdi or by way of
step wire protected route down a gully directly to the car park. This is
the Val Setus and can contain snow even in September.
The main via ferrata
is generally well-endowed with protection and hand and foot holds. It
climbs steeply across a rocky tower with few opportunities to escape once
the main route has been started. It can be tackled as a first route by experienced scramblers. Its popularity is deserved as the route is
of high quality and wide variety finishing at a rifugio and starts almost
directly from the road. The disadvantage of this is that the via ferrata
is very popular which can lead to significant delays on the route. In all
an excellent class via ferrata day providing the crowds can be avoided.
Click [here]
for some more photos.
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