I’d really wanted to do the long via ferrata Ivano Dibona, probably stopping at the rifugio Lorenzi, but the weather forecast was a bit variable and I’d not really wanted to set out on an 8 hour route on my own in less than optimum weather. But I was really eager to climb something in the Cristallo area so I decided to do the via ferrata Marino Bianchi instead.
It was on Saturday morning that I rode the famous lift up and stopped for a coffee at the rifugio Lorenzi. I’d got a tight schedule as I needed to be in Calalzo by around 5pm to meet my clients for a 10 day trekking trip across the Dolomites.
Initially it looked a bit busy on the route but as I was obviously moving fairly quickly a couple of groups let me by where it was safe to do so. As a result I climbed most of the way on my own as the sun warmed the mountain up.
The sun was never going to be strong enough to melt the snow and a couple of traverses were over packed snow. One section involved moving over some broken ground with a significant amount of snow, this section wasn’t equipped so it took some care as a fall would have been serious. My summer work boots, some Sportiva Trango Guides, are really a bit light for climbing on snow slopes.
Heading down the descent line takes a slightly different line to the ascent, part of this descent isn’t equipped either and a couple of metres are really quite tricky with snow. Ironically, there’s not quite enough snow, a bit more and you could make some decent steps but it’s early yet and there’s just not enough.
My return schedule worked fine, I retraced my way down the mountain to the road, picked up a bus to Cortina and another bus to Calalzo arriving with half an hour to spare before my client meeting. The via ferrata Ivano Dibona will have to wait until another time if I’m in the area again
