Back from the Dolomites return to the snow!

Wow, it's looking like winter over here in mid summer!

What's going on with the weather these days? Is there just a slight chance that Global warming is having some effect on the weather patterns as we now have snow down to the 'Mid station' at the Aiguille du Midi on the 15th of August!

Yep the mid station! so snow down to about 2600m in the middle of summer and the temps still dropping. Its cloudy and rainy out there this morning so it'll be interesting to see how low it dropped last night.

Is this the start of the next ice age? No doubt it'll be +30 c in a few days as it seems to go from one extreme to the other these days.

The Sella range in the dolomites.

I just got back from my Via Ferrata trip to the Dolomites last night. I had a great week there with my group of Irish clients with whom I have done Mont Blanc and a summer Haute Route from Chamonix to Zermatt. This year they wanted something a little less demanding but fun technical so Via Ferrata in the Dolomites was the perfect choice.

On top of a via ferrata in the Sella range.

We started out with a great sunny day and 2 warm up via ferrata peaks which were great. Day 2 we climbed one of the local peaks to a high altitude refuge making a loop around the Sella range.

Grand Canyon esq views in the Dolomites.

Day 3 we climbed a steep Via Ferrata with technical walls and steep ladders, great fun! We had an exploratory wet day visiting a mountain drilled with tunnels from the first world war. The Austrians and the Italians literally fought a war inside the mountain as the Italians dug up through the rock to try to blow up the Austrian gun emplacement on the top. The Austrians heard them coming and dug counter tunnels to try tp blow up there tunnels and it kind of went on like that. Anyway, you enter a small dark tunnel at the top or bottom of the mountain (with helmet and head torch) and spiral up through the whole mountain top to bottom or vice versa exploring various diversions tunnels, window galleries to ledges on the rock face, living quarters. Its all pretty amazing really and pretty much left as it was so you can be in there for hours just exploring these steep dark tunnels until you find your way out. The rain stopped in the afternoon so we did a short via ferrata in a gorge in Cortina passing behind a big waterfall which was also pretty good fun.
The weather stayed pretty grim the next day but we took advantage of a dry spell and climbed another big Via ferrata up in the Sella Mountains that finished at a mountain refuge. This was a great climb but the rain came in hard towards the end and the hot chocolate was well earned up in the hut.

The final days ridge climb as the cloud comes in. look carefully and you'll see people climbing along the ridge.

On the last day we headed up above Cortina to where cliff hanger was filmed and did a great Via Ferrata ridge climb, starting off in the sun before the cloud came in.

The Cliff hanger bridge, big drop in the canyon!

We crossed the exposed cliff hanger bridge and descended just before the storm came back in, great timing!

All in all it was a great week and one that I might offer next year to an open group so if you're interested in a Dolomites Via Ferrata week next summer let us know and we'll stick your name down.

Of course I took my bike along, the roads over there are amazing. super windy, smooth tarmac and slightly banked corners. We stayed in a village called Corvara which is surrounded by some great cols to ride up. Unfortunately I only got out a couple of times as it was pretty wet in the afternoons most days. This would be a great place to do a road cycling trip too.

Anyway, back to Chamonix. I have a couple more weeks of guiding here now. A 6 day Mont Blanc course starting mid week, so i'll be up wading around in the winter snow in a few days. I think the forecast is to improve so fingers crossed and It'll be very beautiful looking up there anyway with all the fresh snow.

Winter courses are filling up fast. I'm toying with the idea of putting on another Advanced BC course at the end of March (in my free week) as we're getting lots of interest for one so watch this space.

Right time to get out on my bike!

All is good.

Neil.