Ra Gusela and Averau Vie Ferrate

With our friends Jen and Colin and their kiddo arriving in Cortina to overlap with us for a week and a babysitter arranged for the day for only us, we hatched a plan to rendezvous with them at Rifugio Nuvolau. They rode the Cinque Torre lift and hiked up while we drove to Passo Giau and climbed up the Ra Gusela via ferrata. It turned out this route was very simple and easy with very little need to clip in, so we were a bit ahead of schedule and were able to snag a table for lunch. What an improbable location for a hut with views in all directions. Thankfully the weather cooperated and it was reasonably warm to eat outside.

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After lunch, Erica and I descended to the saddle and then went up the Averau via ferrata. The skies were increasingly threatening at this point and we were prepared to turn around at any moment if it started pouring, but we pressed on and thankfully were able to complete the route quickly up and down. There are just a handful of steeper moves on this route and a short amount of cable during this section. Just as we got back to the saddle, the skies opened up. Thankfully, the hike back to Passo Giau was straightforward and the only problem was that we got wet. Worth it!

Sci Club 18 Via Ferrata

On our last full day together, Eric, Owen, and I were all given the hall passes from our wives to get out together for a few hours during the afternoon. We decided to do the Sci Club 18 route just above town as quick as we could despite the Faloria cable car being closed for the season. I jogged from our house down the bike path and met them at the street heading up the hill toward the route where we met up and kept running uphill toward the route. At about 45 minutes from home, we reached the base of the route sweaty and out of breath. Just then, a few rain drops started falling on us and we debated if we should press on or bail. The forecast had suggested rain later on, so we chanced it.

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The route is steep from the start, with fun movement that was made more fun when ignoring the cable and stemples for hands and feet. There were a few airy sections with big views of the nearby peaks which made the route pretty memorable. We stayed close enough to each other during the route that we could maintain a conversation throughout, which was really fun.

As we neared the top, we could see the Faloria cable car station above us. The last sections meandered quite a bit and took longer than I was expecting given how close it seemed we were to the top.

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After a brief moment together at the end of the route, we packed up our gear and started jogging down. We quickly reached the “Cliffhanger Hut” with a sign saying “Stallone was here in 1993,” which was pretty cool. The descent was otherwise not so cool—mostly just a bunch of knee creaking without views, but it went pretty fast. I dropped the guys at their house and jogged back to mine, finishing a little over 3.5 hours later.

This was a nice, technical, and reasonably long route to be able to do straight from town without having to drive or take a cable car. Pretty unique!

Punta Anna and Tofana di Mezzo Via Ferrata

As one of the towering peaks making Cortina d’Ampezzo feel like a mountain amphitheater, Tofana di Mezzo is a natural objective. A casual cable car descent and a long via ferrata route to the top make it even more enticing. With one full day to get out together sans kiddos, Eric, Owen, and I quickly chose it as our objective.

We parked at Piè Tofana and took one of the first chairlifts that morning at about 8:45am up to Duca d’Aosta. With the next chairlift section closed, we hiked up the steep gravel road to the Pomedes Hut, where we stopped for a brief moment to take in the views. We could see a bunch of other parties heading for the route and assumed it would be a day spent enjoying the route more than pushing the pace.

The route starts out with fun moves right away and maintains a surprising ratio of actual climbing and scrambling to walking throughout. The more we ignored the cable and stemples for our hands and feet, the more fun we had.

We gained the summit at 1:15pm and took in the views before hiking down to the cable car. We rode down to the Ra Valles midstation and stopped for lunch with views here before descending to Col Druscié and hiking a brief ways over to our car at Piè Tofana, making it back in time to relieve our babysitters!