UKH

I am contemplating a two to three week camping trek around the Dolomites from mid July, with some via feratta thrown in, as an alternative to the Tour de Mont Blanc+. Assume I can leave ice axe / crampons at home? Has anyone done the Dolomites this way? Any experience on how authorities view 'wild' camping , if kept discreet? Any advice / suggestions on maps / coverage? routes and fly-in / fly out destination/s? (live in Leeds): recommedations for a new pair of suitable trekking / via ferrata boots . Any thoughts on any aspect most welcome. Thank You. Ian.

In reply to ianghogg:
You may not be able to leave the ice gear at home depending on what you want to do - some high level routes have snow/ice/glacier patches even into september. However, do your research and you will find plenty you can do without these routes. I have a set of 6 point crampons due to bad times on glaciers and snow patches in the Brenta - small, light, fit on any footwear. Combined with walking poles or daggers of rock I'm confident of not having to turn back on VFs now. Look up https://alavigne.net/Outdoors/FeatureReports/ViaFerrata/ for great info.
Personally I would do hut-to-hut to keep your packweight and size down - the first time I went I had no idea what to expect from huts and my missus and I took sleeping bag/food/stove. A full 60l+ sack is a huge ballache on VF! By doing hut-to-hut you can fit everything in a 30l daysack and enjoy yourself a lot more. Bivvying out might be good fun but it could well be freezing at night if you're on a 2500m+ summit. I guess as long as you're out of sight of a hut and get up with the sun you'll be OK, but bear in mind that water can be hard to find.
Boots - I've worn trainers/hiking boots/army boots for my VF. If you're refusing to cable haul on VF then trainers/approach shoes will be best, otherwise I'd go for hiking boots. It's generally much drier than UK walking on hard-packed paths but you will find snow and streams to cross. Ankle protection is worth having for scree descents and bashing them on VF. Maps - you have a choice of Kompass and maybe a couple of other brands depending on where you are. They're generally OK, but the problem is that the huge amount of vertical cliffs and spires make it virtually impossible to pick out individual features like that, guidebooks are essential. Recommended routes - depends what you want, but you should do Lagazuoi tunnels for sure. Brigidata tridentina is good but get an early start to avoid queues. I also enjoyed Ivano Dibona.

In reply to Toerag:

The tunnels are great fun, but I would save them for a bad weather day.

A good 2 day trip is to go up the Renato De Pol, then continue along a second VF I forget the name of & pick up the path which takes you to the top of the Ivano Dibona. Spend the night at the Rifugio Lorenzi and descend the Ivano Dibona.

Monte Cristalo was covered in ice when I was there, so I skipped that bit.

In reply to ianghogg:

Yes you can wild camp if discrete, but don't say I said so. Officially it's a no, but look long enough and you will find bivi sites all over the place. But as Toerag says, hut to hut is but far the easiest way to do it, or renting a fixed abode and using the numerous lifts and road heads to gain access. For example last summer we did an excellent route which started at Karerpass, took in the Roda di Vael VF, then stayed at Rifugio di Fronza, then the Santnerpass VF, down past the Vajolet towers, then up to Rifugio Principe and a quick run up to the top of Cantenaccio d'anetmoia, then over to the Tierseralm to stay, then the Dente d'oro the next morning and back to the hut for breakfast, followed by a walk to Sella pass where we stayed the night. The plan have been to do the Possnecker path up onto the Sella Group and to stay at the top of Piz Boe, but weather forced us to change plans and we walked down to Canazei and caught the bus up to stay at the Rifugio Fiaconi ready for the Maormolada west ridge the following day. It was a fairly epic trip really! Alternately,if you want a fixed abode I would be more than happy to provide you with some and can make recommendations for day tours from here!

Mike

In reply to ianghogg:

Taking the extra equipment to camp will be a pain for you! It's definitely the norm for people to be walking the routes in approach shoes with a 30L pack on. They give some odd looks when you're there struggling with an exped pack on!
Camping is definitely an offical no. I was told that some huts will let you sleep on their floor or in their garden if you ask nicely for a smaller fee. The 2 huts I asked said I couldn't.
However, if no one sees you, then you have no problem.
If you become a member of the SOMETHING (somebody help me out), there are huts that give you discounts. The AAC gives you the same benefits.
Alternatively, you could plan routes than use un-manned bivy huts. These are usually quite high up and will make your days long though.

It's probably worth taking some snow security. On the trek there were steep snow patches that crampons would have given comforting security on. There was one VF route that had significant snow on which we didn't expect and although I was happy going down with stiff boots, my partner totally sketched out.

I flew from Gatwick to Milan and the same back again. Was a bit faffy with trains to the mountains but had a nice stop on the way back in Verona.
I hear most people will go from Venice or...over the border from Austria?

Get maps when you're out there - it's always easier. There is a german website that lets you explore the area online (similar to OSGetaMap) but don't have the link on this computer I'm afraid.

In reply to martin.p65:

The BMC do a reciprocal rights card, which theoretically gives you the same discount as being a member of a european alpine club. In practice I have found that it can be a bit of a crap shoot, as some places don't see them very often.

AAC card is recognised just about everywhere, so is a better bet IMHO.

In reply to martin.p65:






CAI: http://www.cai.it

AAC is much easier however.

In reply to martin.p65:
Thanks for the tip about snow and ice even in summer - these Kahtoola microspikes look they may be useful taking along (and useful for UK winter walking in cross trail trainers etc)

snowandrock.com/microspikes-microspikes

In reply to ianghogg:
Wht about doing one of the Alta Via Routes. AV1 can be done in 7-11 days at a comfortable pace. Add in extra days for a whole range of .via Ferratas it passes. Fly into Innsbruck, fly out of Venice.

If you want remote, bivvy huts, with lots of Via Ferratas look at AV6

In reply to davidbeynon:

I did that too - up Rene Da Pol and down Ivano Dibona with a night in the Lorenzi hut. Long days, but well worth it

In reply to Toerag:

I second that. Also worth doing Marino Bianchi whilst you're up there.