UKH

First of all, let me direct you to a new website I’ve started, http://wildpettorina.com which is now home to a route guide to Val Pettorina where I live and where Casa Alfredino is. It’s free to use, ad free other than project partners being mentioned at the end of each article, so it should be a useful resource for you. There’s still alot of work to do, especially on the ski touring side of things, so please feel free to subscribe if it’s something you feel you will fimd interesting.

At the risk of tempting fate, I’m kicking this off early this year, because conditions, at least for skiing are here! Albeit a bit limited at the moment, we’ve had a first sizeable snowfall and two days ago I ski toured to Pian Fiaconi on Marmolada. There was snow from the road, a little thin near the bottom by skiable, but after a couple of hundred meters of ascent it turned into good powder. Since then we’ve had a another fall of around 20cm at 1100m, so at altitude, that will be considerably more. Today it’s snowing again, so it looks like it’s putting down an excellent preseason layer. This also bodes well for ice climbing, providing a good source of water for cascade ice, all we need is consistently low temperatures.

I just get a front page with no links on my phone??

I’ve taken the subscribe banner off the too bar, it was hiding the menu...

Cheers

By the way, here are some pics from our ski tour on Marmolada

https://www.instagram.com/p/B4kAVITImjY/

Hi Mike, is the Sottoguda gorge going to be open for ice climbing this winter?.........Jeff

Some useful webcams at fotowecam.eu too. They normally arrange themselves by distance from the current cam, or you can find them on the map page.

https://www.foto-webcam.eu/webcam/dreizinnenblick/2019/10/10/1330

Hi Jeff! So officially there is no access. But last night I saw some pics of the work that has been ongoing in the gorge. From the base of the gorge there is now a clear path up to the Madonna just below the Cascata del Sole amphitheatre, but the river still cutting through at that point. From the top, there is now a clear path as far as the chapel. Last year I went all the way to Cascate del Sole from the top, so I am nigh on sure that there will be climbers in the gorge this year, whether it’s “official” or not.

Thanks Mike, the gorge is one of my favorite ice climbing venues.............Jeff

I wrote up the new canyon by the way and it's on the link above. There's still a few routes to go up there although it's a trek to get in. If you come again, you should really get up to Torre Coldai - it's an absolutely epic place to climb - Paparoga and Hypercoldai are both great routes, especially Hypercoldai.