Brenta is still a dream
We came close, real close, we could almost reach out and touch it: but my dream of doing a via ferrata in the Brenta is just that, still a dream.
Not for want of trying though. I had talked about it, I had mapped it out, I had cajoled the girls into accepting the challenge. But it appears I had not made the necessary sacrifices to the weather gods.
It was images of the Brenta and it’s unique via ferrata that had inspired me many years ago to come to the Dolomites: but for a variety of reasons I had never made it to the Brenta. On this trip I wanted to.
Since arriving in Arco we had experienced intermittent showers and evening thunderstorms and rain. The forecast for the remainder of the week was for showers each day. Having decided on Sunday night not to do the Brenta on the Monday as originally planned because we were too tired it seemed it didn’t matter which day we chose – the weather would be the same.
Tuesday up at 5:45 and out of the house at 6:30. The 70km drive to Madonna di Campiglio took the 1hr 30min estimated. And by the time we found the road to the carpark, driven up, and readied to leave it was 8:30.
Oh, the weather, since you ask, spots of rain on the drive in and cloud and swirling mist from the top of the mountains right down to the valley. We start the walk with visibility about 100m. From the car it is all up. We pass the first rifugio, Casinei, after 45min, 15min ahead of my schedule.
And up we go. We stop several times for a short break. At one stop we are in the middle of a field of small boulders on bare rock, surrounded in mist, and can hear voices. From my estimation we must be close to the Rifugio Tuckett. A light breeze shifts the mist and reveals the rifugio and the massive cliffs surrounding it. We are no more than 150m from it yet had no idea it was there.
We grab the packs and scurry up to the hut. I march straight in and order 3 hot chocolates and a cappuccino: and then later 2 apple struddles. We made the rif at 10:30, and leave at 11:00, ahead of schedule.
It is cold now so we add a thermal top and start up the trail to Bocca del Tuckett – the pass that is our high point before turning to Passo Groste. The map had indicated that the trail climbed a glacier, and the occasional gaps in the cloud had allowed me to see the glacier. I was assuming the trail must climb onto the rocks as there was no mention of ice in the trip notes for this route.
At a junction in the trails we met with some walkers from Czech. They had been 3 days in the mountains and had done part of our route the day before. The trail indeed ascended the glacier, and due to the persistent cloud it was very icy and quite slippery. I looked at the sandshoes on Bec’s feet and decided that we would take the other route. I called Pam & Niccy back as they had pressed on when I stopped to talk to the walkers.
The other trail climbed the moraine wall before leaving it to traverse under a cliff and to the start of some cables. The higher we climbed, the closer to the pass, the stronger the wind. We now had all our gear on, and we were starting to get cold. I had allowed for cool weather, not cold, and not freezing.
The clouds would sometimes part and allow us views of the spectacular cliffs, but only bit by bit. Close to the top we reached a long traversing section of cable that appeared to take us close to the top of the pass. We waited for some walkers coming down. They weren’t clipping in and were moving quickly and confidently.
I asked where they had come from: rif Graffer. This was the next rif we would reach, after Passo Groste and signaled for us the end of the section on rock. From there it was several hours walk back to the car. They had overnighted at the rif – and taken 4hrs to get to where we were. I estimated our time would be 1.5 times theirs, based on how they descended off the pass – so 6hrs. It was already 12:15, with 6hrs amongst the cliffs and another 1-2hrs from there to the car. It was tight, too tight. I asked what the terrain was like going down the other side of the pass – harder than the side we had come up was the answer. And then he looked at the shoes on the feet of the girls … and laughed a little. The sandshoes just weren’t going to cut it.
That conversation confirmed the thoughts I had been having when we neared the pass, that we should go back down. First though Bec, Pam and I traversed the cliff on the cables up to the pass. At the end of the cables Bec turned back around, she was getting quite cold and didn’t want to stay in the wind. Pam went with her while I wandered up a bit higher to get a view down into the next valley. With the cloud swirling I never had a full view but saw it in pieces.
Once I am back across the cables I rejoin Pam and the girls who by now had eaten, and down we start. As we do the mist below us clears and allows us a view of the rifugio. The girls are starting to get very cold especially Bec. Below the technical sections we drop out of the wind and the walking becomes easier. An hour after leaving the pass we are at the rif again.
The weather gods add insult to injury as for the first time that day the area around us clears entirely of cloud and allow us a full view of the cliffs above us. The cliffs immediately above us rise over 500m and further away towards the pass is the Cima Brenta even higher. We have only a few moments to take it all in and then it is gone again.
Just over 1hr 30min of walking downhill leaves the feet, ankles and knees very sore. And in a rude gesture the gods turn the soft drizzle we had walked down with into heavy rain when we were 300m short of the car. Maybe they are suggesting we should have treated them with more respect.
It was an ambitious plan, perhaps overly so. But in spite of not reaching the sections of the via ferrata I had hoped to we had still had a worthwhile experience.
And, having not completing a Brenta via ferrata, I now have the justification for returning to Italy another time.
