17th Corvara/Falzarego

17^th Corvara/Falzarego

So up at the crack of dawn (according the king of lie in’s) and walked up and along to the newest VF in the area ferrata degli Alpina.  It was a tough start trying not to use the cable, but getting going it was fantastic. It took us about 3.5hours to do the route which we had to ourselves, but as we finished some speed climbing VF’ers arrived just as we came to the top. It was a good decision to get an early start and not have the pressure of the others and have time to enjoy the route. The top of col de Bois was a mere 50m above us so we headed up and popped onto the very windy top. We had spectacular views over to Marmolada and the surrounding mountains. We wandered along the WW1 trenches where the Austrain/Hungarian forces fought the Italians.  We walked over to Lagazuoi Pizo where everyone was dressed in winter kit, (we were in t-shirts) we set off down the tunnels bored into the mountain. This was the Italians attempt to surprise the Austrians and blow them off their strong hold on the top. The tunnels were amazing, huge, lengthy and a complete waste of time. Both sides claimed victory. The path back was scree, but we made it back still in sunshine. An amazing day.

Highs – VF

Lows – sore fingers, Lawr’s sore back
Note – poignant day at the WW1 site. Realising what a complete waste of lives and effort those years brought about. Also amazing was the amount of artefacts still lying about 98years later.