Torre Coldai hangs ominously above the Civetta ski area in Alleghe. If you are looking for a route in an alpine setting, somewhere that really feels wild and has fantastic quality routes, this is the place. The approach is either quite easy if you ski down to it, or a bit of a slog if you get there on foot. Having done both, the 6 euro ticket (2019) from Piani Pezze to allow you to approach by ski was well worth it.
Approach
Start from the lift station at Piani Pezze, walk up the ski runs towards Torre Coldai, the obvious and closest tower. After a few hundred metres you will reach a junction in the ski run. Here you can either continue directly up the bed of a stream or turn left and continue up the ski runs, increasingly steeply until you can go right through low scrub. The slope above the junction is long, maybe 300m of ascent on either loose rubble or snow. Eventually you climb into a deep corner where you will start to see both Paperoga and Hypercoldai.
Paperoga WI3+ 5-6 pitches 170m ***
A fantastic route which is a full notch easier than Hypercoldai, Paperoga is the first cascade you come to in the gully.
Optional entry) WI2+ 40m, Low down there is an entry pitch which can be taken a number of ways, or which can be circumnavigated by climbing higher up the gully and traversing left, especially after snow.
1) WI3+, 50m The main cascade can be taken anywhere across it’s width, possibly slightly steeper the further right you go.
Climb 30m up a shallow gully to reach a small cave where there is a rock belay, three old pegs and cord.
2) WI2+, 40m Continue for 40m past a narrowing to a rock belay on the right wall of the gully.
3) WI1, 30m Continue up easy ice to a further rock belay, pegs and tat low down on the right, possibly behind an ice stalactite.
You can continue above for another couple of pitches at a lower grade.
Abseil the route from belays and abalakovs. Belays are in a mixed state of deteriation, take tat and possibly some pitons to supplement the belays. The length given does not include the lower pitch or snow slope transitions.
Hypercoldai WI4 150m ***
This is a world class route – the setting, the ice formations, the climbing it self all add up to make a super special routes. The first couple of pitches are clearly the crux but there are still sections of tough climbing after this.
Continue up the gully past Paperoga until you reach a rock outcrop on the right side of the gully where you will find a rock belay. In general, a small set of nuts was useful on the route to back up pegs.
1) WI4, 35m Climb a surprisingly steep wide section of ice in a gully to a cave on the right where you will find a three peg belay.
2) WI4, 50m Traverse diagonally left to climb around a curtain of ice to a sloping ledge. Now either climb directy with difficulty (4+) or much more easily up to the left. On the right bank of the gully there are two rock belays, the second is better than the first as the pegs appear quite rotten on the first.
3) 60m climb the gully on snow to a corner. There is a thread high up above the niche before the ice steepens again, but the slings are old – an abalokov is probably a better option.
4) WI3+, 60m climb ice in a series of steeps to a cave where you would expect a belay. Step left on thin ice and rock to reach a niche.
In June 2012 Soph fell pregnant with what was to become the indomitable force that is Alfred. I knew immediately that I needed to change both of our lives to ensure that we never fell into the rhythm of being parents and ignoring our passions. Whilst Soph is highly motivated, I’m fairly lazy and I wanted to provide Alfred with a home from home, a place to have adventures and to explore nature. I realised that if I left it until after he arrived, it would never happen as the daily grind of 5am starts, continual colds and nappy changes would grind me into submission. I had to act whilst the iron was hot.
That summer during a three week climbing trip, Soph joined me to start the search for a home in the Dolomites, which we could renovate and make our own. Initially the idea was to buy a small place and to have it just for ourselves and so we spent 3 or 4 days driving around in our Nissan Navara, looking at beautiful Finiles high up in alpine meadows, old houses around the small villages in the valley and more modern places in resorts. We soon realised that to buy within the confines of a resort would cost an absolute arm and a leg, and that the level of work required to convert an old traditional hay barn would be too much work. Using the Italian equivalent of Rightmove, we identified where prices were more acceptable and explored them to see what area offered the best activities. We came away excited and keen to plunge headfirst into this project.
Roll on February. As the months had passed, our ideas expanded – not only did we want to provide for our little boy, we also wanted to offer the same to mountain lovers. The Dolomites for me had become over many years nothing short of an obsession. Alfred was due to make an appearance in early April – we booked flights out for a 5 day trip. The week before was snowy and we arrived in Venice on a cold bleak night; driving through the darkness, we blindly followed the sat nav over Passo Staulanza on our way to an area we had identified that we felt offered huge potential, Rocca Pietore. Climbing through Zoldo we hit the snow line. Our poorly equipped Ford Fiesta struggled onwards, wheel skidding as I tried to avoid putting the chains we had rented on. We reached the top and stopped to take a photo of the blizzard outside. I pressed on.
Half way down the pass I was wishing I’d been a bit more sensible. I fell quiet as Soph in her highly pregnant and highly excited state bombarded me with ideas. Even at 20km/hr, we were effectively in a wheeled toboggan – why didn’t I insist on snow tyres at the airport? Eventually the gradient eased as did the snow and we reached out destination, Sol e Nef in Sottoguda. Checking in, we realised we had struck gold – our room was immaculate, the hostess was friendly and helpful – we felt inspired. If only we could offer something like this!
Over the next few days we looked at dozens of houses – some only from the outside but we packed in the miles and made sure we saw what we needed to see. From small barns, to massive traditional farm houses high up on the mountain, and from total wrecks, to utterly immaculate, we saw it all. One house I was so in love with, if I’d had my cheque book I would have ended up with a home at the top of a 3 km single track lane, with 30% hills, only rudimentary ploughing and the very real chance of being cut off by snows. But the view! In any case, one of the last we saw was a house we had initially discounted. It need a lot of work to make it what we wanted, but it had potential, and it was a reasonable house. We thought long and hard and decided that most of the places we’d seen were either just far too much work, or were a lot of money and despite that we would still need to invest to make them a business prospect. What we needed was something that we could mould into what we wanted, that provided the bare shell on which to hang our vision.
It was decided, we made a series of negotiations and a few weeks later a sale was agreed. We entered the murky world of Italian house sales. Utterly different to the UK system and difficult to navigate. In May I flew out, this time on my own to meet with the owners and the conveyancing solicitors and to sign on the dotted line. That signature bound us to a sale unless we wanted to lose a 10% deposit. We were in; no turning back. Back at home Alfred was with us and I continued working on my engineering projects until finally in mid July we bought a trailer, hitched it to our Subaru and I drove through a German heatwave with the dog to our new place in the hills. Soph and the boy flew out and after a delay of a couple of weeks, the house was ours.
The next three months were spent consulting our Architect, Jacopo Tollotputting into place a scheme to convert the house, working out what we could do and what we could not, understanding what planning regulations required and working out how we would achieve the best possible result with our very limited budget. Originally we had planned to help out where ever we could – it soon became apparent that that’s not the way things work in Italy. It was going to be exponentially more expensive than we had expected – we would need to make it count. We eventually decided to split the house into three flats, each with a kitchen and living space, a shower room and enough accommodation to sleep between 10 and 17 people. We would market it to climbers and skiers – with the famous Sottoguda up the road in the shadow of Marmolada the tallest peak in the Dolomites, we knew we had to appeal to a diverse market. A ski resort this was not. So we would build it rugged and basic but comfortable. Everything a walker, climber, skier or biker could want.
Planning applications went in and took frustratingly long to be granted – but as Jacopo told us, we were in Italy now. We just had to go with it. Work finally commenced 3 months after we had hoped, but it progressed quickly and efficiently. I made two visits, firstly to give direction on finishes and the second whilst on a trip with friends to climb and walk as many Via Ferrata as we could manage between the rains in what was a particularly wet summer. Most weeks we would receive a batch of photos to give tantalising views of the progress. And here we find ourselves at the end of October, preparing once again to make the drive across Europe, plumbing and wiring done, plasterboard up, windows replaced the house insulated to withstand the winter cold, the damp, cold basement transformed and the outside painted and partially clad, with new balconies and a new face. We are both so excited to be seeing the house within the next couple of weeks and we hope that soon we will be seeing you come through our doors, discovering this beautiful corner of these beautiful mountains.Welcome to Casa Alfredino, the most positive panic of my life – without his lordship it would never have happened.
The “Serrai di Sottoguda” or quite literally the “narrowing of Sottuguda” is such an appropriate name for this deep slash in the bottom of Val Pettorina. Relatively unknown to Brits, Sottoguda has long been a firm favourite with Italian climbers. At 150m deep in places this gorge doesn’t catch any sun for several months of the year and really retains the cold. Even in summertime the temperature drops and the air becomes dank and moist as you walk into it. Quite the most perfect conditions for forming the best fat ice one could possibly hope for. Add the huge elevation on either side creating a huge catchment area for water, trees to hold that water allowing it to gently seep as the winter sets in and you are left with a super regular ice climbing venue with a plethora of falls. As the gorge was at one time the only way up to Passo Fedaia, a track was built, needing regular rebuilding after the spring spate. That all changed when in the 50’s and 60’s, an enormous power generation scheme was constructed. The old road became impractical and was bypassed with a series of tunnels and bridges up the valley above the gorge, leaving the gorge free of all but pedestrian traffic and the odd bike.
Parking at the top of the village of Sottoguda leaves one with a 5 minute walk to the first baby ice fall. Not much further on, as the gorge deepens, the falls become taller and more spectacular until you reach the Cathedrale – the unmistakably enormous cascade on the right. It doesn’t stop here – rounding the corner after the beautiful little chapel dedicated to those who died in the war, there are more falls. At worst, it takes an easy 15-20 minute walk to reach your chosen climb from the car park – with the beautiful cascades, it’s hardly a chore!
With free standing pillars, gentle flows, overhanging fronds of icicles you won’t fail to find a challenge. There are routes at WI2 through to WI6+ aswell as a number of modern mixed lines and from 20-25m through to 100m, 3 pitch behemoths, there’s enough climbing here to last anybody for a while. Some you abseil off trees or fixed anchors at the top, others you finish at the upper new road! Typically climbers will need a large selection of ice screws – it’s doubtful that traditional rock gear would be of any use at all, although it never hurts to take 4-5 wires just in case. The ice is usually thick and fat, and stubby screws will be of little use and instead we’d recommend mainly 16-20cm screws with maybe a couple of 22’s for Abalakov/Andreson threads and a main belay screw. Usually we’d suggest 12 screws would be about right, but obviously you will have your own preferences. It’s also useful to have a variety of types – where possible hitting deep ice is best and often the type of screw with a small hanger and a bent wire winding handle like those make by Grivel are invaluable, allowing you to achieve extremely strong placements without chopping away surrounding ice. Of course these are not as neat to rack, so a good mix is what we generally use.
As mentioned above, some retreats are from fixed anchors, but often a single rope will not get you to the ground, so it’s best to carry 5-7mm cord to install Abalakov/Anderson threads. If you forget it or run out, you can get more easily at the local shop,De Grandi sportin Boscoverde, who also hold in stock screws, extenders, crampons, axes etc and also rent equipment should you require it.
For information on routes a great place to start is in the UK Climbing logbooks. As we climb them we will bring you more blogs to let you have the low down! We have also compiled a fairly complete list of ice climbing venues within a reasonable drive from Cas Alfredino:
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