Discover the Via Ferratas in the Italian Dolomites with Cicerone

• Location
• Description
• Contents
• Introduction
• Sample Route
• Maps
• Further Reading

In the first edition of this guidebook we asked the question ‘Are the Dolomites the most beautiful mountains in the world?’ Well, seven years later, we still think so. With explosive shapes and unique colours the Dolomites can be regarded as the crown jewels of the European alpine range. Via ferrata climbing is a way of enjoying the sheer magnificence of this awesome mountain environment, where you will be stopped in your tracks by amazing views and mountain situations.

Many via ferratas were originally built to aid the movements of alpine military units during the First World War, and now they represent one of the major attractions in the Dolomites. They are a range of protected routes, with fixed cables, ladders and even gorge-spanning bridges, which aid ascent to places normally reserved for expert rock climbers.

In recent years, old wartime routes have been restored and many new routes added to give a network of routes around the whole Dolomite region. Some of the new ferratas are ‘sport routes’, often technically quite hard, as you will see from our assessment of the grades. Routes are regularly checked, maintained and waymarked by the Italian Alpine Club, CAI (Club Alpino Italiano). CAI has hundreds of geographical sections, the largest of which is SAT (Societa degli Alpinisti Tridentini) which alone has more than 20,000 members. CAI owns nearly 500 rifugios and bivouacs in the Dolomites alone, and maintains many thousands of kilometres of paths, including via ferratas, thus playing a major role in maintaining the Dolomite environment.