I was up to photograph the sunrise over the little lakes behind us, and then out front watched as the Tre Cime started to turn orange in the sunrise.
I was at breakfast promptly at 7:00 for the coffee, and after eating really lightly I headed out to climb.
I read about this area on the National Geographic website. That is when I knew I wanted to climb here.
It was sunny and warm enough to just wear my shirt and shorts as I set out. I started on the De Luca-Innerkofler Via Ferrata, which goes by another name as well, something like the “War Battlements Gallery” (that’s pretty loose on the translation) or Patern Gallerie Und Kriegssteige.
Many of these via ferrata are referred to by several names, so you have to be a little diligent and patient digging up the information on the routes.
This via feratta is famous because it goes up into the tunnels and fortifications built high in the mountains by the Italian troops in WW1.
From the front porch of the Dreizinnen Hütte, you look left and there is Erection Rock.
You will know it when you see it.
Hike and scramble up to it, follow past it and then in the cliff ahead and slightly below you will see what looks like a cave opening. That is the entrance to the tunnel.
I stopped here and put on my harness and helmet; the harness because I didn’t know if there would be a good space on top, and the helmet because I would need my light. When I started into the tunnel it sloped up, usually high enough I could stand and walk. Lower down there are terraces cut out of the side, with great views now, but what would have been great open fields of machine gun fire in the war. There are windows cut in, to let in some light. Parts of the tunnel are shored up with big pieces of lumber.
Higher up there are no windows, and it gets a lot steeper. I had to use my headlamp, and water drips from the ceiling.
There are steps built in now by the Italian Mountaineering Club, but they are big step-ups, like super sized. In the old days it was just the rock floor, slippery and steep.
At one point you come to a side tunnel that goes out a way in each direction to a sort of view terrace. These would have been great defensive fighting positions and observation posts.
I can see the Tre Cime and all the open area over to the hut; on the other side down into the valley and by the lakes.
The very upper part of the tunnel is blocked off, and this is where you exit into a built up gunner’s platform before stepping out into the sun.
I have climbed very high through the tunnel by now. The wire cables start right here for the via feratta, just heading up the side of the cliff and into a crack.
Up, up through the cracks, across a face, then walking a knife-ridge up even further. Sometimes I am clipped in, very exposed, other times I unclip and just free climb, the route not too difficult.
It was just good steady climbing and soon I was on the saddle where four routes meet. This is the Gamsscharte at 2650 meters (8700 feet).
I can choose to finish out this route, walking down a sketchy looking dirt trail, then along a low ledge with some dugouts to the Laravado Hut.
I can choose to climb to the summit of Patern Kofel at 2740 meters (9,000 feet).
Or I can go across and up the Sentiero della Forcella (Paterno), ending up at the Büllelejoch Hütte.
It seems pretty clear now, though clouds are moving through the highest peaks already. I decide to go up.
Climbing on the face, then in a crack system, then the face again; sometimes walking a ridge and then unclipping and walking a steep rocky trail. Along a ledge or two, then up and up.
The summit of Patern Kofel is wide, with a very elaborate cross marking the summit. I sign the guest book, get someone to take my photo, then just relax and enjoy the view. I am looking way way down on the Dreizinnen Hut, across at the Tre Cime, back at high peaks receding in the distance. When I got on top there were perhaps ten people, after a bit I have it all to myself so I savor the quiet and solitude.
The wind has picked up and I am noticeably cooler as I start down, but not quite cold enough for my fleece I decide. The clouds are coming to my level now, and I get hit by two or three drops of rain.
There is thunder in the distance.
As I down climb the last sets of cables there is some lightning in the distance.
People are still heading up to the summit, and I notice one party way off in the distance on the Paterno route to Büllelejoch Hütte.
I may only be here once in my lifetime.
I decide to go that way.
Meanwhile I clip in for some very narrow ledges, as in the tip-toes of my boots on a thin lip. Then some climbing across the face, more ledges, then up up through a couple gullies.
Clip in, un-clip. Clip, un-clip.
The carabiners snap, they slide with a zipping sound along the wire, otherwise it is silent here.
This trail too passes a lot of little tunnels and defensive holes blasted and chipped into the rock. There are rusty remnants of barbed wire and wood posts, rusted pieces of metal laying here and there.
Up, up I climb past a blown up house-fort.
Clip in, clip out.
Up a ladder, across a wooden bridge, climbing higher, then down, always moving across the rock.
This is just fantastic. It is so great to be able to be out in these high peaks, all alone (For I have left any other groups far behind, and the group in front has disappeared; they hit a flat run of trail and made off while I am still climbing.).
It is silent except for the wind and the occasional bird.
And the ruins, Just thinking about the people who did this, who died up here making, or were saved by these trails and defensive holes in the rock.
Now they were the real studs, carrying guns along this way, blasting out holes and building walls under fire.
I hit the flat section of trail and am enjoying the views when I notice it has really gotten dark again. Lightning there! and thunder sounds.
So I hustle along this flatter, exposed section, then I have to clip up and climb down into a deep crack, down down, then step across an unprotected gully and climb up up up and out the other side.
I am back onto a trail, open and exposed at first, it is heading down and skirting along a massive rock slide along the base of the higher cliffs.
It leads around the end of the peaks, climbs switch-backing up again, then across a small valley with many ruined stone buildings. Around another corner and I run up on the trail junction: Büllelejoch Hütte this way ten minutes, Dreizinnen Hut that way 50 minutes, Laravado Hut the other way 1 hour 20 minutes. A drop of water hits my head, then another, and my decision is made.
I stop to take off my helmet and harness, grab a drink or water, and decide to try to outrun the rain.
There are other groups on this trail, moving from hut to hut. They have all stopped and donned rain gear, cold weather jackets. I am still in shirt and shorts and sweating. Fifty minutes home: will the weather hold?
Well, I make the fifty minute trek in 35, and it is a light drizzle as I run up on the porch of the hut. I am wondering i this storm will pass or last; will I have a chance to go up the other side via behind the hut?
There was a sudden stampede of people up onto the porch, and I could hear thunking on the roof. I looked, and golf ball sized hail was banging down.
Ouch!
Turns out I made a good choice coming in, even though it seemed early in the day.
I decide to go wash off and change clothes instead, getting out of all the sweaty-wet stuff and putting on all clean, fresh stuff. I clean my camera and equipment, and then Gail and I had down to the bar.
As we talk, I order and eat a wonderful plate of spaghetti with meat sauce (I earned every bite) and drink a large Hefeweissen beer.
So, bottom line, my good luck ran out, and I never did get to climb to visit the wartime hospital and tunnels of the Ferrata delle Scalette/Sentiero del Curato M. Hosp.
Perhaps another trip?
It rained off and on the rest of the afternoon. The hail made the mountain across from us look like it had a dusting of snow on it. The rain turned into thunderstorms, and we passed the time napping, reading and resting, talking about tomorrow.
Soon it was dinner, and we spent three hours talking, over fish and beef, with a German couple from Stuttgart (Starring Elfriede, who snagged her husband by proving she could climb to 6,000 meters in Nepal. He, of course, is a climber.), and three Finnish friends traveling together: Mikko Pulli, whose name is a Finnish anagram, but I had trouble understanding the exact meaning, Vesapekka who is a construction engineer, and Kasperi, a construction engineer from Lapland.
It is amazing the interesting people we meet and stories they have to tell.
I think it was Mikko who said that, just by being at the hut, we already have a common bond of the struggle to even get here. So we already have a big commonality to start with.
It was a great day: a solid six hours of climbing and exploring. It is amazing the freedom you feel up there, the beauty of these jagged peaks, ever changing in the weather.