Today's slab climbing adventures took place up at Pian dei Fiacconi, high above the Fedaia Pass. The climbing was fun, but not as fun as the journey there! To avoid an arduous hike up from the pass, we opted to take the lift. Im not entirely sure how to describe the 'lift' - it's not cable car, not a chair lift, more of a shopping trolley attached to a moving cable!
The thing moves non-stop. As they come past, one after the other, the wheel on the bottom of the trolley comes in contact with the ground you have to make a dash for it and jump in! Great fun!
Then it's up, up and away in your little basket!
It's a surprisingly long journey and when we jumped out at the top, we found ourselves in a wild place! We were just below the snow line on the north side of the Marmolada - the highest peak in the Dolomites! The remains of the receeding glaciers were above us and we stayed off the snow by hiking across the scree moraines towards the cliff.
A mere ten minutes later and we'd left the noise of the lift behind. It felt like we were way out in the wilderness, stood at the base of the slabs on the moraine rubble. The slabs looked great!
The views were fantastic, with the snow and glaciers behind us and jagged skylines in every other direction as far as we could see! The climbing was pretty good too, although there was a lot of small loose bits in places - like parts of the slab needs a sweep.
The position more than made up for this.
All the routes were bolted and with solid chain belays, except the first route we did which ended at a bolt, some pitons and a lot of manky old tat tied to them! Not ideal!
We'd set an alarm so that we wouldn't miss the last ride down at 16:45. We could have done with a slightly earlier start, but managed to get five routes climbed and made it back with 10 minutes to spare! Then down in the valley, got the rug out of the van and picnicked in the sun.
Pian dei Fiacconi:
- Bricola (4b)**
- Merlot (5b)**
- Tettino (5c)**
- La Sagra del Buso (5a)*
- Argo (5c)**
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