Table of Contents

06.28.01: Our very first rest day - Ran errands and went for a drive
06.29.01: We climb the Falzarego Towers and went the wrong way down!
06.30.01: Our fist gondola ride to Rifugio Laguzuoi
07.01.01: We go to Innsbruck, Austria for a little culture and to do laundry

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06.28.01: Our very first rest day - Ran errands and went for a drive (by Kris)

Calf on the side of the road Another picture of the calf A cow, proud of his land

Michael considered climbing today since when we got up there were patches of blue sky. We were told yesterday that the weather would be bad. By the time we got ready, the sky was totally cloudy so we decided to run some errands. We had our morning breakfast and talked to some Canadians. We went to the local tourist office and found out that Cortina does not have a laundromat. They did have one at some point but it went out of business. There are some at campsites on the outskirts of town but you need to be a guest to use them. We called one of them and asked if we could pay the guest fee, use the laundry facilities and not actually stay, but they said that we had to physically stay there. Ridiculous! They also have a dry cleaning business but it would take 2 days and cost a fortune to wash t-shirts, socks and underwear! We also found out where the internet point was (very important) and spent a couple of hours writing email. The weather was really bad and it rained hard almost all day. Michael bought some laundry detergent and I did laundry in our hotel sink. My arms were throbbing after an hour or so of washing clothes. I am so glad I don't have to do this at home! I also got some film developed (didn't want to worry about film being damaged on the way home) and wrote some postcards. We took an afternoon drive to Dobbiaco/Toblach and took some pictures along the way. There was a very picturesque scene of cows in a field amongst cloud covered mountains. We found a small (VERY small) worship area perched on the side of a steep hill with a one lane dirt road up to it. It had six tiny pews that if the church were packed, it would fit about 12 very thin people. We came back to Cortina and ate dinner at Hotel de la Poste and it was a nice change of pace from the pizzerias but it wasn't anything to write home about. Wait a minute, I am writing home about it now. hmm... But it's not a good writing home - the steaks were very raw, almost cold in the middle and that was cooked medium! I had to send my steak back 2 or 3 times for it to be only slightly pink.

Many cows in a field Michael on a bench at Lake Misurina Small church perched on a hill above Dobbiaco

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06.29.01: We climb the Falzarego Towers and went the wrong way down! (by Michael)

The first Falzarego Tower

Lonely park bench in Marmotland

Today was our first chance at a big climb. Torre Piccola, one of the two Falzarego Towers had a 30 minute approach from the road, and offered 7 pitches of climbing to grade IV+. Supposedly the climb should take 1.5 hours, and the descent a mere 45 minutes. Great! We didn't bring a lunch, fully expecting to be back in town by 2 PM or so. I roused a sleepy Kris, and we made the now-familiar drive to Falzarego Pass. We found a faint trail leading away from the road, then steeply up to intersect a wide path between the pass and the Rifugio Dibona. After a few minutes on this path, we found an amazing ruin: a collection of WWI-era barracks, crumbling amid greenery and spires of rock. A herd of deer grazed at the upper end of the abandoned buildings, and a trio of marmots entertained Kris for some time. She was inspired, and took some great photos while I took a steep path up to the base of the route. I looked for a painted "#10" on the cliff, which marked a start to the route. Despite letters 4 feet high, I didn't see it until I had scrambled almost on top of it. I descended to the barracks and brought a reluctant Kris up.

Michael is loving the rock!

Can you find our route?

Then began an adventure in route finding. I climbed to the right of the "#10", for the easier way indicated in the guidebook. But the rock led me up on an obvious route through a crack. Finally, a few vertical moves, and I had reached a bolted belay. I didn't think Kris would like that, and looking to the next pitch there was a 12 foot slightly overhanging crack to surmount. Wow. Indeed, Kris came up through difficult climbing, and I lowered her from the belay and rappelled myself. During this time, a horde of about 20 climbers had arrived on an easier approach, and were already swarming around and over me. We decided to follow a group we had run into the day before, as their route looked like the true easy start. We climbed one pitch easily, then I tried to follow this group on the next pitch which went up and right, rather than left as the topo indicated. Initially easy terrain became loose and unpleasant. I ended up downclimbing most of a pitch, and making for a long leftward traverse as the topo indicated. This was the right move, and soon Kris arrived on a spectacular traverse. We had now caught up with a small crowd. I shared belay ledges with a girl from Bolzano (Elana) who spoke German with a strange accent. But she could speak a little English, and as we climbed higher her desire to get away from the unrelenting exposure became quite strong! By the barracks were two helicopter pads with a circled red "H". Kris and I saw these H's get smaller and smaller, and since the route is on an arete (ridge) for most of the way, the space and air surrounding us was intoxicating. Kris's solution was to not look down for a while!

WWI Army barracks at the base of the climb

Kris admiring the view from high above

For the third pitch, I climbed behind Elana, and got good gear placements while I waited for her to complete a hard move. The pitch ended with a vertical chimney, and I set a gear belay off to the side, since one party belayed off a chockstone and another was using the bolts. This belay station was quite a bottleneck. People seemed a little tense though, and no one talked to me except Elana. I knew Kris would find this climbing harder, so I mentally visualized where she was with each stop and start of the rope. She found it difficult, but we were both pleased that she climbed the pitch solidly. For locals, this pitch felt like a longer first pitch of Midway on Castle Rock.

Pitch four really got my attention, as it was the crux in terms of difficulty and exposure. You start by climbing onto the crest of the arete with an overhang below

Kris getting comfy on the belay seat

you, so you can feel space all around. Then there was a difficult move getting above a piton at an overhang. I worked straight up and left to a sort of chasm, placing much needed gear before commiting to a delicate rightward traverse. Whew! I felt that if Kris could climb this, we were home free, as the remaining 4 pitches were easier. And she came up really well, only having problems with the short traverse. I know we were both a little tense here because we didn't take pictures of pitch 3 or 4, although they offered the most interesting climbing. But our relief was great as we climbed two easy pitches right on the ridge crest. The parties ahead got far enough above us that we had the route to ourselves again. Pitch 7 had some tricky routefinding, sending me on a blank-looking rightward ascent, then back left. After one more easy pitch Kris tentatively stood on the summit, and said she was glad we had done this. She couldn't exactly say it was fun, but it was fulfilling in a way that mere fun doesn't provide. I felt really close to her and proud of her, because it seemed that she understood what motivates me to climb. But the most trying work was still ahead of us!

We climbed down about 40 feet of 4th class rock to a rappel station into the notch between the two towers. After a long rappel, we attached the rope between us, and started down a steep gully with blocks of snow. Here began an education in short-roping. I would usually go down ahead, and Kris would follow. Squeezing between snow and

Michael on the summit of the Falzarego Towers

rock, we even climbed past a few rappel stations that didn't seem necessary. At one point I set a belay and lowered Kris past a small overhang. I was able to downclimb it once she scouted that it had hidden footholds. After the gully, we faced a sea of steep heather and gravelly rock. Although we didn't know it at the time, we made a wrong turn here, which bought us another hour of delicate, exposed descent. We followed a faint path down to more rock scrambling. At points along here, I would make some moves, and protect Kris by looping the rope over rock horns. Kris climbed carefully and without complaint. Finally we reached a tree at the top of a discintegrating slope (hummocks of dirt would crumble under your feet) and saw that two rappels would reach our packs. We left a sling around the tree, and had to be extra careful not to knock rocks loose during the rappel. Finally, we were "home", safely back at the start of the route. More downclimbing to the wide path, and a hike back to the car. I don't remember the exact time, but I can say that this route took us all day long. We were starving, and immediately drove to Cortina and barged into the nearest restaurant for food.

We had dinner at the Hotel Cortina it was wonderful, way better than the Hotel de la Poste! It was almost completely empty, and we couldn't figure out why. The service was excellent and food was extremely delicious! We think it's because the rush season hasn't really started yet. Kris had the spaghetti w/fresh tomato sauce and I had the pepper steak. It was the personal receipes of the bartender/waiter, Marco. He cooked the meals in front of us and put on quite a show! The food was cheap but the drinks expensive but we had such a trying day, I allowed myself to drink Coke! It was 7000 lire ($3) for a very small bottle (8oz?). We went to bed very tired but also very satisfied for finally finding a place that served excellent food!

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06.30.01: Our fist gondola ride to Rifugio Laguzuoi! (by Michael)

Rifugio Laguzuoi Michael enjoying the view Another view from the Rifugio Ready for Action! Castle build in the year 1000

We just had to sleep in a while after such a big day, but we still had ambitions! The goal was to climb a via ferrata on the mountain Col Rosa. After running various errands, we arrived at the trailhead around 10 am. The book described a hike of 500 meters elevation gain to get there, and we gamely started up the road looking for a trail turn-off. We ran into a cheery British couple who gave up walking and led us back and onto various side trails before a close look at the map indicated the turn-off was further up. "Right!", and they were off again. We hiked through forest reminescent of the Pacific Northwest: all views were obscured by trees! About halfway up we were passed by about 40 or 50 people intent on the via ferrata route. We guessed that they had all come on a bus and gotten off together. A few extra confident types seemed to be guides, and most conversation was in German. It took us a while to reach a high pass, due to the heat, and finally I went ahead a bit and scrambled up the approach to the via ferrata. When I saw how far it was still, I turned back and met Kris. We were happy to eat a lunch of bread, cheese, speck, and cookies, while looking across at some beautiful mountains. This had been a good hike, but without the energy to do the via ferrata, we decided to head back to the car and do something else with the late afternoon. On the way down we took a most excellent nap in a patch of green grass! Again, the trails were empty. We never saw "day hikers" trickling in on the trail in the afternoon the way you might here (in Washington). Instead, the arrival time of hikers seems tied to the first lift or the first bus. Everyone goes in a big clump together. So you can find solitude if you go against this pattern. I would later come back to this climb and defy the pattern so effectively, I didn't see anyone on the entire climb. We drove to Falzarego Pass and admired our climb from the day before. We then took a lift up to the Rifugio Lagazoui. This lift carried us up 3000 feet in 4 minutes, and the cables were so far away from the steep mountainside that it felt like we were in a plane. At the top, we got a Coke and took pictures on the sun deck, admiring the views of Marmalota and other peaks. Tofana di Rozes looked magnificent, and I shivered at the idea that Steve and I would climb it. The upper snowfields looked steep, and provoked apprehension. Kris and I walked along the cliff to a plateau, and I continued to a higher plateau with a cross. Like many others in this area, the cross was dedicated to the memory of those who fell in WWI. I had to run back as fast as I could to make the final lift down. Kris was apprehensive because the lift was PACKED with people, and she wondered if this exceeded some weight limit. Imagine 30 non-english speaking people crowded in a gondola and the lift operator telling us to get in. I thought about how I wish I didn't eat all those pizzas! When you get on, the car isn't still, it kind of swatys back and forth. On the way down you think of the best way for the car to fall - on it's side so that all the people will cushion you and it will be ok. Then you think about it falling the other way and...oh, the horror! There is a wave of relief from everyone when we get close to the ground station. We admired a collection of old cars at the pass. Then Kris tried on a tyrolean hat and looked great. Kris bought some postcards and I bought a book in English (the only one). I tried to read stories in German about the Great War and all the tunnels they dug in the mountains. Incidentally, there was a series of man-made caves near Col Rosa, no doubt used as ammunition dumps in those insane years. We then drove around looking for a castle that I spotted a few days ago. We didn't really how to get to it exactly (I only had a vague idea where it was) so with only a few wrong turns, we managed to find it. It was a really cool castle, built around the year 1000. It wasn't an "attraction" at all, just something really neat to look at. It was a bummer we couldn't go in since they were remodeling. It probably would have been a hazard anyways since it was quite crumbly. We ate dinner at the Hotel Cortina (AGAIN!) and got to know Marco (the waiter) a little better. He told us about his pets and how much he misses them since his house is near the Swiss border and he lives in the hotel when he's in Cortina. We asked if it was a dog or cat and he said "No, they're Japanese chickens!" We burst out laughing because that was so unexpected. We had a wonderful meal and then went back to our hotel room and spent the evening looking at our slides and choosing our favorites.

View from the gondola Michael bouldering on some nearby rock Old cars at the pass Kris trying on some hats Another view of the castle

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07.01.01: We go to Innsbruck, Austria for a little culture and to do laundry! (by Kris)

We ran a few errands this morning (went to the co-op for some food, checked out of our hotel, etc.) then went on a drive to Innsbruck. It took us about 3 hours from Cortina. Since there was a lot of construction on the autostrada, we didn't make as good of a time as we thought we would. It was a nice drive though, lots of pretty green hillsides with a few houses sprinked here and there.

This was the first time that we had taken the autostrada and we didn't know what to do when we arrived at a toll booth. We just went into some lane and there was no person there. No instructions were in English so we didn't know what we were supposed to do. Michael pushed the only button that was there (hopefully to call someone?) and a ticket printed and the gate lifted up. Ok, that was weird, we didn't have to pay anything. We eventually figured out that the ticket just "marks" where you enter the autostrada then you pay at the next toll booth. We encountered a slight unexpected culture shock entering Austria, as everything abruptly switches from Italian to German. Although Michael can read some German, seeing EVERYTHING in German was kind of weird. We learned the Italian way and got used to it, so switching took a few hours to get adjusted.

We arrived in downtown Innsbruck at around noon and immediately found our way to the tourist information office and found a place to stay for the night. This is the first time we did this and it was so easy to find a reasonable place to stay. It was a really picturesque building right near the center of town and it wasn't too expensive. Close by was a good Chinese restaurant and a movie theatre (I'll talk about these later).

Michael frustrated in Innsbruck

We drove to the hotel and the woman assured us that parking on the street would be no problem. But she forgot to mention there was some kind of parade(?) going on so they blocked off some of the roads and we found no parking on the street at all. We decided to park in a lot nearby so we don't waste our time looking for parking.

The first thing on our agenda was LAUNDRY! You have no idea what Michael's socks smell like after they have been worn at least 3 days in a row. We found a place called " Bubble Point Waschsalon" and it was a very high tech laundramat. Everything was controlled by a central kiosk and they even gave us free laundry detergent! We had some problems with the darn bill acceptor - you cannot have any wrinkles whatsoever in your bills, or it spits it right back out. We were hoping to use the two internet computers there but people were already on it. Apparently, they have found a way to use it for free. I tried to look over the guys shoulder to see how he did it, but he was protective of his secret. He put money in the kiosk that controls internet access and then somehow got it to return his money and give him access time.

We walked around for a bit and realized that it was Sunday and everything was pretty much closed. So we went back to the tourist office to ask if there is another internet point. There was one place really close by, so we went there while we waited for our laundry. They also had phones you could use to call long distance for really cheap so we called our friend from Germany, Mattias, and made plans to meet in Cortina Tuesday evening. He was supposed to come Monday evening but he was playing american style football and injured his foot.

We passed by a McDonald's and bought some fries, and we were amazed at how good they were. Even though it was junk food, it was kind of nice to have something familiar. We went back to the car to drop off our laundry and realized that we should make plans for the week so that we can get as much in as we can. This involved calling rifugios in Italy, calling Mattias several more times, but we finally got our plan straight. Now that we had our laundry done, we could do some sight seeing.

Innsbruck from the clock tower

We entered what people call the "old" part of town and ate lunch. I had a typical German dish of dumplings and cheese (that Michael really liked) and Michael had sausage and sourkraut. It was refreshing to eat something other than italian food! We then went to the the Golden Roof and learned about how powerful Maximilian I was and that he was an avid climber!

We also climbed the 148 steps to the top of the clock tower for a great view of the city. The weather wasn't very good that day, mostly cloudy, but there were a few "god beams" breaking through the clouds that gave the city a very holy appearance.

We went back to our hotel room to rest a little while and Michael watched a really strange-yet-addicting game show. It was in German so we didn't really know everything that was happening. But what Michael did understand was there was a bunch of people that lived together for awhile and the goal is to see who loses the most amount of weight. After living together for a certain period of time, they come into the studio and tell their stories and weigh in. This guy, who still looked like he could lose a few, was cheering because he lost 3 pounds. It was weird, but so weird that you couldn't stop watching it.

I really wanted to see a blockbuster american movie in a foreign language, so we went to see "Die Mummy Kehrt Zuruck" at the theatre that was literally 15 steps away from our hotel. We enjoyed it thoroughly - as the theatre seats were the big, cushy, rock-back kind and even though we didn't understand what was going on word-for-word, we knew the general plot (how hard is that???). Every few minutes, Michael would lean over and whisper "That guy is just a friend who is helping them out" or other tidbits he could understand. Seeing a bad American movie in a foreign language adds a lot to the excitement! So now we're looking forward to the English version to see what we didn't catch. If you're ever in a non-english speaking country, I highly recommend doing this!

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