Daring, delightful Dolomites.

Now we headed north, into the land of snow, switchbacks and sweeping vistas. It was time for some adventure and for Ryan to show the kids the vast world of via ferrata. We had selected two quite different destinations: Cortina, recent host to the Winter Olympics (for a second time) and all round chic town, and Pozza di Fassa, a quiet valley town with good bike trails and hikes.

Cortina was beautiful, surrounded by snowy peaks, but quiet. The streets were almost deserted, and most restaurants were closed. Only one shop was renting out VF gear, which I was very relieved to find after some searching. I also wanted a belay setup and luckily the one large department store had some climbing gear on the top level. A 40 m 8 mm "VF belay" rope was a respectable 50 euros and fit the bill perfectly. 

Routes:
Day 1: Cascate di Fanes. Very easy VF but long walk in and back out. 7.8 km return but some issues made it longer for us. 273 m altitude gain.
12 drive minutes from Cortina, lovely walk, short Ferrata with waterfall, where you can go around the back of the waterfall. Kel lost Addy’s hat at the turn around point and had to come back for it extending the journey (twice in the end due to some concern for Ryan who had been searching for said hat). A big day for everyone wit some rain towards the end. Luckily weather didn't get too bad and we made it out in relatively good spirits.

Day 2: Ra Pegna (Dad, Emma, Bas).
Drive to car park then reasonably steep approach walk for around 1 hour. Relatively easy to find the start. Some nice vertical sections (2 of which we belayed). A couple of nice traverses. Decend down the mountain biking track, and then down the approach back to car. Lots of snow on the ground, a little on the route but not an issue.

Day 3 (after driving to Pozza di Fassa).
Via Ferrata Col Rodella: Dad. Em, Bas. Mum and Addy hiked to the top of Col Rodla which was a mammoth effort for a 4 year old and Kel with her recent Achilles rupture. We had a little trouble finding the start of the route with access changing since most online descriptions. Construction work has made the old approach tricky and a new approach with cable has been installed, which we duly noted after making it to the start the old way. Some good exposed sections and 2 quite vertical pitches that we belayed. Finished up at the top of Col Rodella where Kel and Addy were waiting on the deck of a closed Refugio. Views were spectacular, probably the best of all of our VF climbs.

Day 4: Ferrata alla Forcella del Sassolungo (Dad).
Alpine start (7AM) as I was on my own. Only car in the car park (would be full by the time I got back at 11). 40 min fast walk up fairly steep switchbacks, with only 2 german girls and me on the track. Easy to find the start of the route. Lots of interesting sections and some testing vertical sections and tough traverses. A nice seat half way up, and lovely exposed bridge towards the end. Reasonable long cable. Decent to hut (closed) through snow, then jogged back down the decent to the car in 22 mins. A great VF. Back home by 11 do afternoon walk with everyone else (which involved me jogging 5 km due to a forgotten nappy bag). 

Pozza was a stretched out valley town with only a few places open. Very lucky to get VF gear as the hire place was officially closed but the owners were in sorting out bikes. A reasonable dinner with good wine occurred at Ramon. It was probably a better base than Cortina (as Cortina was very expensive), but was a bit further from some of the bigger VF routes. Overall it was a very successful few days with a seed firmly sowed for future trips (summer and hopefully winter).