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Back to "Monthly Program History"
March 17, 2010
"Climbing in the
Dolomites"
by Jason Halladay
Inspired by the cover photo of
Delago Tower in the March 2009 issue of Rock and Ice
magazine, Allison Fritz and I promptly began researching
travel and climbing logistics in the Dolomites of northern
Italy. As we read more about the Dolomites’ climbing
history, long limestone routes, easy access, great hut
system and, of course, superb food and drink, we quickly
decided we’d spend a week in the Dolomites during our summer
European vacation in July/August 2009.
A climber
rappels Torre Barancio with the Croda Da Lago mountains in
the background.
The Dolomites are named after
French geologist Déodat de Dolomieu who studied the
mountain’s mineral composition and differentiated between
dolomite (calcium magnesium carbonate) and calcite (calcium
carbonate), the two main types of limestone that make up the
Dolomites. Not knowing much about geology, this didn’t make
a huge impact on me but reading about a 12 pitch 5.7 with
grand views of the Croda Del Lago mountains got me terribly
excited to go explore the Dolomites.
Allison on
the second pitch of the route that inspired our trip to the
Dolomites
The southwest arête on Delago Tower.
Allison and I spent seven days
hiking, climbing and scrambling in the Dolomites. During our
time there we climbed a number of fun, moderate routes as
well as clipped into a couple "via ferrata" -iron cables and
rungs that lead scramblers up, around and even through the
mountains. All our our adventures were day trip excursions
affording us showers, tasty meals and comfortable beds at
the end of each day. The easy access and hut infrastructure
in the Dolomites makes for efficient and low-committing
outings with full value.
About our
Speaker:
Jason Halladay of Los Alamos, New Mexico, has been mountain
climbing for over half his life. His addiction to the
outdoors and mountain climbing began in his teenage years as
simple backpacking trips but has evolved into technical
rock, snow and ice climbs of more difficult and demanding
peaks. Jason honed his alpine climbing skills while
climbing all of Colorado’s 59 14ers not once but twice in
the past 9 years in all seasons of the year.
Jason has climbed some of the
United State’s highest summits including the West Buttress
of Denali, the Liberty Ridge of Mount Rainier, and a
snowboard descent of Mount Hood’s south face. He has also
lead successful expeditions to four of the "Seven Summits" -
Denali (20,320', Alaska, USA), Kilimanjaro (19,340',
Tanzania, Africa), Aconcagua (22,841', Argentina, South
America), and Mount Kosciusko (7,310', Australia). More
about Jason is
here. |
