We’ll, almost perfect anyway. Temperatures hovered around 15 degrees F, making for short stops and chilly digits for backcountry skiing on the Tofana de Rozes. Advantage, snow at upper altitudes had a somewhat re-crystalized surface as well as no suncrust — though difficult crust conditions did make the lower part of the mountain a bit of a survival fest. Main thing, I was able to ski directly off the summit of one of the big Dolomite peaks (3,225 meters), and make some fairly nice pow turns on a big alpine face. Who would have thought, this being the central Europe where snow is somewhat thin in many places this year?
Starting for the Tofana. That's it looming above, with zillions of famous rock climbing routes -- skiing on the opposite side.
The day began with a 6:00 AM start from Bad Haering, Austria planning on a three hour drive to the trailhead on Passo Falzarego just above Cortina. Bummer was I depended too much on my Garmin Nuvi, which turns out to be about as useful for this type of European travel as a brick is for backcountry skiing. (Interestingly, a Tomtom GPS I checked out after the trip worked super well, so a word to the wise, get Tomtom, don’t use Garmin.)
Thus, the drive was 4 hours so tour partner Federico Sbrissa (don of Dynafit boots) and I didn’t leave the trailhead till after 10:00 AM. That’s a bit late for a 1,500 meter climb of a complex ski tour. But we had Dynafit gear, and especially since Fede was in his TLT 5 boots I knew it would go (those things do speed you up, honestly.)
Guidebook photo of the route we got to ski, with similar snow coverage as depicted. I'd driven through the Dolomites a few years ago, but never done any climbing or skiing in the legendary range. To finally do so was a very emotional experience -- another roots journey like my first trip to Austria.
(Oh, almost forgot, guidebook from these guys.)
Fede about half way up. The route climbs by some ski runs, then past a couple of huts (some open, some closed). It involves quite a bit of moving around laterally so you don't climb particularly quickly. Also, with about 5,000 vertical feet of vert to expend calories on, you don't exactly run (or at least I don't, though some of the Euro ski runners probably would.)
About half way up you climb through a moderate couloir, then up past a closed hut, where you finally get a view of the upper face you need to cross to gain the summit ridge. At times avalanche hazard keeps most winter skiers off this face, but we were hitting it after a long string of snowless days, so I wasn't highly concerned so long as I didn't see any chalk surface wind slab. Turned out the snow was a lightly sastrugied surface with lots of old avalanches still visible and no red-flags. The skiing actually turned out better than it appeared it would be on the way up.
Tofana, northerly ridge used for ascent.
Final summit ridge, foreshortened by the camera. After much vert, this thing seems a bit too long for comfort.
Federico a few feet from Tofana summit, some of the Dolomites in background, with Alps (Zillertal) farther back on horizon. We arrived at about 3:00 PM, which for Europe in January is a bit late to be starting down from a big summit. Thus, we didn't relax (and it was too cold for hanging out, anyway.)
Your friendly blogger, on top with a tired smile. The skiing was variable, but I did get in some excellent turns on that big face. Super exciting to be on something like that in the Dolomites. And no one else around other than the two of us!
Tentative plans were for me to stay in the Dolomites and do more skiing then head down to the boot mafia region of Italy to check out how they make ski boots. But with weather coming in I opted for a night drive back north to Bad Haering. Thus an incredibly tough day, but the high from Tofana got me home.
Fede earned, and then turned.
Might return south this weekend, and perhaps will visit the boot factories early next week, just before the Dynafit press event.
Meanwhile, thanks Fede for getting WildSnow down to the Dolomites during the perfect weather day, on a stupendous route!
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.
