Ettore Bovero Via Ferrata

With Becky needing to be in Brixen for an early evening train we needed to have a relatively short day. We ended up choosing the Ettore Bovero Via Ferrata, as we could park overnight at the start of the walk, the climb looked good and it wasn’t too long a day.

In the morning when we set off it was very cold, and I misjudged the length of time we would be walking on the flat before we started the ascent to warm us up, which led to a pretty chilly walk down the valley. Thankfully when we got to the start of the ascent we quickly started to warm back up and were soon at the col before the path led us up to the start of the via ferrata. This was a very small path which weaved its way up an improbable looking route around cliffs and old military lookouts.

We arrived at the start of the via ferrata in about book time, and quickly geared up to start the route. After the crowds on the day before, it was wonderful to have the entire route to ourselves which no pressure and no frustrating queueing. The route started and was immediately great fun, with plenty of really interesting climbing, where it was mostly possible to just use the rock rather than having to pull on the cables.

As we climbed higher we started to get wonderful views down the valley towards Cortina, as well as over Punta Anna. Unfortunately all too soon we were at the top of the main section of via ferrata and had a short walk up to the final wall, which was only a short climb up to arrive pretty much at the summit.

We sat on the summit and took in the outstanding views while eating our lunch, still completely alone on the mountain. As we were packing our equipment away to start the descent we saw our first people of the day who had hiked up our descent route.

The decent was straightforward and we were soon back down in the valley in good time to head to Brixen, via a swimming pool for a shower, in time for a Pizza before Becky caught her train back to Munich.