From 10 to 28 June 2026, we had a wonderful trip to the Dolomites, climbing alpine routes up to 6+ around Cortina.

Logistics

You can save a lot of money if you sleep in a car, ideally a small van. “Living” in parking spaces is not allowed, but overnight parking usually is. So park and live quietly, without a tent or cooking outside. Local authorities seem tolerant of this.

We were mostly based near Falzarego Pass — a convenient spot to get to lots of great mountains. If you want to do something farther away, such as Tre Cime, it’s better to move closer in advance.

Weather

Typical June weather is hot days with random showers in the afternoon. Check the forecast, but usually you will be able to finish the route before it rains. We got up at 4 or 5 a.m., and only once were we caught by some rain on the route though it was not a big issue.

If it’s hot don’t even think about south-facing walls, even east-facing walls might be unbearable. Ideally stick to north- or west-facing ones.

Rock quality

In the Dolomites you have two types of rock — gray and yellow. The rule is simple — gray, not yellow.

Gray rock on popular routes is very nice, feels like granite, has perfect friction and allows easy gear placement. Still be cautious as it’s not granite and from time to time blocks may come loose. If the route is described as “very alpine, very classic, rarely visited” better avoid it as even gray rock might be very bad there.

Yellow rock is bad, layered, loose, and often has extreme overhangs. Usually routes are made in a way to avoid yellow rock as much as possible. Sometimes it might still have very good quality despite looking quite scary. If you see a completely yellow wall in the guidebook, think twice if you want it.

Guidebook

Use this one: Klettern in Cortina d’Ampezzo und Umgebung, Mauro Bernardi

Do not rely on planetmountain.com as it has very low quality topos which will lead you nowhere.

Approach and descents

Approaches are usually short and nice. Drive as close as possible in advance due to early start.

Descent is a big issue in the Dolomites. Prefer rappelling down the wall if possible, because walking down the normal route is almost always a disaster regarding route-finding and downclimbing scree couloirs.

If you walk down the normal route, you will almost certainly get lost. There will be a fork every 50 meters with cairns on every branch. “Red marks” will help but beware, that they are actually orange on orange rock (applause) and are only painted in “non-obvious” places, which means one fork out of three. Wrong trails will lead you to an abyss.

Gear

Usually a set of cams and a set of nuts is enough. No. 3 cam is often useful, sometimes makes sense to duplicate No. 1 and No. 2. There was only one unpopular route where we actually used pitons due to extremely bad rock quality.

Safety

Rescue service is good; in peak season, helicopter rescue is busy here, with roughly 5 missions per day. Don’t be a self-assured “fast-and-light” climber. Always take a headlamp, warm jacket, rain shell, ultralight bivy and enough water. Prefer double ropes. Do not rely on old rusty pitons, always add something to an anchor with only 2 pitons.

The Routes

The routes we did, starting with the most interesting.

Tofanagruppe, “Pilastro” der Tofana di Rozes, “Costantini-Apollonio”,  VI A0 (VII+), 580 m, SE

Incredible route, where even IV+ feels tricky due to exposed traversals. Be careful on the way down — when you see the word “Exit” follow it. It will lead you to a huge comfortable road (rare case in the Dolomites). We didn’t follow the sign and that cost us a very uncomfortable rappel.

Lastoi di Formin, Gran Diedro, Linker Pfeiler, VI- A0 (VI), 274 m, W

Another gem with super interesting climbing. Here you can walk down over a normal trail, but that will be 2.5-3 h hike around the whole massif halfway walking up. Next time I will definitely rappel.

Cinque Torri, Torre Grande

• Nordgipfel, “Dimai”-Riss, V+, 105 m, N
• Westgipfel, “Olga”-Führe, V+, 100 m, NW
• Westgipfel, “Armida”-Führe, VI, 100 m, NW

Beautiful set of pillars where you can climb a route, rappel and immediately climb the next one. Great for a short day. Do not walk down, rappel from the wall only. “Olga”-Führe is an incredible corner, “Dimai”-Riss has a scary beginning and a nice chimney, but I didn’t understand the last pitch, “Armida”-Führe is just nice.

Drei Zinnen, Westliche Zinne, “Demuth”-Kante, IV-V, 6 m V+ A0 (VII), 628 m, NE

If you are in the Dolomites, you cannot skip Drei Zinnen. The wall looks spectacular, but the route itself was not really impressive. Pretty easy climbing, route-finding a bit problematic. If you see new shiny bolts, it means you are lost. Next time I will do Dülfer corner V+ which you clearly see from this wall.

On the way down we had a big adventure and got lost multiple times. Be very careful, strictly follow the normal route topo. If you are feeling that something is off, it means something is very much off and you should return back to the place where you are certain. Don’t trust cairns, they are everywhere and most of them lead to an abyss. Red marks are sparse. The best looking trail is usually the wrong one. Not sure if rappelling from the wall is possible, but it’s probably not a bad idea as you rappel anyways multiple times on the normal route.

Großer Falzaregoturm, “Dibona”-Führe, IV-V, 300 m, SE

This was the first route we did and I hardly remember it, but it’s definitely not bad. Route-finding is tricky, but there we also followed planetmountain topo which was a huge mistake. Here we were not able to find the proper way down and after 2 hours of dangerous scrambling ended up on the other side of the mountain.

Fanisgruppe, Kleiner Lagazuoi, “Potrela”-Führe, VI+, 200 m, S

First 5 pitches are very nice, the last aid climbing part we skipped as it was a shitty yellow overhanging rock. Fine, but feels unfinished as you anyways end up halfway to the top. But you could get to the top via the former military tunnels (not recommended, boring).

Settsas, Torre Margherita, Ost- und Südwand, Lorenzi und Maranelli, V, 125 m, SE

Very hard to find proper route but you can climb everywhere and everywhere it will be dangerous due to very bad rock quality. Boring, dangerous, not recommended. The only good thing is a nice hike on approach.

Fanisgruppe, Col Boccia, “Ghedina”-Weg, V (?), 277 m, NW

Total crap. V is actually II, max III. Very boring, I hardly remember that day. We used pitons there due to extremely bad rock quality. The only good thing is you end up on a plateau and walk down normally. Definitely not recommended.

So far

The Dolomites is an incredible area with easy logistics. See you soon!