Dolomites - Part 3 - Passo Falzarego

I've been a little busy lately...

But, here is Part 3 of my Italian Dolomite trip report. If you missed the first two, here are links to Part 1 and Part 2.

Passo Falzarego (6905', 2105m) is a high mountain pass between Canazai and Cortina. Passo Falzarego sits beneath Lagazuoi Pizo (9026', 2752m), which is a peak that has interesting history from World War I.

During the War, the Austrians held the Dolomite mountains and the Italians were trying to take the peaks from them. In military strategy, high ground is very important. The Austrians held Lagazuoi and the Italians tried to take it several times and the Austrians repulsed them each time. So, the illustrious Italians came up with the plan to dig a tunnel inside the mountain all the way up to just beneath the summit. They then filled the end of the tunnel with explosives and planned on blowing the Austrians right off the top of the mountain. They dug and dug. They dug for 8 months. It might have worked, but the Austrians heard them digging and figured out what was going on. The Austrians retreated, the Italians blew the top of the mountain right off, and then the Austrians moved right back in to what was left of the summit.

Today, there is a trail that climbs out of Passo Falzarego to the entrance to the tunnel. With a headlamp and a helmet (optional) you can climb inside the tunnel up to it's exit on a narrow ridge just below the summit.

From Passo Falzarego the 402 trail heads up to an alpine route that brings you to the entrance to the tunnel. Looking East from the trail, there is a rock tower that is popular with climbers. From this vantage point, there are two routes visible. One going straight up the southern ridge and the other is straight up the western face that is in front of you.

Looking Southeast across the pass, you can see Cinque Torri and the peaks beyond. Zooming in just to the West of Cinque Torri, you can see Rifugio Scoiattoli, which serves the climbers on the five towers.

The trail up to the tunnel continues at a steady rise but not too steep. The trail snakes its way along the rock face and open scree fields and eventually reaches the tunnel entrance. Tofana De Rozes loomed above us as I entered the tunnel.

The tunnel snakes its way steeply up inside the mountain. There are steps carved in to rock and iron cables to pull yourself along. The steeper sections have wooden ladders. The vertical gain of over 1000' is slow going, but their are airholes poking out of the cliff faces with incredible views. From the airholes, we can now look back at the tower we saw the climbers on. The tower and the climbers were now far below us.

Eventually, we reached the top of the tunnel and poped out of a door and right onto a narrow ridge below the summit. We could look straight across at Tofana De Rozes and North to Tofana Di Dentro.

It was fairly windy, so I was happy there was a fixed line that I could hold when I crossed the narrowest part of the ridge. The East side of the ridge had a very steep drop, but it was a great spot to watch the tram going up and down Lagazuoi. Looking back across the ridge, the entrance to the tunnel is just around the corner on the big rock pile.

Just past the ridge, there were remnants from World War I. An Austrian gun turrent had a perfect view down to Passo Falzarego and across to Cinque Torri. The trail followed trenches that symbolize the Great War. While enjoying the views from these locations it is hard to imagine the cruelties of war in such a beautiful place.

Near the summit of Lagazuoi (or what is left of it), there is a cliff where we took some "Bondcliff eat your heart out" photos. Carmel took her turn and then I took mine.

The views and history here helped make this one of my favorite parts of the trip. But then, there is more to come...

- darren

One other note about the fighting in the Dolomites in WWI. We read that the conservative estimate for the number of soldiers that died in avalanches in 3 years was 60,000. That is an average of 20,000 soldiers dead each year in avalanches alone! It is hard to imagine.

- darren

Great pictures & historical text! That tunnel is incredible. Do you have pictures from where they "blew the top right off the mountain"?

Poor Bondcliff. I had a similar experience in Iceland... but I still love Bondcliff

-Dr. Wu

If I recall correctly, they blew up 5 different sections. I think the U shaped chasm in the foreground of the shot with the tram is one of them. Insane.

- darren

I know it is a little off topic but, it is inline with some of this discussion. The mining was not an uncommon practice, by both sides in WWI. The biggest manmade explosion ever (until the first nuclear device), nearly 1,000,000 pounds of explosives was detonated in WWI on the Messines ridge on 6/7/17. The British dug for months creating several tunnels under the ridge because of the stalemate on the surface. Several times the miners (sappers) ran into German counter-miners doing the same thing and hand to hand combat ensued. When it was detonated 10,000 men where believed to be killed initially and the British where able to take command of the high ground that was left and marked the begining of the end of the war. The British lost 17,000 men in the ensuing battle and the Germans lost 25,000. This was the first time on the Western front that the defender ever lost more men than the attackers. The detonation was clearly heard in Dublin and like I said it was the largest manmade explosion ever set off till that point.

I won't go into the tunnel systems in Cu Chi in Vietnam.

Keith

Spectacular photos. Thanks for sharing. Lance

holy crap, my stomach got sick looking at the cliffs w/ the climbers. argh.

but beautiful shots of everything, nonetheless. thanks tons for sharing!

Darren,

Very nice shots and thanks for sharing them. You might be interested in reading Walter Bonatti's "The Mountains of My Life", if you already haven't. It's a good read on many of his early climbs in the Dolomites.

JohnL

Excellent stuff

Hi Darren -
Great text and images. Of course, the pic of me on Bondcliff has to be thrown out now!
I will now refer to Bondcliff as "Lagazuoi Light."
Are you planning to sell any of the Dolomite prints?

Thanks Daren for your picture and your story. Dolomites are fantastic mountains with superb colors. I was there last year. Let me show you a few pictures.

yvon, glad you joined the site. Thank you for sharing the photos. I think I was able to identify some of the areas.

- darren