A week in Cortina in the Dolomites

Henry on top of Lagazoui, it was a cable car up.

from the fort and the museum

A wooden performance in the open air museum, Cinque Torri

Falzarego Pass, Cinque Torri

Rounded top mountains.

Shaped like a mass of huge lower case m's

White and pinky

Layered and folded.

The war front betwen Italy and Austria in WWI.

This is where we came down!
5 people after 5 hours, still 3 hours to go. All happy! George has his photo smile on, he is happy
Under the waterfall, see the wire rope that you clip on to.

The hard via ferrata that stumped us
Medieval weapons caused great excitement

World War I barbed wire, is still ferocious

A tunnel entrance above the snow, Lagazoui

A tunnel, the mountains are riddled with holes

Via ferrata (iron walkways) are a metal rope joined onto the rock that you clip your carabena onto so that if you fall you only fall a small way. You would still hurt yourself as the rocks were sharp. I fell once gently on purpose to see what it was like.

We tried to hire them but the only child one was out for the next two days, I guess that said something to us! So we all bought a set weighing in at more than 4 kilos of luggage!!! We then set forth bravely! -ED

Our first walk was Lagazoui, up on the cable car and around the trenches and we went into the tunnels where the soldiers lived and moved through the mountains! "I felt like I was being shot at in the tunnels" said George They were a bit scary.

The cable bridge was out so we had to climb back up. The walk down had been easy enough, but it was getting late and cold and I was scared and very hungry. We stooped in a tunnel shelter and put our warm clothes on and ate some chocolate that I hated. Then we set back up the mountain which took about an hour. We though we would have tea there.

We rang the rufugio (mountain hotel) and said we were bluffed and they advised coming back. We would miss the cable car and have to walk back on the road which would take another hour. Luckily when we reached the refugio the cable car was having some test runs and we caught it down! Henry found a great piece of shrapnel -ed.

I was very relieved.

The next day we went to Cinque Torri (5 towers)

Lagazoui was the Austrian stronghold while Cique Torri was the Italian on the other side of the valley. -ed.

There was still some snow and some trenches. Some were made of wood, some of stone. They were sometimes covered and some had setups from the war for example troops firing guns or talking on the telephones. They were life sized units. Te casing and shell was about 50cm long and they were allowed to fire 100 rounds a day. At the Fort Tresassi we saw much larger shells too and this is the type that Henry found a piece of. Some of them were a meter long a 200mm projectile! They had rifling on them. This museum was absolutely fabulous.

It had lots of unexploded grenades , shells, mine ventilating gear, bullets, uniforms and a fantastic shop. You could have bought a real helmet and a Austrian officer's hat. We bought some bullets found in the field.

It was interesting that they couldn't put barbed wire on posts in the ground as it was rock, they invented some other cross support instead. The man at the shop was the son of the man who had been a young man after the war and collected metal for scrap as all their other means of making a living were destroyed. Later on he collected the things for themselves and started the museum. The fort was a great site too as it had taken a hit from a couple of giant shells that hadn't exploded and huge holes passed right through the building, now with glass over them. -ed

The next day we went to do a Via Ferrata that was a bit harder as the Lagazoui one was very easy, (although it might have been tougher over the bridge). The Col de Bois was recommended by a guide we met at Cinque Torri. We set off early and came upon an army display day with the Italian Minister of Defense in attendance. She inspected the troops too. -ed

Army display

We saw a Hagglund on display, it was like a tracked alligator. WWI troopers in uniform had set out a first aid post in a blown up building. We saw some helicopters, first we saw the iriquois helicopters, then we saw the Black Hawks or similar attack helicoptres,(they aimed their guns at us wich was most disconcerting - ed.) they were frightfully fast. we also noticed that all the soldiers had feathers in their hats. The Italians like feathers! The main event after the band (with a huge tuba) was the mountain rescue display......

Lots of men were on the mountains, it was like ants crawling on a path! Troops were parachuted down and some slid down ropes from the big choppers. There was rope between two peaks and they sent a stretcher across the rope with flares attached. The flares were red, white and green, the colours of the Italian flag.

The via ferrata for that day was then open and it was a vertical climb (which scared me- ed!) I went to the next bit and I waited there. It was so hard holding on there. (We had to let other climbers with long legs pass us -ed) We went back down and had a feed! (It was harder to get back down as you can't see your feet and they get all tangled up- ed.)

The next day we tried the via ferrata under the waterfalls which were rated as easy. They were just right. The picture of the gorge shows where we went down. The steps were a bit big for small legs so it was like real rock climbing! We walked and climbed for 8 hours! It was beautiful. -ed.