Chiara, Max and I first met each other in the Dolomites back in 2019, where we enjoyed many a good day ski touring together. After finishing our seasonal lifestyle, there still remained many areas of the Dolomites left to explore. No longer trapped by a single day off per week, nor an inability to take holiday, we can plan bigger excursions and reach places of the Dolomites that have long been on our wish list.
This weekend we planned an overnight stay at Rifugio Sennes, with a tour in Cristallo Group and the Fanes-Sennes-Braies Group each day. Meeting early on Saturday morning in Toblach, we continued south with one car and parked on a hairpin at the start of Val Popena. We were lucky with the weather, but the snow conditions were lacking. This made the ascent up to Forcella Bance (we assumed) somewhat more difficult than normal. The described “small rock step” was longer than expected and the ice pitch more delicate. Once at the saddle, we made the extra effort to reach Monte Cristallino di Misurina for a sandwich and killer views. Back down at the saddle, we prepared ourselves for what looked like some crap snow and a lot of sharks. We weren’t wrong. It was definitely more survival skiing than any sort of enjoyment. The lack of snow lower down made the traverse through the woodland pretty tedious.
The following day we made a large loop around Seekofel, skiing down to Lago di Braies and climbing back up to Rifugio Bella before completing the loop back to Rifugio Sennes and skiing back to the car, which was parked at the bottom of the forest track beyond Malga Ra Stua. Unfortunately Max niggled his knee on Saturday and wisely decided to not join the day. The snow was generally rubbish – breakable crust at the top, refrozen crud in the middle and heavy saturated snow down below. But the psyche for adventure was high and it was exciting to see the potential for more routes in the area in the future.
Mountain Movement 