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Via Ferrata, 'Iron Mountain (Tiger)', Italian Dolomites, Jun 2010, ID 998

Bristol University OTC

Iron Mountain was a Via Ferrata adventure training expedition to the Alps, in particular the Dolomite region in Italy, the Tirol region in Austria and Southern Bavaria in Germany. It took place over the period 19th June to 3rd July. The expedition party was made up of 10 students from Bristol UOTC and 2 TA instructors.

The expedition aimed to climb numerous Via Ferrata routes under the guidance of qualified instructors, whilst progressing up the difficulty grades over the 10 day climbing period.

As the majority of the participants were novices, the first 3 days were spent on easier routes in the Dolomite region, based around Cortina d’Ampezzo. Here the basics of safety and mountain awareness were taught, both in the campsite and on the mountain. These routes involved fairly long walk-ins, with a good summit experience after 300-400 metres of Via Ferrata. The climbing was not all that easy, often testing in places, but all participants progressed very quickly, enthusiastically tackling the climbing and so all routes were done in well under the guidebook time. These routes were also dotted with war time defences such as sniper caves, look-out points and gun emplacements. Everyone took the time to explore these and learn a bit of local history.

The group then moved to Oberstdorf in Germany and spent 3 nights in the Alpine Training Centre. The first completed route took us straight to the top end of sport Via Ferratas, being of an especially high grade! These routes are common throughout the German and Austrian Alps. Although much shorter than the routes done before, the climbing was much more sustained and very much more vertical!  Again the group took it in their stride, with all members having no difficulties with the increased exposure and the demand for good upper body strength. Three more routes were completed in this area including the Hindelanger ridge; deemed a very high risk route (imagine Striding Edge but with much bigger drops and a much sharper edge!), this is due to the lack of wire protection in many places.

A day off from climbing was also taken in Oberstdorf as a mid point in the trip; we hired mountain bikes and rode up a valley path to the top of a waterfall. The ride up did not do much for resting already tired legs but coming back down was extremely exhilarating!

Base camp was then moved again, this time to Haiming in Austria, where the harder sport routes could be accessed. After 2 days of climbing, the group took another day off, deciding to take advantage of the area's brilliant white water rafting. This proved to be incredible fun but even more exhausting than climbing! The water level in the river Inn was very high which meant that everyone had to paddle hard or risk the raft turning over.

The final two days were spent fitting in two routes a day to make up for the days off. These included Crazy Eddy and Kaiser Max, both infamous routes in this region for their length and the high grade of climbing they offer. The trip finished on a high with all participants completing these two routes; a fine achievement for novices!

The group would like to thank the Ulysses Trust for its generous grant which enabled the trip to go ahead and also facilitated the extra activities the group accomplished.

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Iron Mountain (Tiger)/The sunny summit of Punta Fiames, over looking Cortina dAmpezzo Iron Mountain (Tiger)/A rocker pin aided traverse on Angry Eiter Iron Mountain (Tiger)/OCdts on an airy section of Michielli Strobel Iron Mountain (Tiger)/On a snowy section of the Hindelanger ridge Iron Mountain (Tiger)/All participants in one raft on the river Inn Iron Mountain (Tiger)/Crossing a 40m wire bridge on Crazy Eddy