After a couple of sleepless flights, we got into Venice on a sunny and crisp Sunday morning. Sadly the 4x4 rental options were insanely expensive and they had no cars with winter tires, so we ended up with a regular car with summer tires (we had arranged this in advance). We contemplated renting chains from the company, but it would have cost 40-50 EU, so we decided to take the risk of needing to buy them new - and hope it doesn't snow. The drive towards Belluno is quite quick from the Venice airport, as you are already on the auto strada, and we made sure to drive the rental like we stole it. We remembered to put "anti-jello" into our fuel tank, because the fuel sold in Venice freezes once you are in the mountains. The car company was called "Sicily by car", so it was far from winter-ready, and the name was a source of many jokes.

The roads were clear and we arrived in Selva di Cadore. We went to the Sottoguda gorge to check it out on a quick hike, but didn't climb anything as it was already 3pm and I was feeling really crappy from travelling. The canyon is basically in town.. quite unique - you walk down a packed down trail with a dozen or so ice climbs on both sides of the canyon. The most peculiar part? There are hundreds of skiers in downhill gear going down - WTF. It turned out that the Marmolada ski resort has signs pointing people to the gorge, which is a possible ski-out and everyone is curious to check out the frozen waterfalls and take pictures of the climbers. It is a very popular hike too... did I mention there are a lot of people?

Our hotel, Garni Civetta, was amazing! Totally recommended. It's owned by a couple, the husband is a mountain guide who works as a ski patrol in the winter so we didn't get to see him, but his wife took great care of us - the breakfast was particularly memorable and kept us going all day. Did I mention you should stay there if you are ever in the area?

We referred to this as "the gorge" and it wasn't the most appealing place to be, but it had a lot of ice with no approach, so it was a good way to start. We climbed one of the longest and most appealing climbs on the right side as you walk in... it was fun, although the sun definitely took a toll on the top part (steep styrofoam climbing).

The day didn't start the best, as got pulled over in Selva di Cadore for a routine checkstop. The police officer did not speak any English but he was quite friendly. After some back-and-forth it turned out our car's insurance had expired 2 weeks ago, DOH. He told us to call the insurance company to sort it out when we got home, and let us get on our way, which was very nice. Grazie!!

Once we crossed the mountain pass and arrived in Forno di Zoldo, we found a place to park and had a decision to make: do we take the skis or do we just go on foot? We had read online that skis can be invaluable after snowfall because you have to walk on an old road for a few miles. So we checked out the road and people had driven on the first part, it was also groomed/compacted as a cross-country trail after that. In addition, there was barely a foot of snow in the forest, not enough to create a problem. So it seemed like a great idea to just go on foot and not waste time screwing around with skis and two pairs of boots.

So we happily went along the road and slowly, the climbs started coming into view. Wow, what a scenic valley, with a huge selection of climbs! We were drooling. Soon, we started wondering how to get to the climbs... there was over a metre of snow and no trail in sight. We kept walking... the last climb in the valley is "Gran Dama", a 100 meter WI 5 that seemed like a good choice. Eventually, we came to the realization nobody had climbed in this valley since the last snowfall, and we were on our own. So we started postholing, and it started getting worse and worse as we went higher. Then we started to break in up to our waists and higher, and it took an hour to go a couple of hundred feet... with the clock ticking and us not making progress, we had to accept our mistake of not bringing the skis, and go back. We had no idea there was so much snow in the valley, and that the climbs are actually not that close to the road (we imagined then 10-15 minutes away). We ran into some guys on the way down, who were heading up on skis, and said they were developing a dry tooling crag (they were mountain guides from Zoldo).

With some cappucino and small pizza in our bellies, we headed back to the gorge and did one of the climbs there to salvage the day, rappeling as darkness fell upon us.

It was forecast to start snowing in the morning and snow 10cm, so we decided to play it safe and head back to the gorge for one last day. Since we had seen how steep the roads were, and knowing how crappy our tires were, we decided to be smart and buy some chains. We ended up finding them for 75 euro... which seemed really expensive, so we weren't sure if it was worth it, but decided to go for it in the end.

Climbing in the gorge was fun, we did 2-3 climbs between WI 4-5. The catene (chains in Italian) turned out to be the best investment on the trip. On our return from Sottoguda in the evening, we started spinning out on a road barely steep enough to be noticed. There is no way we would have gotten even close to the steep switchbacked road, and we would have been stranded in the lower valley. As it was, we pulled over, chained up, and drove to warm showers and large pizzas with a sense of victory. The best 75 euro spent on the trip!

We woke up to an additional 20-30cm that fell over the night... it snowed even more than forecast! We weren't sure whether to go skiing or climb. Skiing seems logical so we put the skis in the car, but we didn't know the best resort/spot to go to, and knew that they had a tendence to groom the hell out of fresh snow.

Long story short, we drove to "Spada di Damocles" and another grade 5 next to it, hoping to climb them. However, they were right next to a ski resort. We looked at the long approach to the climbs, and they looked short, and we convinced ourselves they are not worth it (especially given our experience with postholing the day before). So we went skiing to Alta Badia next door, which was amazing. Being a weekday, and the fact that Truckee locals are several thousand miles away (with no Italian equivalent), meant that there were miles of uncontested powder slopes (the few people that were there, all stuck to the groomers). The snow was plentiful, dry and fluffy... what more could you ask for?

We had our last breakfast at Civetta, thanked our hostess immensely and headed to our next destination: Val di Gares. We removed the chains for the first time, as we had to drive on a bigger highway and the roads were dry... but once we got onto the side road that led to the small village of Gares, there were some tornanti (hairpin turns) and we were spinning out on the ice. After a couple of unsuccessful tries, we backed down to an opening and put the chains on again. Second time around, it was much easier!

After checking out Gares (not much to it, about 20-30 houses), we parked in front of the hotel as instructed, and stared at the climb. It looked close. The book said the approach was 30 minutes. Karen was getting his ski boots on, and I said to him "It's so short, are you sure skis are worth it?" He laughed, and then I agreed, based on our previous experiences this week. At about this time, this small VW Polo pulled up next to us, with an old couple inside... they had a large snow shovel on their roof rack. The guy started speaking to me in Italian, asking if we were climbing the "cascata" and I said yes, we are - and pointed at it to confirm. Then he started explaining something more complex but for the life of me, I could not understand. He seemed to be warning us of something though. Since we were making no progress in our conversation, he drove away and left us a bit mystified.

So we skied away from the car, crossed the cross-country ski trail and started up the drainage. Even with the skis on, we were breaking trail up to our knees, sometimes deeper than our knees - very exhausting, and hard to make upward progress. The skis, however, made it possible. Eventually, it got steeper, and we couldn't use the skis anymore... we unclipped, and suddenly broke in up to our hips, without even moving. Hmm. The climb was still a fair bit away. Perhaps that's what the old couple was talking about? Since Karen had broken the majority of the ski trail, I started up with enthusiasm. It didn't last long... the snow was crazy!! It was over my waist belt, and I had snow coming into my pants, into my shirt, etc. - all the while hardly making upward progress. There were some small trees that we were able to pull onto, lock off, and reach the next tree. The larger ones provided stemming opportunities too. With over an hour of that, we made it to the open area underneath the climb... there were no more trees, now what? In addition, we came upon a dangerous trap, a tree that was completely covered in snow, about 2.5 meters of it - we almost fell inside the hole. We sat there contemplating what to do next, but we were not going to give up so easily! I skirted the tree crevasse and hugged the rock, eventually reaching the base of the pillar, but without my backpack. I came back to get the pack, and suddenly I was breaking in too much to make upward progress, even on the broken trail... so I had to pull my pack sort of as a sled.

After an exhausting 3.5 hours we arrived to the base of the climb, a supposed 30 minute approach. I was secretly hoping the old couple was watching, to see that we actually made it :) We were completely soaked, but luckily it was warm.

Compared to the approach, the climb was a pleasure and not nearly as much work. There were some giant 5-6 foot mushrooms that made for 50-60 meters of delightful stemming, hooking and a variety of other moves. A few of the roofs provided for very exciting mantle moves, but you were always awarded with a rest afterwards (you could even sit on top of those mushrooms, if you wanted).

Since we had wasted so much time getting here, we unfortunately didn't have time to finish the last 30 feet, but we were quite happy to have climbed at all (and the last ice looked more straightforward).

Getting back to the car, we were quite tired and consumed the largest amount of calories of the trip, in one sitting. We had a 3 hour drive ahead to Valle di Daone, our next destination. It was only interrupted by a 5-course meal in the middle.

We had just arrived, gotten out of the car and were scoping out the area when an older man walked down the street with his granddaughter. He smiled and immediately started talking to us, giving us the scoop on all of the climb names, how to get there, etc. He didn't speak English, but he was so enthusiastic we somehow got along well enough to have a 10 minute conversation. He pulled us into his restaurant, and showed us picture of "Sogno di Gran Scozzese" that he had just done the week prior. It turned out this was Placido, the man himself, sort of an Italian "Frank Campbell" for the area! Quite cool.

Then we drove to the end of the road, to check out the lake and Gran Scozzese itself. It sure looks big and inviting! One problem was that there were dozens of cars in the parking lot, and with the binoculars we saw 8-10 people on the climb - not good. We were going to have to start early the next day if we wanted to get on this climb...

We went back to "Cero di Placido", a climb right next to Placido's hotel, and hiked up to take a look. By now it was past noon so we were hoping people would have cleared off. Sure enough, a man and his daughter were just done rappelling down, and there were two guys seconding the top pitch. We climbed up the short ice step and took our time eating lunch, etc. while the other team finished.

Karen led the climb in one 65 meter pitch, quite nice! Some rambly ice led to a short & fun pillar, followed by easier ice. Not quite the 120 meters the book promised, but what can you do?

Wanting to avoid climbing under anyone (and knowing we have to drive to Milan in the evening), we got up at 5am. We drove the 30-40 minutes it took to get the parking lot from our hotel, and arrived to a couple of geared-up climbers cooking breakfast. Damn, did we get scooped so early? Thankfully they were still eating and surprisingly didn't seem in a particular rush, so we exchanged looks while we put our boots on, and started hiking. We came upon one trail on the right, leading to the first climbs. Another few minutes later, there was another trail, very stomped out. This has to be it, right? It was still sort of dark and we were in the trees, so we weren't sure but we started up anyway. Hmm, 45 minutes passed, we are sweating profusely and we've probably done 2000 ft of elevation gain, what the hell? Suddenly we realized we are actually on top of all of the climbs, and this is a descent trail! (also a hiking trail) Major OOPS... some swearing ensued.

We ran back down the trail, now sure we would be the 3rd party in line, in danger of falling ice and not knowing if we would actually be able to do the climb. After we joined the lake side trail we continued onwards, with sunk hearts... but we didn't give up yet. It turns out that what we did was quite silly, and you are not supposed to cut off the main trail until you have a clear sight of the climb - not shocking. We started going up the correct trail, expecting to see climbers already starting, since we had wasted 1 hour... shockingly, there was noone! The other folks in the parking lot must have gone to a different climb. I guess the "unnecessarily early" start paid off, after all, and compensated for our sillyness! (Another party did show up an hour or two later, a nice couple of Belluno)

The climb was in great condition, we did it in four pitches, more or less like this: 1) 80 meters WI 2-3 with some simul climbing, 2) 40 meters WI 5 up the centre, 3) 65 meters WI 5, 4) 30 meters WI 4.

We finished with panini at Placido's. Driving back to Milan was mostly uneventful. There was a lot of traffic, due to the fact it was carnival season. Early the next morning, Karen and I parted ways - he set off to San Francisco and I took the train to Zurich, where I worked for the following week. Overall, a great week of exciting driving, amazing food, stellar cappuccinos, and a little bit of climbing to mix it up! The Dolomites rock!

	Mean-looking Alfa Romeo	Enroute the Dolomites

		Our home for 5 days	The cute village of Selva di Cadore, our base for most of the week

			Walking through Serrai di Sottoguda

	First climb on the left	This is the road passing above the canyon

		Did the climb on the right as our warm-up while the left literally fell apart... one 70 meter pitch into the sun-baked stuff at the top to a bolt anchor	Catedrale

		The top pitch of another climb

	...		Climber on the first pitch of Excalibur, a climb that was overran with people every single day!

	One-pitch hook fests	Some dudes on an appealing mixed line	Excalibur

			Karen checking out the steep ice peg board

			Toproping some verglassed rock

	Beautiful rock face as seen from our hotel	Not a bad street view	In slight trouble with the law

	Going up the pass on the way to Val Pramper

		Walking on a packed down trail, nice so far

	The biggest hanging dagger is an M10 WI 6+, supposedly hardest climb in the Dolomites (looks hard indeed!)	Maybe on another trip... :)

		Time Machine on the right, with another climb to the left

		Nicely signed trails	Miur di Pianto (sp?) Wall

			Gran Dama (100m WI 5): so close, yet so far away :(

		Post holing: sucks, but not too bad yet

	OK...	Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu(*#!!! This was every 4th step at this point.	Probably a couple of hours away...

		Even those climbs are up an extremely difficult drainage with this amount of snow :(	Back to the gorge to salvage the afternoon.

	Harder than it looked	About 20-30cm of fresh snow overnight	Catene (without which we would have had to drink cappucinos and beer all day and not skied or climbed)

	Hard at work :)	Crossing the highway is how you get back to the other resort. No safety fences here (and don't fall off the lift) :)

	The climbs that we declared not worth it (and went skiing)	Empty chairs as far as the eye can see - nice!

	More empty chairs	Tree skiing in sick powder	It would be unpleasant to lose a ski in this snow, to say the least

	One of the huts	There wasn't a single track on this slope before we came :)	Cannot get enough of the fact we're pretty much the only ones here

	Snowmobile police	So far from Sicily...	View out of the window, while having breakfast.

	Breakfast essentials: bread, amazing coffee, and “speck and cheese”	Yummy, we even got eggs the last two days!

	Another bluebird day	Anyone want to buy some chains?

	Roads were constant steep switchbacks... not so much fun the previous two days when it was snowy with our bald tires	People here don't mind their door dumping out onto the street	We had taken the chains off, but had to put them back on for the little road up to Gares

	On the way to Val di Gares	Small but steep piece of roadside ice	Mostro Sacro from the road

	Love the ice climbing directions to "cascata"	Mostro Sacro. 95 degrees? The big "jellyfish" account for that

		Skiing in through insane amounts of snow	The snow may appear beautiful, but we were cursing it soon after this

		Val di Gares is absolutely gorgeous

	The snow is deep, no arguing there. My ski pole is set to 135cm... and this is with no force	Laughing at how we've been going hard for almost two hours with not much to show for it. The hardest is yet to come...	Trying to use a shovel for upward progress

	The monster. We're so close, yet still about 30 minutes away	Mostro Sacro (Sacred Monster), WI 5+	Mostro Sacro with a dump of spindrift on the right

	The final snow slope. Now we didn't have trees to pull on, so this took about 30 minutes to break this trail in waist-deep snow	Check out those wings. Looks featured & fun!

		A chimney move == no hands rest

			Valle di Daoni had the ice climbing world cup a month prior

	A learning wall?	A short pillar with a hundred meters approach, sun included

		Autostrada 3+	Aesthetic

	Autostrada with climbers on it	tornanti sounds better than “hairpin turns”, we saw this sign a lot :)	It appeared they don't worry too much about icefall in Italy

	Tres amigos		Karen on "El Cero di Placido"

		One pitch... (about 65 meters) - the book said 120, oh well.	Autostrada Gran Scozzesi :)

		2nd pitch	Looking down the easy first pitch, about 75 meters

		Starting up the 3rd pitch

		Last pitch

	Valle di Daone	Enough said.