The Dolly Mixture Meet 2005

Members and their friends from as far afield as Boston USA assembled in the village of Campitello in the Dolomites in July/August. We were blessed with good weather and enjoyed a campsite with excellent facilities. The area has brilliant walking, super via ferratas, and fantastic rock climbing. Most of which can be accessed by cable cars and ski lifts, this may be an easy option but it does get you up to (and down from) the interesting parts PDQ!

Lots of adventures were enjoyed along with super food and the excellent hospitality of various restaurants. The beer's fine and the Grappa potent!
Big walks; the rounds of Lankofell from Sella Pass, the Rosengarten from Frommer via the Vajolet towers, .........etc Via Ferratas; Lichtenfleser Steig, Piz Boe / Pisciadusteig (via Ferrata Brigata Tridentina) / Satnerpass (Rosengartengroup), Boeseekofel, Piz da Lac / Cima di Costabella, via Bepi Zac....etc Rock Climbs; 'Little Micheluzzi' and 'The Ramp' on Piz Ciavazes, 'Trenker' and 'North West Arete' on the First Sella Tower, 'Mariakante' on the South Pillar of Piz Pordoi, 'North West Arete' on Torre Firenze, the traverse of Funffingerspitzen (all 22 pitches!) ),'Mikali' on the Second Sella Tower, 'Via Irma' on Piz Ciavazes, 'Piz Kante' on Pordoi (repeat of 30 years ago!) , 'Eisenstecken' in the Rosengarten area (rained off just short of the top), 'Steger' on the Vajolet Towers ..........etc , etc ,some even managed the occasional cragging!

The Dolomites in August can and indeed did, become rather full with one or two traffic jams, but I'm not aware of any one ever complaining of being climbed all over. We even had one guide choose another route rather than join our queue! A couple of folks flew out for a Tuesday/Tuesday cheap flight week from Manchester to Milan and then hired a car. Four hour drive in Italy but very feasible and with minimum problems. I understand that another team were just over the border on the snow and ice of Piz Bernina, hopefully they made the top and will be telling the story.
All in all an excellent meet, more of the same asap please.