Piz da Lech / Piz Boè
Ascents of Piz da Lech ("Piz da Lech" Via Ferrata) and Piz Boè (from Vallon, class 2), with Andrés Rodriguez, September 7, 2024.
Timeline:
September 7, 2024: This was Sella Ronda Bike Day, and the roads around the Sella group were going to be closed from 8:30 to 16:00. So we ate an early breakfast at the hotel and drove to Corvara at 8:00 to beat the road closure. We took the Funivie del Boè and then the Vallon chairlift, which dropped us in the vicinity of the Kostner refuge, not far from the start of the via ferrata we planned to climb. We started hiking at 9:10 and climbing at 9:40. It was a fun climb up easy rock, all protected with steel cables and ladders. We reached the summit of Piz da Lech at 10:50, passing by a group of mountain goats on the way, and enjoyed the good weather and outstanding views of the Sella group. There were a few other hikers, from Germany and Poland, who agreed to take some summit shots of us.
There was a lot of day left before the roads would reopen, so we looked toward Piz Boè. We thought there would be a direct route between Piz da Lech and Piz Boè, but a gigantic chasm blocked our passage. So we went down the regular descent of Piz da Lech back to Vallon. From there, two possible trails to the summit of Piz Boè offered themselves. We picked the northernmost trail for the ascent and the southernmost trail for the descent. The hike to the top of the peak went smoothly, and we reached the summit at 14:02. We had a lavish lunch of minestrone and speck inside the summit refuge. Andres bought me a t-shirt to commemorate this great day. We then made our way down back to Vallon, at one point hiking down a steep gully complete with cables, fixed ropes and even a nicely carved wooden staircase (such a level of fixed equipment of the mountainside would be unheard of in the Sierra Nevada). We were back on the chairlift at 16:10 and back at the hotel shortly before 17:00, in time for a quick shower before joining our friends for another lavish dinner at the Crep de Munt refuge - a great culmination for a great day spent in the mountains of the Dolomites. (6:19 hours elapsed, 5:11 hours moving, 6.74 miles, 3,681 feet of elevation gain).