Brigata Tridentina (or Coffee with Frederico)

The weather forecast looked promising and with time rapidly running out we decided to do number two on the tick list – Brigata Tridentina (Pisciadu Climbing Path), graded 3B with 400m of via ferrata. It is a very popular via ferrata and I am just really glad we didn’t try to do it in August (peak season) as it was pretty busy as it was. As we were getting ready to set off a guy by himself appeared and so we asked him if he would like to go in front of us and if he could take a photo of the three of us. Turns out his name was Frederico and he bought us all a coffee at the top – at a Rifugio we found open!!

The via ferrata was quite a long one. It had a short-ish first “pitch” that took us to a wide shelf that we walked along for around 5 minutes. This took us to a large waterfall that thankfully we didn’t have to cross. From the waterfall the via ferrata was a long stretch through interesting and varied rock. A lot of the moves were made more challenging by the wet patches that were still to dry after the previous days’ rain. And there were the hoardes of fellow “ferrata-ists” following us – probably around 20 or so.

The end of the via ferrata crosses a bridge that joins a pillar and an enormous massif. The following pictures shows Frank on the bridge and the second picture shows the two bits of rock. If you zoom into the top of gap between the two you can see the bridge.

The end of the climb is in a large bowl between massifs with a steep drop off one side into the valley we climbed up. There is (what we assume to be ) a pretty glacial lake in the bowl (see second post for photo).

After our very nice coffee with Frederico at Rifugio F Cavazza al Pisciadu the descent leaves the refugio and takes you into a deep cleft that has cable inside to prevent you disappearing down the scree. It is a long walk through gullies and over scree [it drew lots of complaints from Sylvia and Anni – Frank].

Just before getting back to the car we got a good look at Piz da Cir – our first via ferrata. It is the far left hand peak in range behind us.

After much scrambling [and cries of “are we there yet” – Frank] we arrived back at the car. It ended up being quite a long day but we all agreed it was a great experience and (despite the long walk out) was something to be remembered.

BTW – there were a number of scenic shots taken during the climb that will appear in another post – soon!