Via delle Bocchette - Day 1 - Sentiero Alfredo Benini

Our experience on the "Via delle Bocchette" started at the cable car station Grostè in Maria di Campiglio. We took the cable car all the way to the top station by the Rifugio Stoppani. Once we reached it we had also arrived in the barren landscapes of the Brenta Dolomites, with only rocks around us and the occasional little patches of grass. 

Right at the Rifugio we found the first sign towards the "Sentiero Alfredo Benini" which we were going to take towars the Refugio Tuckett, our spot for the night. We followed the trail up a small rise and into a little valley where we found a huge rock with a nicely hand-painted sign towards the via ferrata, as well as a first reminder that this path is only to be taken with the correct equipment.

Soon after we reached the entrypoint into the via ferrata with yet another reminder to only continue onwards with a full set of via ferrata equipment. So here we put on our climbing harness & the via-ferrata-set and of course our helmets. The first few metres of steel ropes and easy climbing followed, then a lot more "walkable" terrain albeit along steep drop offs. But here the paths were still somewhat wide, and the drop offs a little sloped, and we knew that there would be way more exposed trails in the sections to come.

After a turn we had an amazing view towards the next bit of the trail along a ledge that traversed the whole side of the mountain. From where we stood at that moment it looked quite exposed and adventurous. Once we got closer it turned out to be mostly walkable, and only short sections were secured with the steel wire. Still, that trail is very exposed and since there are sections which are not secured with wire, you can't secure yourself in in all places. So definitely not a trail for people with height issues or that are not absolutely sure footed in alpine terrain.

After following the ledge upwards for quite a while, we now reached the highest points of the "Sentiero Alfredo Benini", marked with a plaque, before climbing down a bit along a secured section of the via ferrata. The climbing along the whole via ferrata is mostly easy, graded A or B.

At some point it started to rain, but luckily only very lightly. Even though that did make the rocks a little slippier, in most places there are so many good grips and stands that it did not pose a problem. The rain continued on for a stretch of the way, but did stop again after about half an hour.

The rest of the days section was mostly unsecured sections, mostly walking along ledges and through fields of gravel. In a small valley there was a field of leftover snow that we had to cross. Luckily it was not very steep or dangerous because it was very slippery after being thawed from the sun and then drenched from the train. In our group almost everyone slipped at least once.

Soon after we reached the plateau on the northern side of the Cime Sella. Here we had to decide wether to continue on on the Sentiero Alfredo Benini along a system of ladders to the Bocca die Tuckett, and from there onwards to the hut, or to take the Sentiero Dellagiacoma, another (easy) via ferrata that steelpy descends towards the hut at the other side of the Castelletto Superiore.

We chose the Sentiero Dellagiacoma and climbed down to the hut.

At the hut we got lucky and got a small room all to ourselves for the nigh, even though the hut was pretty packed. During dinnertime we were placed at a table with a group of guys from poland that we had seen climbing the Castelletto Superiore a bit early. We had a nice little chat with them. Later in the evening we discussed our strategy for the next day, as the way up to the Bocca die Tuckett turned out to lead steeply across a big field of snow and we were ansure wether we should walk through that due to our earlier experience with the slippery snowfield. Since we couldn't quite chose on we ended up postponing the decision though.