![]() A dire death toll was calculated after the “White Friday” avalanches in 1916 struck the Austrian barracks on Mount Marmolada. Plus, the mountain has a maleficent past. To reach the top, you’ll clamber up a steep glacier, clipped to a piece of iron (a handy lightning conductor if a storm were to hit) in wild, rugged mountain terrain. The Via Ferrata of the Marmolada massif was first established in 1903, and sees you scrambling up the west ridge to more than 10,000 feet, to stand atop the highest peak in the Dolomites. Sometimes referred to as “climbing for cheats,” it’s certainly dangerous, and a casual attitude is not to be adopted. Most routes are particularly hairy, and require a head for heights. First used during WWI to allow speedy passage for troops, the Via Ferratas routes are now dotted around the Alps and used for recreational purposes. Photo: Massimiliano FulgosiĪ hybrid between a hike and a climb, the Via Ferrata (“Iron Way”) is the non-climber’s way of experiencing the mountains. Sadly, as recently as August 2017, a hiker tumbled to her death along this ridgeline. Careful of rubble rockfall and unseasonal ice. The high-Alpine terrain reaches up to 9,800 feet, and although fixed wires are apparent in some sections, there are often moments of excruciating exposure.Īdded to this, there’s treacherously loose rocks and you’ll nudge your way briefly across a glacier. This route is best for hardy hikers as this perilous path is rife with exposed passes and small spurs to navigate across. In July 2007, 30 perished on the mountain in a single month. But one must not forget the unpredictable climate with rock slides, avalanches and fast-forming storms. The easy access can beguile hikers into complacency. Plus, there can be an over-reliance on guides, paid to herd masses to the top. After all, you can take the Aiguille du Midi cable car up the first 9,000 feet, and it’s often described as a “long walk.” Yet, estimates calculate that around 100 hikers a year die in the region.Īs a result of the apparent accessibility of the mountain, the route is often crowded and mountain huts are overbooked, which increases the pressure to get up to the summit, rather than wait for a clear-weather day. The hike up the Mont Blanc sounds pretty cruisy. If you didn’t think hiking was bad enough, a hiker was gored to death last June in the Austrian Alps. Just watch out for the cows in the lower ground. Fog can pour in at a moment’s notice, and distant thunderclouds bloat the skies to a field of smelted lead.įor all this gnarly exposure, you’ll be treated to exceptional views, as you walk the border between Italy and Austria. And to test your nerves at the final stage of the hike, you’ll have to trot across a rusting ladder balanced precariously over a deep gully. There is no place to shelter or restock supplies (so ration carefully) until you reach Porze Hütte after around nine hours of hiking along a route dotted with WWI shelters and sheer slopes.Īs you commence this hike at high altitude (2,200m), memorials mark the spots where those have fatally fallen on the trail. This section between Hochweißsteinhaus and Neue Porze Hütte on the Carnic High Elevation Trail requires an early start, plenty of supplies and excellent weather. Carnic High Elevation Trail, Austria/ItalyĪ slippery skid on scree could prove fatal. In poor weather conditions, this section can prove lethal and should not be attempted. If you can focus on your trail buddy’s two legs scissoring along the slope, and don’t peer aimlessly around, you should make it safely across in one piece without taking a tumble. Expect to cling to glaucous rocks to hold you on the ridge as you shuffle along, and try not to look down the 70-degree slopes, where tiny villages cluster far beneath. Photo: Clementine Grayīe forewarned: This trail is only for those with an excellent head for heights, as the sheer exposure - and lack of a path - can leave one shuddering with vertigo. Trying not to take a tumble on this precarious path. ![]() Crna Prst Hut to Dom Na Komni Hut, Julian Alps, Slovenia Here are the Alps trails known to have dangerous death ridges, best left to hardened hikers (or mountain goats). Hiking isn’t typically regarded as a hobby fraught with danger - but when you take on Alpine terrain, there can definitely be a fatal factor involved. Although many routes are safe and easy to navigate, the unpredictability and remoteness of the ranges means you’re often tiptoeing on scree slopes, along tenuous trails posing as paths, devoid of cables or ropes to aid you in the extreme exposure (a hiking/climbing term used when there is high risk due to the steepness of the terrain). There’s an insidious side to the magnificence of the Alps.
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