Via ferrata delle Bocchette Centrali, Via ferrata in the Brenta Dolomites, Italy
Via ferrata delle Bocchette Centrali is a protected climbing route in the Dolomiti di Brenta, marked O305C by the SAT. It links Bocca degli Armi (2744 m) with Bocca di Brenta (2552 m), connecting Rifugio Alimonta and Rifugio Pedrotti. The route traverses narrow gaps called 'bocchette' and uses equipped ledges, ladders and cables across the rock faces.
The SAT began building the route in 1937 from Bocca di Brenta northward, completing it in four sections over twenty years. The Second World War interrupted the work. The final section, dedicated to Bartolomeo Figari, then president of the Club Alpino Italiano, was inaugurated in 1957, reaching Bocca degli Armi.
Each of the four sections opened between 1937 and 1957 bears the name of a Trentino mountaineering figure, in order from south to north: Otto Gottstein, Arturo Castelli, Carla Benini de Stanchina and Bartolomeo Figari. Castelli devised the Via delle Bocchette with Giovanni Strobele while managing the Rifugio Pedrotti; Benini de Stanchina was the first Italian woman to climb the Campanile Basso.
Good footwear and proper climbing experience are essential, as the route has exposed sections and steep passages. Pay attention to weather conditions at high elevation and start early in the day.
The Carla Benini de Stanchina section, opened in 1954, required cutting an artificial ledge 80 centimetres wide and two metres high through a huge dihedral on the Sfulmini that had been considered impassable. The route is marked O305C by the SAT and forms part of the Via delle Bocchette.
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