Les plus belles architectures naturelles au monde

The round trip around Pala di San Martino

Inroduction
The famous French architect Le Corbusier once called the Dolomites “Les plus belles architectures naturelles au monde” – the most beautiful natural architectures on earth and I must say I have to agree with him. Each time I return to the region after some years of abstinence I again wonder about the forces which created the wonderful towers and spires, the vertical walls and the bizarre formations which you find all over the place.

I can’t say which of the mountains Le Corbusier had in mind but when I came across the quote while preparing for this summer’s vacation I was wondering if it might have been the Pale di San Martino. For those of you who are not too familiar with Italian: Pala means something like shovel and is used to name blade-like mountains with two steep faces left and right and a long summit ridge across. Looking like a shovel – I’m sure you get the meaning…

(see brenta's post below for more info on the word Pala)

Pala di San Martino is the highest and most impressive of these “blades” in its mountain range which made it lend its name to the whole Group, the Pale di San Martino. Now, there is a famous round trip which circles the Pala, a trip which you find in each guidebook about the area. And being associated with that great circler of mountains, my girlfriend Judith, I had the notion that I might have to go there too…

The start
Being located at Falcade in the north of the Pale di San Martino we had had quite a number of fine days but nothing extraordinary. It was either hazy or clouds would hover about the peaks. The apartment window offered a small view towards the Focobon Group and we used it to determine the weather and gauge our opportunities for the day. On July 17th, still in bed, I pulled away the curtains and this is what I saw:


The Focobon Group in the early morning light, seen from Falcade.

I alarm-started out of bed pulling Judith after me and in no time we were on the road squealing up and down two passes, Passo Vallès and Passo Rolle, to get to the starting point at San Martino di Castrozza. I have to admit that we intended to use the cable car which leads from San Martino to the shoulder of Cima della Rosetta. The tour proised to be long and we didn’t want to lose time switchbacking our way to the starting point at Rifugio Pedrotti. It was Sunday, the cable car was crowded but it took you to La Rosetta in 15 minutes.

Though we had climbed the summit of Cima della Rosetta a couple of days before we wanted to take advantage of the good weather and decided to scramble up the short ramp once again. From the top – which was so crowded that you almost couldn’t find a spot to look down from – we had a good view of the latter part of the circle – Val di Roda and the surrounding mountains. It looked very impressive from the top, so far we couldn’t imagine what it would look like from the bottom. But you can decide for yourselves later.

Desolation – the Altipiano delle Pale di San Martino


The desolate "plain" of the Altipiano delle Pale di San Martino

While the Pale di San Martino Group is surrounded by some of the most impressive rock walls on earth its centre is a huge flat karst plateau, the Altipiano. The word “flat” is not quite correct here – like any karst plateau this too is fractured into hills and depressions with crevices and caves in between. We learned this in the first part of our tour which took us from Rosetta across the plateau to Passo Pradidali Basso and Passo Fradusta. The Sunday crowds quickly dispersed to reach different destinations and only a few people too our direction.

Up and down – up and down, the Altipiano can get very tiring. Moreover the blazing sun was reflected from the white rock so that it left us a bit dazzled. Pala di San Martino could be seen every now and then but we were too close to get a good view only the top with its Bivacco sometimes popped up over the hills on the plateau. Finally a long slope traversing ascent led us to Passo Pradidali Basso and here for the first time I had to think of Le Corbusier’s quote.


Sass Maor and Cima della Madonna

The twin pair of Sass Maor and Cima della Madonna made me draw in my breath – huge vertical towers which seem to be locked in an embrace. I had seen a shot of them before but was not prepared for this. Moreover I was so fixated on the pair that I didn’t see the other mountains surrounding Val Pradidali. But we were to descend into the valley and we sure got a good dose of these too.

Being a bit on the fast side we decided to hike on to the next pass, Passo della Fradusta, and descend from there into Val Pradidali. This meant, however, crossing another part of the Altipiano, so up and down – up and down we went again. When we reached the pass we were just beneath the Fradusta glacier and I was musing if we couldn’t leave our round trip and climb the mountain. Coward that I am I didn’t dare to mention it but in the end – two weeks later we stood on to of La Fradusta anyway.

Framed by Giants

View from Passo Pradidali Basso into Val Pradidali.