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climbing at Dolomites Italy 14-Jun-2006 At 11:12:04 PM vwills

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I spent 2 weeks in the Dolomites September last year with a vetted internet date. It worked out pretty well, having a car is preferable to get around. Most of the time we were based near Canazei (illegal camping in the forest near a ski run halfway up the hill to the Sella towers- much nicer than the car park atmosphere of the camping ground in town). The remainder of the time we spent around Catinaccio/ Rosengarten before heading to Arco.
Climber numbers are dropping off by that time so it may be difficult to find someone in town.
Most of our time was spent doing climbs out of the 50 classic climbs in the Dolomites, the best of which was the Big Micheluzzi on Piz Ciavazes, the Steger route up the Vajolet tower, and the 18 pitch route up the East face of Rosegartenspitz. We did climb the 1st and 3rd Sella towers as well but the rock quality was pretty average. Be prepared for very manky pitons, chossy rock, old wooden stakes rotting in cracks and sandbag grades.
For some light relief you can go sports climbing. There is a good book out by Gabriele Bonanno, available in Canazei, called Arrampicate Sportive which covers the Val di Fassa region and includes modern multipitch sports routes as well as most of the short routes and has English, Italian and German descriptions of the areas. Cansla, Frea and Passo Gardner all had good routes with solid bolts.
There are many Via Ferrata in the area.
The scenery is jawdroppingly stunning.