Introduction

The Dolomites, some like to describe them as “the most beautiful mountains in the world”, others describe them as an “enormous castle” consisting of thousands of towers, spires and terraces with overhanging rocks from where the gods observe the littleness of man and his exploits, including those of climbers who have been trying to reach its summits for over a century... Born from the sea and its coral, emerged from the waters, ravaged by volcanic eruptions and powerful earthquakes, sculpted by ice and wind, they have reached us today unique and unrepeatable, to the point of being declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is sufficient to look at a satellite photo of the Alps to understand that the Dolomites are something else, morphologically and geologically different from all the other mountains, splendid because they are never the same amongst themselves, each single valley, every different group, every peak is a world unto itself, to be discovered and climbed. The first ascents in the Dolomites took place more than a century and a half ago. In the beginning it was the pure and simple “conquest of the unknown” to push man to look for the easiest way to reach the top, it is the idea of climbing itself which has been completely revolutionised: from classic alpinism to modern, from artificial ascents to trad until we reach today’s sport climbing where, even if you have never touched a rock, you can experience the emotion of “reaching the top”. If classic alpinism is still the real heart of climbing in the Dolomites, it goes without saying that also here the “Nuovo Mattino”* brought the necessary force to upset the dogmas of what for decades had been the concept of climbing mainly recognised by alpinists: within a few years more and more climbers were choosing to use the “bolt” and the drilled hole for the only pleasure of climbing “free” over otherwise unprotected moves. From then on sports climbing exploded also in the Dolomites, up until today and what the pages of this book will tell you: 105 crags chosen to represent the best this territory can offer you, a rich selection with which to pass wonderful days immersed in the enchantment of these mountains which have always been able to send a tingle up the spine of anyone with the opportunity to observe them... * The "Nuovo Mattino" in Italy was a wave of revolutionary ideas among young climbers from the Torino area during the seventies. It all started on the granite of Valle dell’Orco trying to emulate the era of Yosemite in the States.

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