Croda da Lago

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Cortina Dolomites
- Additional Parents
Croda da Lago

Page Type:	Area/Range
Lat/Lon:	46.48020°N / 12.08070°E
Activities:	Hiking, Trad Climbing, Sport Climbing
Season:	Summer
Elevation:	8907 ft / 2715 m
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Overview

Croda da Lago is a small chain, in Cortina dolomites, just east of the Giau pass.

Its boundaries are :

on the west side the Lastoni di Formin (a big bulwark with fine and difficult walls)

on the south side the Forcella Ambrizzola (2227m)

on the east side a wonderful hood

on the north side another wonderful hood with some minore rock elevations embedded

This subgroup is very fine for hiking (on foot and with mountain bike)
Climbing here is "old fashion climb" because you can go wherever you want, linking routes and summits, just wandering :)
Only one thing to remember :
- Eastern walls can be reached from Federa (Rif. Palmieri)
- Western walls must be reached from Formin (Ro Curto)

Getting There and Overview

all logistic info are in Cortina dolomites page

map

Starting from South (forcella di Ambrizzola) we can see the following summits :

Cima d'Ambrizzola - 2715 m
Punta Adi
Torre Ambrizzola
Ago da Lago
Campanile Federa
Campanile Innerkofler
Croda da Lago - 2701 m
Cima Bassa da Lago 2538 m
Torrione dell'Abete
Cima Cason di Formin - 2376 m
Becco di Mezzodì (Bec de Mesdì) 2603 m

Cima d'Ambrizzola - 2715 m

the highest summit of the chain : a twin summit that can be climbed along many routes :
- from West can be reached with a not difficult climb (2°)
- SW wall gives an interesting middle route of 200 m (Peterka - 4°)
- SE gorge is quite easy (2°)
- S wall - 2 routes of about 250 m : one of middle difficulty (Lusy-Barbaria - 3°) and one difficult (Brunhuber-Coletti - 5°)
- East side allows to get the summit by an easy climb (1°)
- N wall has a fine route of 250 m (Armani-Ghelli - 4°)

Punta Adi is a minor summit just near the Cima d'Ambrizzola that can be used both to make a cross of the summits (2°) climbing along the East side or give a strong route in its West wall (Costantini-Menardi - 5°)

Torre Ambrizzola and Ago da Lago are 2 small spires that can offer amusing climbin while making the high-ridge cross

Campanile Federa and Campanile Innerkofler

Campanile Federa looks like a shoulder of Campanile Innerkofler if seen from east, ... but crossing the 2 summits is an adventure :))

Campanile Federa
- E wall normal route - not difficult (2°) but amusing
- E wall via diretta - difficult but short (150m - 5°)
- E edge - the most difficult route of the group (Dallamano-Dallago-Zardini) - 300m - 5° sup
- W wall - middle difficulty (4°) and amusing
- NW edge - middle difficulty with a strong 1st pitch
- N dihedral "via del Foro" (Hole route) - difficult and hard

Campanile Innerkofler
- normal route - using the normal route of Croda da Lago (2°)
- E wall - fine and amusing route of middle difficulty (4°)
many variants available :)

Croda da Lago - 2701m and Cima Bassa da Lago - 2538 m

Croda da Lago - 2701 m
- normal route (east wall to forcella Eötvös) very fine and not difficult (2°)
- East chimneys - not so fine but not difficult (4°)
- E wall and SE wall can be climbed along strange routes with difficulties up to 5°
- N ridge - the ridge is short and can be used for coming down (2°)
- NW and W walls have middle difficulty (3°) routes that look finer than they are
- SW wall - one difficult route ... but when you are here the NW edge of Punta Federa is much better
other routes can be easily forgotten :))

Cima Bassa da Lago 2538 m
it has only a western wall with some forgotten routes (difficulties from 2° to 6°) and 1 easy (2°) route than can be used for coming down toward Formin (west)
its eastern side can be used very well if you are an ibex :)

Cima Cason di Formin - 2376 m

Torrione dell'Abete a small summit between Cima Bassa and Cima Cason - some routes of no importance

Cima Cason di Formin - 2376 m
the last northern summit of the chain and the most confortable to get here to climb - in less than 1 hour walk from Ro Curto you can amuse on a smart wall with 3 very fine routes
- W wall - Dibona-Apollonio - 3°-4°
- N wall - Bianchi-Menardi - difficult !
- big W dihedral - Dallago-Costantini - the finest route of the subgroup - 300m - 4°-5° (amusing like the Fehrmann route to Campanile Basso)

Bec de Mesdì

Becco di Mezzodì (Bec de Mesdì) 2603 m

this summit is east of Forcella di Ambrizzola, so, geographically doesn't belong to this group
but as for logistical info are the same as for other summits ...
here it is

hiking in and around the group

here some pics shot while hiking in and around the group
and
a fine description of the Hike around Croda da Lago

When To Climb

july - september

Red Tape

no problems
some white roads can be used with mountain bike to reach the Federa lake starting from Campo di Sotto
access with private cars are restricted