Monte Cristallo
Peak · 3221 m · Dolomites
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Monte Cristallo, at 3,221 m, is the highest peak of the Cristallo group northeast of Cortina d'Ampezzo. Viennese climber Paul Grohmann made its first ascent on 14 September 1865 with the Cortina guides Angelo Dimai and Santo Siorpaes. During the First World War, a shelter built into the rock at 2,760 m housed Major Carlo Buffa, who directed front-line operations; it survives today as the Bivacco Buffa di Perrero.
A via ferrata named the Ivano Dibona follows the old Italian front line along the Zurlon ridge, crossing a 30-metre suspension bridge, the longest in the Dolomites, and the Galleria del Ceccino tunnel before reaching a former command post nicknamed 'the Church' for its Gothic window. It is named for the Ampezzo guide who re-explored the war paths in the 1960s and died on Cristallo in 1968; the route reopened to walkers in September 1970. Two small glaciers, the Cristallo and the Popena, sit in the Val Fonda below the north face, reached on foot from Passo Tre Croci. Two of Cristallo's other summits, Cima di Mezzo and Cristallino d'Ampezzo, have via ferratas of their own; the route up Cima di Mezzo is named for the guide Marino Bianchi.
What you see
Four summits above 3,000 m run along one jagged ridge, with the spires of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo visible on the skyline beyond them.
wwi frontvia ferrataglacierski run