The Via Ferratas of the Dolomites

While A Life of Adventure doesn't really cover mountaineering, there is lots of fun to be had on the via ferratas of the Dolomites in north-eastern Italy. Literally an 'iron way' of wire rope, sometimes steps banged into the rock and even occasional ladders, the via ferratas provide bomb-proof protection to people who do not want the full risk of rock climbing - 'exposure' can be absolutely massive - ie you can look straight down for 3000 feet in places. Originally installed in WWI to help mountain troops access the mountain tops, they have been adopted by hikers - a good high-level walk is no longer interrupted by a single difficult section of climbing - and climbers. Sections are graded for difficulty of rock-climbing. James Henderson of A Life of Adventure has written about via ferratas in the Financial Times' Weekend section, below, and more recently for their magazine How to Spend it. You can read his article, Scaling the Dolomites, here.