Some years back I climbed my first Via Ferrata – in the Lake District of England!
In addition to being a responder I was also on the committee of Tweed Valley Mountain Rescue and we were celebrating our 40th anniversary, so I organised for the team to go and stay in the Lakes, near a great pub and climb the Honister Via Ferrata. The first thing that struck me at the Honister Slate Mine Centre, was the poor condition the issued kit was in – helmets that had not been cleaned properly, ropes that were fraying, but worst of all was the wear on the karabiners from traversing the zip wire; they would never have passed our teams kit inspection. The Via Ferrata lanyards were purpose made and seemed adequate, so we swapped the krabs out for our own.
It is a relatively easy climb and I remember climbing it thinking about the men who had worked at the mine and climbed this every day, wearing hobnail boots and without the aid of Y-shaped lanyards.
I guess its lazy climbing, because the route is not only there for you, it is pitched out too.
The following summer I was visiting northern Italy and decided to foray off to climb the original Via Ferratas. These were built as routes across The Alps to allow soldiers and partisans to travel and move with ammunition and supplies to their allies in WWI. They consist of a series of metal cables, rungs, ladders and bridges to ascend and descend tremendous and precipitous climbing routes.
They found use again, especially in Switzerland, during WWII, after which they were commercialised for public use in Switzerland, Austria, Germany and Italy.
Some are maintained, some are not. Some are challenging, some are full on exposure and require climbing as well as I discovered on my first ascent.
This Via Ferrata was in a relatively remote area that required a walk in of 6km. For this trip I had the purpose made Petzl retractable Y-shaped lanyard with tearing energy absorber, a great piece of kit. The ascent started easily enough, the iron rungs rusted but secure in the rock face. After about 30m the rock face inverted, leaning out at around 15 degrees, so you need to hook your feet under the rungs or they would swing out beneath you. This section ended after around another 20m at a ledge where there was a steel rope to support your traverse. Without this steel rope, there were no handholds and it would have been impossible to traverse. This led only more rungs and the ascent began again, however, now rungs were missing and some were loose, so I had to be a great deal more careful in selecting which rung to lock onto and at times had not to be roped on, as the distance apart was too great for my lanyard.
Exposure was full on and I knew that I was pushing my comfort zone. The ladder continued like this for around another 150m when, near the top, they ended. Now I said near the top, not at the top, because the last 10 or so rungs were completely missing and the decision was then, do I free climb these 4m or descend all the way back down.
I remember squeezing my fingers into the holes which were where the rungs would once have been and being right out of my comfort zone!
I will dig out the name of this Via Ferrata and ping it to you Paul - be aware;)