Vallaccia

Overview

Vallaccia (sometimes also spelled Valaccia) is the smallest subgroup of the Marmolada Group in the western Dolomites. As such it has its own section on the group page so why create a page about it? The simple answer is: look at the pictures and you'll know why. The more complicated answer is that this tiny group, which consists of about half a dozwn peaks / summits / towers is an explanation of what the Dolomites are all about. And instead of putting up the single summits which are all inside a 2km radius I decided to treat Vallaccia as one single mountain.

Lets start with the geography. Vallaccia is located to the south-west of the Marmolada Group at the western end of the Monzoni Ridge. It is separated from the ridge by Forcella la Costella, a pronounced pass, and the fact that it is composed of Schlern Dolomite whereas the Monzoni ridge is composed of everything else you can think of: sintered volcanic lava, porphyry and even flintstone among others.

Vallaccia on the other hand is pure Dolomite and is a perfect study for the history and geology of the whole mountain range. All of the Dolomite mountain groups used to be coral reefs in a sea which covered the area some 350 - 400 million years ago (which explains the almost identical summit elevations which all range between 2800m and 3200m with some notable exceptions). You find two kinds of structure all over the Dolomites which even today directly tell of that history: high plain ones (lagunes) and circular ones (atolls). The Gardenaccia, Sella and Pale di San Martino plateaus are examples for the former, the Sas Lonch / Langkofel / Sassolungo-, Latemar- and Vallaccia Groups for the latter.

Now Vallaccia is a very special case due to its small size: though certainly not the highest of groups, here the circumference of the circle has moved so close together that it gives you the perfect Dolomite impression: 500m high walls in a circle with 500m diameter - you better not be claustrophobic.

The Vallaccia circle is open to the north where a tiny (today) creek has bitten away the rock. As you enter the cirque through this valley (which actually gave the group its name: Vallaccia) the walls close in and after some moderate climbing you find yourself surrounded by towers. There is one "escape" route out of this cirque other than the northern Vallaccia Valley and that is a steep scree couloir which leads to Forcella Vallaccia on the southern perimeter of the encompassing circle. And let me reccommend you not to take this route out of the cirque. We did and halfway up we wished we hadn't. But that is another story which will make it into a trip report soon.

While on the inside of the cirque you barely think of its outside, so awesome are the surrounding towers. If you look north you will find, however, that the valley is perfectly aligned to display this other circular Dolomite mountain Group the Sas Lonch / Langkofel / Sassolungo Group. But once outside on any of the encompassing mountains you will have perfect views of the surrounding groups, whether Dolomite ones or not. Just see the 360° panorama in the following section.

Now the question arises about climbing the Vallaccia towers: are there any routes? I must confess that I don't know. The rock certainly is solid and offers a good foundation for climbing but I could find no hints in any of my guidebooks. On the other hand a difficult ferrata crosses the western half of the encompassing circle: climbing Sas da le Dodesc from the centre and ending at Punta della Vallaccia. The ferrata is called the "Via Ferrata Franco Gadotti".

Finally: the names. As said above there are several spellings for Vallaccia itself: Vallaccia, Valacia, Valaccia. For the single summits you will find even more spellings. The mountain group is located on Ladinian Territory and the original names are in that rhaetian language. However, there is no unique spelling guide in Ladinian and Italian is not too different resulting in this confusion. Here I try to stick to Ladinian wherever I know the names. But it turns out that the spelling is different for the various valleys so please don't take them too literally.

Views from the top