The Hardest Via Ferrata I Ever did in the Dolomites - Punta Anna

The Dolomites are renowned for many things, most notably their via ferratas. Today we're about to do one of the hardest ones. Punta Anna. This is the second episode in a little series that I'm doing, where I'm rating the best via ferratas in the Italian Dolomites. After asking different communities on the internet, I made a list of what people's favorite via ferratas were. At the end of the video, I'll give this via ferrata a score and see how it compares to the rest. By the last episode, I'll let you know which one I think is best. Sunrise! After learning about the Punta Anna via ferrata, it took me a while to understand what it actually is. So, Punta Anna is a 2700m mountain, and the via ferrata that takes you there is actually called Giuseppe Olivieri. What people normally do after they summit Punta Anna is take another two via ferratas to the top of Tofana di Mezzo, which is the third highest mountain in the Dolomites. That's exactly what we're gonna do today. That's the start of our via ferrata. I'm always a little bit nervous before starting these things, because there's been such a long time since I've been exposed to heights, and usually the first one's a little bit... Such an awkward little ledge. I can feel my feet slipping. What a shot! Holy ----! Wow! That's Tofana di Roses. A little bit exposed, that one. Doesn't look as bad from here, because you don't know how much you're going to be dropping. Now you know how much you would be dropping. Not a lot of footholds here. Decent handhold. Sheesh! And now you have to bend down for this thing. Oh god! I can feel my foot cramping. Position. For anyone that had plantar fasciitis before, there was an awkward spot back then where I was holding on to such a little ledge with my foot, and I could just feel the tear. There's nothing like having nothing underneath you to encourage you not to slip. It's a nice feeling when you're high enough that you can see the cross on the top of Tofana. This one's a bit more challenging than I expected. In a pleasant way. Yesterday I did the Vano di Bona Via Ferrata, which is graded as 2B, I think. The one behind, Giovanni di Pella, that goes around Tofana di Roses, is 4C. And Fontana is graded as 5C, I believe. And when I started it, I was like, this isn't anything special. Always speaking too soon. I think the main challenge so far has been not having good footholds. No shortage of steep sections on this Via Ferrata. Nice, more Tofana. That must be Tofana di Mezzo. 3,200 and something meters. Looks like there's more barracks over there. Yesterday I bought a slice of pizza and it expired yesterday as well. But you know, they say, pizza's always better the next day. There it is. Damn. Even Konad pizza in Italy is good. One summit done, one more to go. Next Via Ferrata is Gianni Aglio. You gotta give it to the Italians for having their root in the most creatively exposed place. That is just crazy. Wow. This just turned out to be an incredible Via Ferrata. And I didn't even finish it yet. It's continuing up on that little lovely ridge up there. That is one big ladder. It's awesome being literally at the top of these mountains because when you see them from Cortina or from a distance, you always kind of imagine what it is like up there. And it's like this, really awesome land formations. Here's the thing about heights. Like most spheres, if you keep exposing yourself to it, you'll be fine. I haven't been around this type of exposure for a year. And it scared me. You have to go down on that ledge with that drop. Big drop. Oh my god. Don't look down indeed. It continues there. Yeah, nice one. Well done. My days, the crawl of shame. I'm not gonna lie, that was pretty scary. Those ledges, those lips are so so slippery. And they're like that in an angle. My hand is shaking. So when you put your foot on it, it starts like sliding down. And my hands were sweating and I have bloody sunscreen still on them. So I was just sliding down on that bar as well. I honestly stopped for 10 minutes here and thought to myself if I can actually do the last one. I knew if I wasn't going to do it, I would be really pissed off with myself for the rest of the week. Looks like the final sections of climbing are about to begin. The other side is a little section where they used to shoot from. The soldiers. What a landscape. Looks like that system is going to the summit. There's still a long way to go to the Fana di Mezzo. Days like this are definitely testing. I went into the day knowing it was going to be tough. But I didn't expect it to be this difficult. Character building days. There are lightning storms from like 2 p.m. I think it's nearly 12 now. Oh my god, finally. Yes. Good job, Lorenzo. Nice one. Nice one, guys. Well done. When did you get here? You got here very fast. Well done. Destroyed. Everybody's hands are destroyed. That was a very short lift summit. But thunderstorm predictions are ahead. I don't think they would be very impressed with me pushing through. That thing is a rock window through the mountain. I'm gonna pass through and go to where I need to be. Look at that. And look at all that scree I have to go through now. This ---- is honestly more dangerous than the Via Ferrata itself. Ta-da! Here I come, car park. It's time for some difficult business. Time to rate this Via Ferrata. So there are four categories in total that we're gonna look at. History, views, fun slash enjoyment and difficulty. Each one of these categories can get the max of 5 points and the total score can only be 20 points. So let's start with history. When we're looking at the history of it, we're looking if there was any battle over there, if there were any elements like trenches or World War I tunnels. This Via Ferrata didn't have a lot of that but it did have like the odd like shooting spot or there were some barracks that I saw at some point. So I'm gonna give it a 2 out of 5. Views, you have pretty much everything that you want. You have a view of Tofana di Roses, Cinque Torri. Let's give it a 4.5. Next up, fun slash enjoyment. I absolutely loved it. 4 out of 5. Solid. Enough said. And last, difficulty. So I rambled so much that my battery died. The last point, the difficulty of the route. So here hardest is best and I gave this one a 4.5 out of 5. It's not the hardest Via Ferrata that I did but the route is really long. Longer than I expected. I have a reasonable level of fitness and I'm not amazing with heights. Especially the exposure aspect of it definitely kicked my ass. So in total, 15.5 points for Puntana, Agrio Olivieri and Mezzo. In the next weeks, I'm gonna do at least 4 more Via Ferratas that were highly recommended by people online. So subscribe and stay tuned for those.