after driving up from Cortina d'Ampezzo to the Cristallo ski area, we start by riding two lifts to up high near the start of the climb - (see photos from when Sharon + Ken ski from these lifts here)
 

mountain hut Rifugio Lorenzi -- the Mariano Bianchi "via ferrata" climb starts from this deck
 

Sharon climbing on the lower section -- she is clipped to the "via ferrata" cable for protection, but her hand is holding on the rock underneath, not the cable
 

we meet French climbers already coming down - (likely they had slept at Rifugio Lorenzi and started much earlier than us)
 

Sharon climbing on the upper section of the Mariano Bianchi "via ferrata" route - (see photos from when Ken skied below the north side of this same ridge)
 

made it to the top of the route, to the Cima di Mezzo peak (altitude 3154m)
 

getting back down isn't so easy - (nice to have those protective cables)
 

getting in range of the Rifugio Lorenzi, but there's still lots of careful moves needed to get all the way down
 

Sharon arrives back to mountain hut Rifugio Lorenzi
  

still some time left in the day, so we try the starting section of another "via ferrata" route called Ivano Dibona - (with some others coming back down)
 

on this section of the Ivano Dibona route is a suspension bridge - with Rifugio Lorenzi beyond - (those "via ferrata" cables have many uses)