Rockfall at Tofana di Dentro, Dolomites

On 4 October, around 15:00, a large mass of rock broke from the north face of Tofana di Dentro, one of the Tofane summits west of Cortina d'Ampezzo in the province of Belluno. Within a quarter of an hour rock came down twice and ran toward Val Travenanzes and the Cengia Paolina ledge. A thick dust cloud rose. Veneto alpine rescue reported the fall. No one was found under it.

At that moment a medical helicopter from Pieve di Cadore was finishing a separate call: a 52-year-old walker from Limana had twisted a knee on the normal route up Tofana di Rozes. She was winched aboard and flown to Codivilla hospital. The crew returned to the face with two Guardia di Finanza rescuers from Cortina, but the dust kept them from getting close. When the air cleared, the Venice fire helicopter Drago saw rock still coming down.

Later checks, as of 6 October, sharpened the picture. Most of the debris stopped on a ledge and did not reach the valley floor. Trail CAI 401 was not hit directly, but the same day Cortina mayor Gianluca Lorenzi closed it, the Cengia Paolina area and the approaches by order No. 171, until the town lifts the ban. The path is signed. The town hall says walking onto the closed ground can bring a fine of up to 500 euro. Searches continued on Monday. No calls came in about people who had failed to reach a hotel or home. How much rock fell is still unknown: dust covers the slope.

The face of Tofana di Dentro has long been treated as unstable because of summer heat and the loss of permafrost. A sharp swing in temperature that Sunday is named as the trigger. The head of Veneto alpine rescue warns that a large fall is often followed by smaller ones, like aftershocks, and that rain may wash the dust away and also send loose rock downhill. Anyone still walking in the Tofane should stay off trail 401 and Cengia Paolina until the municipality reopens them.