Ten days in the Dolomites and the story behind The Wild Thing

We were meant to go in 2020. Mark and I had planned a trip to the Dolomites in northern Italy to climb some of the original via ferrata routes – the old “iron ways” that run through those mountains. Then COVID happened, and like so many plans that year, the trip disappeared.

But we never really let go of the idea.

When we finally got there, it was just the two of us and ten days of climbing in the Dolomites. And it was amazing.

We’ve spent a lot of our lives in the mountains, and via ferrata is obviously a huge part of our world through Wildwire. But there was something pretty special about going right back to where it all began and actually climbing those original routes ourselves.

Climbing through history

Via ferrata translates roughly as the “iron way”. The routes in the Dolomites are closely tied to the First World War, when fixed iron aids helped people move through incredibly steep mountain terrain.

Knowing that history is one thing. Being there is completely different.

We were climbing on old routes through what had actually been the front line. There were tunnels we could move through, trenches still cut into the mountain and caves where soldiers had lived. In places, you could still see old timber where people had slept inside the mountain.

It was crazy to be climbing through it.

You’re there for the adventure and the climbing, but at the same time you’re moving through this very real piece of history. It made the whole experience feel completely different from simply climbing another route somewhere beautiful.

And the Dolomites are extraordinary in their own right. We had ten days to climb, explore and experience the place together. It was the sort of trip we had wanted to do for years – and after having to cancel it once, finally being there made it even better.

Some experiences come home with you

We didn’t go to the Dolomites to research a new Wildwire product. We went because we wanted to climb there.

But when you spend ten days immersed in something, you notice things.

The original via ferrata routes have their own feel. They are part climbing route, part journey through the mountain. You’re following a line and discovering what comes next as you move through it.

When we came back to Wānaka, that experience stayed with us.

We were developing a new line at Twin Falls on the right-hand waterfall, what would become The Wild Thing, and the Dolomites gave us ideas and information we could draw from. Some of the feel of those original routes found its way into how we thought about this new climb.

Not because we wanted to recreate the Dolomites in Wānaka. You couldn’t. Twin Falls is its own place, and Wildwire is its own experience.

But travel does that. You go somewhere, experience something properly, and come home seeing your own place slightly differently.

Then came The Wild Thing

The Wild Thing is our new via ferrata line on the right-hand falls at Twin Falls.

It sits alongside the Lord of the Rungs climbs we’ve been guiding for years, but it gives us something new, another way for people to experience the waterfall and another challenge for people who already know Wildwire and want to come back.

For us, though, there’s now another layer to it.

When we look at The Wild Thing, part of its story reaches all the way back to those ten days in Italy: Mark and me climbing through tunnels and trenches in the Dolomites, following the original iron ways and experiencing for ourselves where via ferrata came from.

That’s one of the things we love about experiences. They don’t necessarily end when the holiday does.

Sometimes you bring a little piece of them home.

Life’s about experiences

We’ve always believed that.

We would rather put our time and money into doing things, travelling with our family, being outdoors and making memories than filling our lives with more stuff.

The Dolomites was one of those experiences for us. We waited years for it, finally got there, climbed together for ten days and came home full of ideas.

Now some of that experience has become part of something we get to share with other people at Twin Falls.

And that feels pretty special.