General rules of progression and safety

1. Find out about the state of the ferrata, Access and return points, characteristics and prohibitions of use. Some Ferratas have restricted use by bird nesting and others are closed for maintenance or other causes.

2. Find out about the weather forecast. Never climb in case of thunderstorms and in case of rain, avoid climbing through the ferrata since the steps become dangerous and supports may be slippery.

3. You must not leave the equipped itinerary at any time triying to progress through other areas off track.

4. We always have to be secured to the steel safety cable or lines (life cable).

5. Never to be secured in a cable section where another climber is already secured.

6. In the vertical sections, we leave a section of free cable between climber and climber so in case of fall of the climber going ahead would not hit against the climber that going below.

7. Ideally you have to be secured with three points of body support, two hands and one foot or two feet and one hand when ascending or progressing horizontally.

8. When we ascend vertically we have to try to realize the force of ascent with the legs, avoiding “to pull arms”.

9. We must progress carefully, avoiding the fall of stones, in case of dropping down any stone (whether small or large) so we can advise the rest of climbers to be aware.

10. In general, the ideal is to be able to read and anticipate the support points of the ferrata so usually ferratas are equipped (with step points) to support feet and arms, but in many cases there are no such supports and we have to use the rock or other elements of the environment as support points.

11. When we progress vertically, the ideal is to take the eashook over the arm and to be secured to the next cable section as soon as posible so in case of a fall, the risk of damage will be minimized. In case of taking the eashook by the feet, when we have to change section not carrying it at the height of the arms  will cost us a loto f effort and we will even have to go back a little to be able to change that section.

12. When we make a section change, either vertical or horizontal, we never change the two carabiners at the same time, first we change one and then the other one. So we are always caught and secured at least by a carabiner (life cable).

13. The use of helmet is obligatory in the whole equipped section and highly recommended in the descents until arriving to safety areas.

14. The third eashook or additional anchor line (express tape), we will use it on steps or safety meeting points, to rest, enjoy the viwes and even to help us change the section eashook.

Needed material

All the technical material must be approved and before carrying out the activity, check its status and correct operation.

– Climbing helmet.

– Climbing harness.

– Eashook anchor for ferrata and carabiners for ferratas (type K).

– Short additional petzl connect adjust (express tape or similar).

– Ferrata gloves (optional, but recommended).

– Semi-static rope for rappels, the length and need of it will depend on the ferrata we are going to make and will be at least twice the length of the longest rappel.

– Descending device and carabiner.

– Mobile phone (in jacket or pants pocket, easily accessible).

– First aid kit.

– Enough water or liquid supply.

– Footwear suitable for the activity (hiking boots or hiking shoes).

– Comfortable and warm clothes, according to the season of the year.

– Sun cream.

– Backpack.

Ferrata’s leve lof difficulty

There are different scales, on this website we used the Hüsler scale, which scores four important aspects that define an itinerary: required strength, endurance, mountain experience and psychological aspects. The result in these items will indicate at what level of difficulty we should catalog the via ferrata.

– K1 (easy)

– K2 (bit difficult)

– K3 (something difficult)

– K4 (difficult)

– K5 (very difficult)

– K6 (extremely difficult)