No climbing experience needed for Australia’s first “vertical playground”

I wonder if Italian soldiers ever stopped to admire the view? Climbing with heavy packs and rifles slung across their backs, they couldn’t have known the network of iron ladders and cables they were using to climb high into the Dolomites would one day become a vertical playground for sightseeing tourists.

Used by armies to transport troops and supplies high into the mountains, via ferratas (Italian for “iron roads”) sprung up across the Italian Alps during World War I. When fighting ended, the vertiginous trails were maintained by keen mountaineers, and the concept spread to Germany, France and Switzerland, then eventually across to North America, which has two dozen via ferrata trails from Whistler to New Mexico.

I learn all of this while hanging from a cliff. James Webb, owner of RockWire – Australia’s first and only via ferrata experience – is teaching mountaineering history as we both hang some 1700 metres off the side of Mount Buller, a three-hour drive north-east of Melbourne in Victoria’s High Country. The sun gleams off his blue helmet and I can see the entire valley reflected in his sunglasses.

It is a brilliant December morning, and the slopes far below us are carpeted with gold and purple wildflowers. Some adventurous blooms even poke out of the cliffs next to my hands. Black and white butterflies flutter and settle on the rock face, oblivious to the perilous heights.

To get here, we walked an hour along a ridge track from Mount Buller’s summit until we reached the start of the via ferrata at the top of a cliff, where Webb introduced me to the cable that will guide me up and down said cliff, explaining how to attach to it using my lanyard and carabiner. Ensuring I stay on the trail is a two-point safety system designed to guide me from one anchor point to the next, while minimising any potential human error. If I somehow lose my footing and fall, I’ll only drop a metre or so and cop a grazed knee.

My first steps down are shaky as I get used to it, but soon it becomes an almost meditative experience. I shuffle, climb or step my way along the rock face until I reach an anchor point, re-attach my carabiner to the next section of cable, and then continue. Against all self-preservation instincts, the trick is to lean out into the blue and use the cable as a handle. Within minutes, Webb and I settle into comfortable chit-chat as we traverse the mountain’s western face.

Australia’s first via ferrata has been a long time coming. Despite enthusiasm from the government and park authorities, Webb says it took seven years of rigorous scouting, testing and reporting before all regulatory approval was signed off. Giving up months of weekends and spare time, he painstakingly mapped the entire mountain face to design each of RockWire’s three routes. The first route, an approachable loop track designed for newcomers with no climbing experience – the one we’re on – was unveiled in October 2023.