Page 42 - 2020 AMA Winter

MISCARTICLE
lurked an enormous boulder with the remains of a very squashed VW Beetle underneath). Back then the ‘Road to the Comici’ consisted of the Preuss Crack on the Cima Piccolissima, the Yellow Edge on Cima Piccola, the harder Cassin on the Piccolissima and then the Comici. Back in 1977 there was little information available on the climb other than what was in the Alpine Club guide, which was a simple description. There were no ‘topos’ as we know them now. Mountain had reported a free ascent by Jean Claude Doyer (Wrongly presumed the first, it was predated by a mysterious, unidentified British climber in 1965!). But other than that we had little to go on.
We did the Preuss Crack with the girls, missed out the Yellow Edge and hopped onto the Cassin, which went fast and seemed fairly straightforward. Being on the South side the Cassin was a sunny jaunt and while it is of a similar grade (for a small bit) we were to find that the similarity was limited.
The next day we got up early, kitted up and went around to the North Side. In general it wasn’t a good a day, cold and grey for August and on the North side it was freezing! Clouds were swirling around the wall, occasionally enveloping the base, and the rock was cold and a little damp. Regardless we set off and did the first two easy pitches of II/3 and IV.
This deposits you on a large ledge at the start of the difficulties. To your left the face sweeps away in towards the
Brandler Hasse in a gently overhanging curve, providing instant exposure. This first difficult pitch climbs off the left side of the ledge up a short flake and then follows a thin, fingery horizontal break, before a couple of stiff pulls bring large holds into reach. These lead back right to a small ledge and hanging belay.
By the time I got there I couldn’t feel my hands, and the wind was whipping the clouds around. My psyche was not equal to these conditions, and a shouted con- versation revealed Les felt the same, so we bailed. With my cold hands I managed to drop a rope! Thankfully with the other half I still had enough to get down to Les, but my cold fumbling served to confirmed our decision. Cima Grande 1 Steve 0.
Time passes, as do opportunities and the route always felt a bit like unfinished business. In 2011 I was back in the Dolomites with Bron and Tim. We travelled from Val Gardena over to Tre Cima and did the Via Ferrata on the Paternkopfle. It was a brilliant, warm August day with superb views of Tre Cime’s North faces. In contrast to 34 years earlier, it seemed idyllic and so doable. Looking so benign it did plant a seed and I began to think about having a go...
Over the years I’ve been to the Dolomites eight times and have witnessed some monstrous storms whip up out of seemingly nowhere. Their usual origin lies to the south, in the Mediterranean or Adriatic seas. Hot August tempera- tures evaporate huge volumes of warm
sea water into the atmosphere and take it north to the mountains. This volatile mix of warm, wet air hitting the cold mountains results in some strikingly violent storms. Usually, they are more Tchaikovsky than Wagner and inevitably arrive unannounced, quickly bang you about, then bugger off to spoil someone else’s day. Wagnerian storms turns up less frequently, but when they do could kill you; either with electricity, freezing, stonefall, or if the music is right just by drowning you. Believe me, you don’t want to hear Wagner...
(The big difference is that now there is reliable met information in particular the Meteo Blue App is a great climbers tool and being Swiss seems geared to mountain weather)
Another five years drift by, eventually I suggest to Mike Smith that we might give it a try. Mike was very keen so we booked a week in September 2016. I began to monitor the forecasts in the weeks ahead of our departure. Alarmingly there was a prolonged period of good settled weather that broke just as we left the UK. Driving north from Venice in
Mike Smith, The West Face of Cima Grande - Steve Blake Photo
Jon Punshon. Waiting for P3 to clear
42 / ARMY MOUNTAINEER
Starting the fifth pitch