Page 43 - 2020 AMA Winter

Looking across to a British team on the Brandler Hasse
the dark was sobering. The horizon was lit by lightning from several storms, all of which fit the forecast. It was 11pm by the time we arrived at the Auronzo hut. It was raining quite hard and the hut was shut. As we contemplated sleeping in the car two bedraggled figures appeared. They had done the Comici that day and been caught in the storm on the descent. They had hitched up the previous day and had to settle for a cold and wet bivi in the hut’s entrance hall. They looked a bit shell shocked.
MikeandIsleptbythecarandwoketoa fine morning with no hint of the previous days meteorological drama. We were up very early and decided to do the Dulfer on the West Face of Cima Grande as a bit of a warm up and to familiarise ourselves with the descent down the South Face.
The route was great, it started quite high, the approach passing some scattered WW1 debris and the loneliest sentry post in the world at the notch between Cima Grande and Ovest. We were quick on the route and done by 1:30. We got onto the Ringband (The ledge encircling the top fifth of Cima Grande) in bright sunlight, and found the start of the descent. In the daylight this was quite straightforward. However, about half way down, the sun went, then we were suddenly enveloped in cloud, it began to rain and there was a bit of thunder and lightning, nothing too dramatic, and by the time we got to the ground it was fine again. Given how mild it was, we decided we would get on the Comici the following day. (Returning to the
opera analogy, what we experienced was a bit of light hearted Gilbert and Sullivan).
We returned to the hut, got our room and crashed out (We’d been on the go for about 36hrs with only a few hours sleep). At some point in the afternoon we were awoken by an enormous clap of thunder and a flash that lit the room through the shutters. For the next couple of hours a big storm battered the mountain, with the full works. Gullies turned into waterfalls and stones rattled off the walls; it was very sobering. It was clear that we had descended through the prelude, and Wagner was now in town!
That evening we talked through the options. The forecast for the rest of the week was for similar storms in the afternoon. It was too expensive to bide our time at the hut, so, we beat a retreat down to Arco and spent the remainder of the time sport climbing, and eating Pizza and ice cream.
Another three years past and I was chewing the fat with a fellow BMC volunteer Jon Punshon at an Area Meeting, when he popped the question ‘Is there anything you haven’t got around to doing that you still want to do?’. As it happened the Comici was on his list as well.
Jon would either be a good luck charm, or a victim to my needs. While he is a fellow Geordie we had never climbed together. We rectified this with a couple of days cragging and we passed each others
exams. As it happened we are the same age (64) and were naturally tuned. The ‘Steadler and Waldorf’ of the mountains if you like. Getting along was very easy. A retired deputy head he is a very active AMI delivering all sorts of courses and advising walls on safety issues up and down the UK. He’s done a ton of Alpine Climbing and is extremely mountain savvy. Jon’s a much more accomplished mountaineer than myself, and he brought all that experience to our team. I’m taller than him and have bigger biceps!.
As we departed the UK we were monitoring the forecast. The plan was to use the first week to warm up on some longer routes and pick a suitable day in the second week. This approach was confounded by a forecast which consistently predicted a fine three days in the first week; Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The forecast for Tuesday wavered slightly, but the prediction for Wednesday was solid.
The day after we arrived (Sunday) was forecast for rain in the afternoon, but we were able to squeeze in M. Speciale on the Lagazuoi Piccolo (V+). We were quick and beat the rain which arrived about three. The Monday was wet and we wandered around Cinque Torre in the mist looking up at the giant blocks in the mist, and exploring the WW1 trenches..
On Tuesday we called in again at Cinque Torre and did Via Myriam on Torre Grande before continuing to the campsite at Misurina. We settled in and prepped the kit for an early start the following day.
We parked up at the Auronzo hut just before six and headed off in the dark. Some torches were visible on the track ahead of us, their most likely destination was the Comici and this indeed proved to be the case, there were to be two parties ahead of us.
The long corner/chimney pitch
ARMY MOUNTAINEER / 43