Page 44 - 2020 AMA Winter

MISCARTICLE
We cleared the col as dawn broke, it was a beautifully bright day, no cloud visible anywhere and while chilly it the forecast looked like holding true. It was very different from 1977.
We reached the base of the route as the two parties in front set off up the easy first pitches. We sorted ourselves out, donned our shoes and followed. Ahead of us were a couple of local Tyrolese lads, sport climbers who were ‘just beginning’ trad. In front of them a Czech pair, Luka and Denise This was it turned out, Denise’s first Dolomite multipitch, while Luka was an aspirant guide who had been to Scotland in winter some six times. Everyone was very ‘chill’!
The real difficulties start the moment you pull onto the third pitch. A short flake leads to a very fingery horizontal crack where a couple of stiff moves left led to an easier wall above, you then drift back right to a small ledge and hanging belay. There was a bit of a delay as the Italian pair passed Luka and Denise at this point and once there was space I clipped into the ‘masterpoint’ alongside Luka. Free this pitch is grade one of the grade VII, but as on all the hard pitches, there’s enough fixed gear to use aid if you need to.
All of the belays on the lower half are a mixture of very vintage pegs and only slightly ancient pegs, equalised with elderly white tat. Except it’s not really white, it was once vivid pink. It’s just been a decade or so slowly degrading in the ambient light of the North Face! Unless
you’are on the face alone you can’t cut it out and re-rig it because you’ll likely be sharing the tat with someone else. And if you wait till they clear the belay you just lose valuable time. You need to muster what fatalism you can, clip in and get on with it. (At some point though someone will weight it then hear a creak and ‘Pfft’ as it snaps!) The runners are pretty much the same, ancient, with vintage tat, though there is the possibility of adding the occasional piece of your own.
By the time there was space for Jon to join me, he’d been on the lower ledge for over an hour. The feisty first pitch was a rude wake up call and he was at least warmed up before he set off on pitch pitch four (VI+) While just a grade below the third pitch, this felt much easier, as did the fifth pitch another VI+. Jon took the next pitch of VI at which point we caught up with Luka and Denise. Denise had tried to link the pitches above (one of VI into the VII+) but, like Comici had been defeated by rope drag on the traverse. She came down and she and Luka swapped out.
By now we had been joined by Alex, an Austrian Guide and his client. They too were equally chilled and despite clearly being faster than the two old blokes in front, exerted no pressure to pass. Two more pitches of VII followed and even pulling on a couple of pieces the climbing remained pretty fierce.
The pitches generally followed shallow left facing corners which tapered out, forcing a traverse right, and up. The rock was
excellent yellow limestone, that lends itself to crimps, but not to footholds!
The climb sometimes gets equated to a 6b+ multipitch sportsclimb. That is a huge over simplification, and is probably based on usual the grade comparison chart. This doesn’t take into account a ton of stuff and it is better described as a E3 6a.
Jon dealt very nicely with the second pitch of VII, and I led through onto the final pitch of the lower half that deposits you at the ledge where Comici and the Damais bivouacked. (This is where the Constantini finish scoots of up and right)
At this point you are on the lip of some stunning verticality. Below you there is nothing but a lot of air. Above, the face turns into a huge amphitheatre with chimneys, corners overhangs and ledges. Jon led off. It was noticeable that there was instantly less fixed gear than below. I followed, and continued up some even easier ground for some 70m, we moved together for a wee bit which put us at the base of the notorious wet chimneys. High above us the Italian pair (who had shot ahead) were finishing the traverse above the big roof and only had a couple of pitches to go.
Above us there were two corners/ chimneys; the left going to the right apex of a big black roof, while the right corner runs parallel to the left but avoids the overhang and led to the a belay above the roof. Alex the guide recommended the right line and suggested the three pitches could be linked...
I set off, initially the corner seemed drier than the left alternative, but it soon got wet, then got slimy, then got a bit off width and wetter. The effect of the slime was compounded by the condition of the footholds, they were very polished. This and the spaced gear demanded a great deal of care. The climbing wasn’t hard,
44 / ARMY MOUNTAINEER
Traversing the Lip
Jon approaching the belay on the traverse pitch