Page 45 - 2020 AMA Winter

but it was very dangerous. By the time I got to Luka at the traverse I was a bit gunky! Jon followed, fighting all the way with the sac but soon recovered at the stance.
He led the traverse, which is a sensational pitch above the lip of the big roof. This leads to a couple of easy pitches that lead to the Ringband.
At this point Jon invited Alex to pass and he overtook me on the upper pitch. By the time we got to the Ringband the two pairs had scrambled off. It must have been around 6:30. We stayed roped up on the Ringband and eventually got to safe ground at the junction with the West Face. I was now on familiar ground from my recce with Mike.
We got ourselves sorted out for the descent, at which point we discovered Jon’s head torch was dead! Thankfully I had a miniature spare and we set off to locate the abseils. We were definitely tired, I fumbled my belay plate which thankfully stopped on a ledge within reach. We very consciously became very careful! By the time we finished the long ab down the first gully it was dark. We racked Jon on the rope and I’d set off down and then try to illuminate his descent without blinding him (I hoped). We continued very carefully and agreed that if it got too stressful we would stop and wait for dawn.
Two abseils deposit you on a big scree slope where cairns lead you down and right. I had my memory to rely on and
we followed the cairns down. Right, then back left. It was all very different in the dark with the odd cloud, but we worked our way down to some stepped ledges which led to a big cairn, a brass plaque and some tat.
We backed up the tat and I abbed down to a large bolt. I was pretty certain of where we were and by way of reassurance was describing stuff to Jon. Of course he was pretty much reliant on my head torch to see what I was on about, but would only get a second to register what I was jabbering about before the beam moved and his eyes were in the dark – He was very trusting!
We eventually made it into the great gully, that leads to the scree between Cima Grande and Cima Piccola. My torch started to fade so I replaced the batteries and it sprang back into life. We continued down and eventually could see (Or at least I could) the ledge that leads to the ramp that gets you off the mountain. Jon took a little persuading – The ledge is quite unlikely in the dark, but soon we were on the scree between Cima Grande and Cima Piccola.
The paths down to the scree were a trudge – it seemed to take forever and we and wobbled our way back to the car. The final incline by the hut was a killer. It all felt quite military!
We finally got back to the tent at 02:30, we’d been on the go for about 2200 hours, not bad for old blokes.
After a rest day, the rest of the trip was doing the warm up climbs we’d short circuited by doing the Comici early. We had a night in the Refugio Alberto beneath the Vajolet Towers (It’s quite a hike) and did the Piaz Arete and Steger Direct on the Winkler Tower. The Steger was fantastic, with an outstanding and unexpected long hand crack. Via Cip and Co on the Lagazuoi Piccolo, had a few good pitches. Our last route, delayed by some poor weather was Via Kasnapoff on the Second Sella Tower. It was OK but not worth its inclusion in so many guides
All in all it was a remarkable couple of weeks. We certainly lucked out with the weather. Indeed looking at some entries in logbooks it began to snow a week or so after we left! It has left us pondering what next. High on Jon’s list is the Rabada Navarro on the Picos de Europa, and I’m thinking of the Nose. Let’s see what 2020 brings!
Steve Blake served as Vice-Chair (Sport) within the Army Mountaineer- ing Association in the early 2000s and is currently the BMC’s Access Rep for Northumberland and Newcastle.
The descent begins
Negotiating the Ringband
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