Page 28 - 1995 AMA Autumn

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The chance to escape the sun may seem to be a peculiar idea, especially if you are living and working in the UK, but in Cyprus the sun shines virtually all the year round and tne chance to escape the September heat, coupled with a climbing expedition in the Italian Alps was too good an opportunity to miss. Ex Bregalia Flash was a British Forces Cyprus sponsored climbing expedition to the beautiful alpine valley of Val di Mello, situated in the Bregalia region of northern Italy, approximately two and half hours drive north of Milan. The aim of the expedition was, for the less experienced climbers, to practise multi-pitch Alpine climbing and for the more experienced climbers to climb some of the classic rock routes of the Italian Alps and to develop their overall climbing culture, in preparation for a climbing trip to Mount Kenya in Jan 95.
The climbing area is famous for it’s steep granite walls and sur­ rounding high altitude routes on the Piz Badile and Piz Cengalo. The area has been described as Europe’s Yosemite.
The expedition team comprised of Capt Steve Bostock QLR (OIC), myself, Cpl Scard RAMC, LCpl Jones I RGJ1 JT Mathew RAF and Pte Elley RGJ and flew to Milan via Budapest on the Cyprus red-eye - 0400 hrs, which was a worthwhile stop-over and certainly worth a second visit. Budapest is one of Europe’s oldest major cities and displays magnificent examples of architecture which are built on the banks of the River Danube. Despite the fact that Hungary is going through a massive up heaval, since the col­ lapse of the Eastern Block, she is coping well with the changing economic swing from communism to capitalism and provides the visitor with a wonderful mixture of a quest for western democracy and an old style communist rule.
The expedition took off to a flying start when on arrival in Milan it was found that the mini-bus, which had been previously booked, did not exist. The OIC, Capt Steve 1BOstock QLR, was quick to react with his “plastic” and managed to find two hire cars, at a price and 3 hrs later. The six man team arrived in the Val di Mello at 0300 hrs and were soon asleep in the cool quiet atmos­ phere of the alpine valley. As all climbers do, who are anxious to start climbing on new rock, woke early and peered out of our tents to see the magnificent granite walls of the numerous buttresses in the valley. The crags had marvellous names such as the ‘II Precipizio degli Asteroidi and Lo Scoglio della Metamorfosi, which described their appearances perfectly and after a short time we had identified the crags in the guide book and pin-pointed the routes to be climbed first With hearts throbbing and fingers and toes itching to climb, we negotiated breakfast in silence with eyes staring upwards towards the over-hanging cliffs of the buttresses surrounding the campsite.
All the climbs in the Mello can be described in one of two cate­ gories first we have the short climbs. These are normally friction routes on slabs in the lower areas of the valley, with short approaches. Second we have some World-class crack climbs, of eight pitches or more, on the steeper crags.
The area for a long time was dedicated a no bolting area and con­ sequently hard routes were being put up with little or even no pro­ tection But since the eighties this attitude towards boltingchanged and now we see some excellent friction routes with good protec­ tion. There are climbs ranging from severe up-wards, but in order
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\KMY MOUNTAINEER
Exercise Bregalia Flash
by Capt R Duxbury
Kundalini: El5b. 400m.
to achieve the most from the valley and to climb the finest routes, one has to be climbing at least Hard Very Severe (HVS) and above.
The valley is notorious for its long crack climbs such as Via II Isveglio Kundalini Via 1una Nascente Via Poliamago and Oceano Irrazionale all being graded at El 5b E2 5c E2 5c and E3 Sc respec­ tively - 5a equates to I-IVS. The climbs are all over 400m in length and are all sustained. There’s no slacking in the grade and very few places to abseil off so once you have started you are committed. Descent routes from the long crack climbs are as notorious as the climbs themselves and on one occasion two soldiers spent a cold night on a very small ledge, afler running out of light. Caution must be exercised at all times, especially on big routes with un­ marked descents, but due to good training and discipline, the sol­ diers made a sensible and sane decision and stayed put until the Mello rescue team came albeit at dawn who saw the pair abseiling down the route afler a very cold night out on the crags at about 0500 hrs. September i.s a good month to visit the Mello as the tourist season is coming to a close the weather is still warm enough to allow climbing and the first snow falls of’winter have not yet reached the Badile, or the Cenalo .
Myself and Capt Bostock after polishing of’f the classic slab and crack routes of the valley decided to finish the week with an ascent of the SE Ridge of the Piz Badile, a French Tres Dilficile (Scottish