I awoke to the sounds of folks stirring and chattering. I soon gave up trying to ignore it, rolled over and opened my eyes. The folks who had been sleeping in the van fifteen to twenty feet from me were up and had a portable table set up and were eating breakfast. Michael and Carlos were sitting up. It was about 7am. Michael ran up to the lift and discovered that we had been sleeping under the very lift that we needed for our climb, the “Grand Pilaster” on the Pala di San Martino. We ate, packed, then waited in line for a few minutes for the lift to open. Then we were off…

At the top of the high lift is a huge and high rocky plateau. On this plateau is the Rosetta Hut, our bit of comfortable civilization after completing the climb. To get to the beginning of the route, we crossed part of the plateau and then began descending down about a thousand feet to a traverse to the talus and small meadows beneath the towering buttress. This climb is rated grade IV, a European measurement which translates, I believe, to something around 5.4 to 5.5. That’s a very easy grade, and I supposed none of the climbing got harder than that, maybe a move in a corner to get to a traverse could have been called 5.6. Still, the climb is quite serious. It’s sustained 5.4 and 5.5 and dead vertical for very long stretches. It’s hugely exposed. It’s committing. It’s 20-pitches.

(above) Behold this wonder of nature! Our route roughly follows the steep and shadowed right hand skyline. Photo by: Michael Stanton

Beneath the route, we gawked and admired; it promised to be a great climb, and it delivered. We followed paths up through the talus to the base of a small snowfield at the base of the route. Here, we put on our harnesses and helmets. We moved left and crossed the snow at the most narrow spot for easy access to the face. Then we scrambled steeply up fifth class terrain to the base of the long chimney, which would occupy us for the first half of the climb.

Most of the chimney was in shade and we were all hoping that the sun would come out and warm us. We couldn’t complain, however; the air was much warmer here than on the Fuenffingerspitzen. We climbed quickly, spurred on by fears of other climbers joining us and jamming up the route. However, this wasn’t remotely a problem. Though there were others on the tram intent on climbing in the mountains near the Pala, almost all were outfitted for via ferratas. We saw several other climbers passing below us on the trail. None of them joined us on the route. I believe we were the only ones that day.

We climbed smoothly and efficiently. None of the climbing was very challenging, but it was invigorating. The views opened up, became grander and grander as we steeply continued up the wide chimney. At times we enjoyed stunning hand traverses. Other times, steep walls for stemming. And only once do I recall a little bit of slimy wetness emerging from the chimney.

(above) Me somewhere on the lower part of the chimney pitches. Note the plethora of holds! This is what the Dolomites are famous for. Well, that and the hgih vertical walls. Don’t worry, that’s coming. Photo by: Michael Stanton.

The sun beams marked the end of the long chimney. The final move was a delicate escape from a corner, an open-book, really, on to a knobby face. Carlos and I climbed in tandem to meet Michael in the warm sun. We were working hard to remain moving the whole time. With three people, this becomes easier actually. For example, it takes one person to belay the leader. That leaves the third person free to take care of various tasks: putting on sunscreen, eating, or filming (we did plenty of this, look for a movie in the future).

(above) Looking down on Carlos climbing up the chimney, which is, not surprisingly, off to the left. Photo by: Michael Stanton

A short traverse to the left set us up to finish the climb on the spectacular face. High, long, and exposed, this half of the climb was unquestionably the highlight. The steepness almost never relented and was sometimes completely vertical. I didn’t like the idea of leading these; I kept expecting to run out of holds. That never happened; the climbing, assuming you stay on route, is always moderate. There is almost always a bomber hold. Like the Fuenffingerspitzen, protection is sparse and Michael ran it out quite a bit.

(above) 1) A shot of Carlos showing the steepness of the route. 2) Michael and Carlos are having fun.

Maybe a pitch or two into the steep upper section, the clouds began swirling again. The views were spectacular: outrageous exposure down to the low snowfields and talus, and even further below – the outskirts of the town of San Martino. The clouds began to thicken disturbingly, however. We continued to climb fast for fear of foul weather moving in. This would not be a good place to repeat the hail and sleet storm that we experienced on our last via ferrata. Within a few minutes, I felt moisture. I prayed that it wouldn’t get harder. Then the sleet started. I felt that I was almost willing the sleet and rain to stop. Then, miraculously, it did! There was no more precipitation that bothered us this day, we only had the wet clouds being ripped below us by the lower towers. We climbed on.

(above) A wide view from our exposed face. See the town in the distance?

There were around five pitches of grade IV climbing on the upper face. These were all rated that way because they were dead vertical. Pitch after pitch, we finally finished the last grade IV pitch and only had two easy pitches of grades II and III in front of us. We breezed up those and emerged on the top in a fog.

“Is this the summit?”
“I think I see a higher shape in the distance.”

The clouds cleared and we could see that we needed to scramble further. We went on past another tower, then climbed the final summit slope to the long and flat summit. On top is a red bivouak shelter with four bunks and blankets. Michael was the first to check it out: “Oh, you’re going to like this, Theron.”

(above) 1) As the Godbeams illuminate the way, Carlos emerges on the summit. The sloped peak in the distance is the mountain that the lift is on. It’s down the slope on the right a ways. 2) A view of our route from the distance.

I made my proposal to Michael: “Let’s sleep on the summit.” The suggestion was met with a look of trepidation. So, I followed up with, “We can enjoy an awesome sunset amidst these clouds, and do the descent in the morning.” That convinced Micheal, but we also needed to make sure Carlos was OK with it.

Carlos was more nervous about it than Michael. Both were worried that because we were light on food, that if it were raining or storming in the morning, we’d probably be in trouble. But, I lobbied hard: “It’s been clear every morning. That’s the pattern – clear morning, afternoon storms.” But, it was not enough. We opted to make the descent.

(above) Fantastical views during our descent

While the descent was not nearly as involved as the descent off Fuenffingerspitzen, it was still fairly involved and required lots of careful downclimbing. There were a few rappels as well. The clouds made it quite enjoyable – a weird and fantastic backdrop for us. I was a little worried that the clouds would open up on the descent. If it was to rain, it would be now, not in the morning. But, we had no weather problems. We made it to easy ground just as the sun was going down. Now, all we had to do was traverse the plateau to the hut – if we could find it. I remembered the general direction since I was able to recall the mountain that the lift was on, and the hut wasn’t far from the lift. So we marched in a general direction. Eventually, the sun had completely set, but we were aided by a bright half moon, we never even needed headlamps.

We pulled into the hut around 10:30 or 10:45. As Michael and I were taking off the ropes and harnesses (we kept it all on for the hike to the hut…we didn’t even unrope!), we noticed the staff turning off the lights. I bounded inside to announce our presence. “May we have some soup…or tart?”, asked Michael. They welcomed us, and fed us, but it was obvious that they wanted to be done with their duties. Every expression of gratitude to one particular girl only resulted in a smirky laugh. Quite funny, actually. But, we savored the food and drink and enjoyed the relaxation. It was especially good after such a fantastic climb, which, I announced, makes it into my top five. We later crashed in our bunks and slept deeply.

(above) Savoring the sweet soup.

• Michael’s trip report can be read here.
• Here’s a pitch-by-pitch description of the route.

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