PATAGONIA 2011

Last weekend we had a a fairly productive weekend on the Dolomites with Teppo.

Our plane arrived in Milano at 7 pm on Friday evening. The weather forecast was crappy everywhere else but the Dolomites looked very promising. The week before there had been bad weather also in the Dolomites but now for this weekend the temperatures were rising and the isotherme was supposed to be at 4000m. It was time for our second go on Marmolada!

Marmolada: Don Quixote (6, 800m) – June 16th, 2012

The settings were quite much like last October but now we knew the right strategy. This time we had small packs, light weight running shoes (mine were 212 grams per shoe), no crampons and no bivy gear.

After this trip I can tell the light is right strategy works very well. The cragging attitude definitely had it’s benefits during the approach and on the steeper pitches.

Despite the gear I felt slightly tired the day after our ascent, though. I recon it was more the hiking than the climbing. Climbing 650 vertical meters is not that bad but hiking 800 meters up, climbing 650 meters and hiking 1500 meters down is what trashed me. After all I’m a guy who makes phone calls and types keyboad nine to five in the office for his living. And Finland is really not one the best places to train for this sorts of thing.

For anyone else planning on the Marmolada I can tell later in the season it’s possible to avoid the long walk outs by making use of the Rifugio Fariel and the Malga Ciapela cable car. But being early had it’s benefits also – we were the only climbers on all of Marmolada!

The good thing about getting knackered is having the rest day. Being totally out of condition, we had plenty of time to sleep and drive around in the Dolomites. It’s one of the best places on earth to drive around since the scenery is pretty and the roads are curvy. Eventually we also came up with plan B and parked our car near the Tre Cime di Lavadero.

Cima Piccolissima: Via Cassin (7-, 350m) – June 18th, 2012

I’ve been looking up the north face of Cima Grande for some years now. Last autumn it was me who had the second thoughts and now Teppo wanted to relax his nerves. He said he had enough of exposure on the Marmolada which I can completely understand.

Browsing through the Tre Cime guide book Teppo found a perfect alternative for us, though. The book said Via Cassin on Cima Piccolissima was supposed to be a perfect introduction to the steep climbing of the north faces. It had three steep pitches in the start and some slabby pitches on the top which is more or less any of the north faces in miniature size.

All in all the route went with no problems for us. The day was sunny and we enjoyed the climbing quite a bit. Never in my life I’ve climbed anything so steep but so easy and with so variable gear before. The good thing about the old gear was that there was plenty of it.

Mandrea: Ego Trip  (6b+, 300m) – June 19th, 2012

A stop in Arco is a part of any Dolomites trip. It’s the half way stop to the Milano airports and there’s plenty of good climbing around.

The shops are nice, the ice cream is good and the pizza guy makes super good pizza. The only bad thing is that the temperatures can be quite high in summer. But you can get around this by waking up early and taking the afternoon swim in the Garda lake after you’ve done the days climbing before noon.

We topped our route at 11 am which was still ok. The last two pitches were hot but anything before was super nice. Steep pocketed climbing and not polished at all.

Quick swim in the Garda Lake on the way to the airport crowned the trip! While driving to the airport we counted we did 48 pitches during this weekend in 20 hours of climbing. For the approaches and descents we used about 10 hours.

Gondoschlucht is a small ice climbing site on the Swiss/Italian border near Milan. The base is at 1100 meters of altitude and most of the ice falls are in the 150-300 meters range with difficulties of WI3 and upwards.

It had been very warm this winter but three days before our departure from Helsinki the Siberian cold set into central Europe. Thanks to the cold we had some nice -10C temperatures for ice climbing. The ice conditions were thin because of the spring temperatures before but fat enough to have some fun. During this trip we had also loads of problems with flight changes but that’s another story. We missed our connecting flights twice…

The first day we were supposed to have a full day but thanks to the flight inconveniences we arrived as late as 1 PM. With the dark setting in at 6 PM we had some time left but not much. We drove through the canyon twice and spotted a nice looking gully across the river. Few days after climbing it we found out the gully was called Scott Gally (WI3+, 100m).

The second day was our first full day and we wanted to go big. After the breakfast we spent a couple of hours driving here and there looking at the conditions. Since we both are big fans of natural features and the conditions were slim we opted for something called Caramberos (WI5, 250m).

Although I think ice climbing is often boring this was nothing such. The route was very versatile and situated in magnificent surroundings. There were vertical steps, some scrambling and some overhanging bulges with cauliflower formations. There was also one shower pitch so the route had everything ice climbing can offer in a compact six pitch package. The guide book said it to be “a magnificent journey into this canyon’s icy world” and that it sure was. The walls of the canyon were almost 100 meters of vertical rock on both sides.

We started the climbing later than we should have and it took longer than we thought so ended up abseiling in the dark. There was a full moon showing us the way but nevertheless the free hanging abseils spiced up our adventure. Trying to find a bush or a root to abseil off in the dark is always a good adventure without a head lamp.

Since we’re old and out of shape we woke up fairly knackered the next day. We discussed the options very briefly and and decided on a scenic driving day on the Swiss countryside. We wanted to have a look at the Matterhorn and decided on visiting Kandersteg, too. Both of which are within a two to three hour driving distance from Gondo.

The last day our plane was supposed to leave Milan at 6 PM and we calculated we should start driving at about 2 PM not to miss it. Although the conditions were not bad everything looked thin and pretty demanding. What should have been killer WI4 ice falls had free standing pillars which hardly touched the ground. From the road one of those pillars looked fat enough to take short screws. Since the fast and light principle is very deep in my bones (Teppo calls it fast and miserable) we left the rock gear in the car. I really don’t know if it makes any sense but I reasoned one should hold on to one’s principles even if the approach is less than 15 minutes.

After climbing three pitches of what I believe is called Couloir Ad Ipsilon (WI3, 180m) we ran back to the car and speeded towards the airport. Everything went well until our plane arrived more than half an hour late to the gate. Knowing we had a one hour transfer in Frankfurt we knew it was going to be tight. In Frankfurt the connecting flight was gone. Not something you want to hear if you should be working the next day. It was time to write some SMS to the boss and the wife.