Sella Group, Dolomites, 21st and 23rd May 2009

My first time climbing in the mountains since my son was born!

On the Thursday we went to climb the Maria Kante (9 pitches, IV+) on the S. Face of the Piz Pordoi.

S. face of the Piz Pordoi

There was quite a lot of snow on the approach for the time of year and it took us more than an hour to get up to the start from the Pordoi Pass. The start was easy to find, on the left-hand wall of the big chimney separating the tower from the main face, on top of the pile of snow that had come down the chimney.

The rock was typical for an easy route in the Dolomites - not always so solid that the climbing becomes really enjoyable, but mostly good enough. On the fourth pitch it became solid and compact, but this wasn't welcome as it made the pitch impossible to protect, and the pegs were fewer and rustier than I would have liked.

Peter Nowak on the Maria Kante on the Piz Pordoi

We only got as far as the col between the tower and the main face. The south face was dry and warm, but on the west face it was raining, and the wind was blowing this over the col, soaking me as I looked for the belay and making the upper pitches wet too. We could have waited a long time for everything to get dry again, so we ended up abbing, which was nothing like as bad as it sometimes is, thanks to the thick solid belay rings.

Welschnofen

On the Saturday we went to Piz Ciavazes to climb the Rossi-Tomasi (7 pitches, IV+). I don't like Piz Ciavazes that much, since it is really busy and the routes just finish on the big half-way ledge unless you climb the upper cliff too, which I have never seen anybody doing. However, it turned out to be a really nice route, with better climbing than the bit of the Maria Kante which we got to see on the Thursday.

Peter Nowak on the Rossi-Tomasi on the Piz Ciavazes, in the background the Marmolada

It was certainly busy. There were two parties above us, and round about the middle all the parties caught up with each other. The fourth pitch was really good grade IV climbing, steep for the grade with solid rock and easy to protect. The fifth was a traverse left, and the seventh an entertaining traverse right again. At about IV- it wasn't hard, but possibly enough to make a non-leading second think twice. The start of the seventh and final pitch was another steep chimney with good holds, sadly over all too soon.

The belays on this route are one cemented in peg. They are probably OK, but if I am just going to have one piece at a belay then I like it to be a really solid ring, like on the Maria Kante and a few of the easy routes on the Sella Towers, and if it is just a peg then I would prefer two, even if cemented in. On this route there are thankfully enough cracks to make reinforcing the belays easy.

Looking over the half-way ledge on the Piz Ciavazes to the W. face of the Piz Pordoi

The way down from the half-way ledge on Piz Ciavazes looks terrifiying as you look over from this ledge. It is necessary to traverse into the huge gully that splits both faces and then back out to get up to the descent from the first and second Sella Towers. The way back out appears to be a narrow path grafted onto the side of a vertical face when seen from a distance, but once you are on it it turns out to be wide enough to walk on, and there is a cable to hold on to at the tricky bits. There was no snow at all on the descent.