Dolomite South Faces I: Compagni di Merenda

Yoga and stuff...
Yoga and stuff...

Summer break for the summer in the Alps made  the temperatures drop a lot and all north facing routes were off the list …First we moved to the south face of Tofana again to climb another route of the famous first ascentionist Massimo da Pozzo called “Compagni di Merenda“. Although it is “just” given 7b it turned out to be hard and tricky to find the line as Massimo was maybe low on money (and bolts) the year he put up this route ;)

The first bolt is 20m above the ground and additional protection as well as rock quality is poor. Tofana was in the clouds that day and it felt cold and stiff. Climbing the second pitch was a long runout adventure but beautiful climbing. At the belay of the third pitch we had to rescue two abseiling italians whoes rope did not quite reach the bealy so we tied some slings and qickdraws together to reach them.... 3rd pitch is finally very cool climbing on crimps with a bit of a steep finish on good holds. 4th pitch is the crux pitch. Very committing as the difficulty with slopy crimps keeps coming right when you are far away from the last bolt and there is a chance to hit a ledge underneath. 7b definitely obligatory! I climbed this one breathing strongly and Chrissi managed the next 7a over a steep roof with good gear but tricky routefinding. After the crux and the last bolt you clip a huge thread from where we climbed slightly diagonal right and then straight up (long pitch!). We belayed on slings on another huge thread with lots of material on. There is supposed to be a belay somewhere wich we could not find. We rapped down from this belay.

Info:

Height: 300m [6b+, 6a, 6b+, 7b, 7a, 6a, 6, 5+],

Though there is not much sense in doing the last two pitches.

 

Gear: 12 quickdraws, small and medium sized cams, medium sized wallnuts

 

Topo: http://www.planetmountain.com/english/rock/dolomites/itineraries/scheda.php?lang=eng&id_tipologia=38&comefrom=search&id_itinerario=273&gruppo=&cima=&nome=

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