2. Europe

Italy 2007

I was helping someone change a tire when he offered to let me stay at his place in Bozan (Bolzano). It was an offer to good to refuse! I had stayed in the town for a day when I decided to head into the mountains even though the weather looked incremental. I figured I could go in and camp the night and hopefully have a large enough gap to climb a peak and head out. Roberto gave me a ride to the base in a town where, yup once again, I took the tram. The 2 hour run back down Brandjoch in Austria 2 days earlier had made my legs puddy and they had not yet recovered. The pain on each down step was intense and sometimes I would lose balance just going down stairs! So the tram was inviting. The day was July 3rd and summiting a peak in the Dolomites was going to be my own personal 4th of July celebration. Last year on the 4th of July I was camping at 11,900 feet on the Grand Teton preparing for the climb in the morning. Gotta keep the streak going.
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  • I had chosen a route in town on a ferrata to a hut. I changed my mind however and decided to go up a peak to the right which didn't have such a long down trek back to a town! The peak I chose was Rotwand Roda de Vael. (9206 ft / 2806 m). Of the 2 large peaks in the photo it is the one on the right.
  • The peaks of the Dolomites instantly had me in their grasp. The towering walls, the imposing routes. It was astounding!
  • The rain stopped long enough for me to get a shot of one of the many towers. I was heading around the corner to Roda de Vael.
  • This is the huge face of Rotwand Roda de Vael. I stared at this face for a long time sometimes my mind was soloing the face with a rope and gear, sometimes I didn't have anything and was free on the face without fear. The route I would be climbing was around the backside.
  • That night I had a beautiful view over falling mountain valleys and homes that have been there for a long long time. The rolling hills in front of me were a sharp difference to the massive towers at my back.
  • I found a great patch of grass which I put the tent up on. I hadnt seen another person since I left the tram area.
  • And then the incredible view in the morning. I felt like I was in a cloud factory watching the happy cloud makers building their fine achievements, watching the ground as clouds would build and float away to join the others. What an amazing view. The beautiful blue sky almost made me forget that It had been raining and windy all night long. It was my first good feeling about the weather and the peak.
  • I packed up my gear after seeing the blue sky and headed up into the pass which I had to get to before I could start ascending the peak. The pass itself was making its own weather and left for a very eerie climb. The snow that accumulated on the peak, in July, that night was also a bit concerning.
  • I had used the cables on the last climb in Austria and this time, although I was wearing my helmet and harness, I decided to climb without any aids. So I climbed next to them incase it got real scary and never once needed to use the cables or metal.
  • I had a few breaks in the clouds when I would be treated with views of the wonderful Dolomites. The weather around me was moving very fast and I knew it could change at any time. If I was lucky I would be able to see it, chances are I wouldn't.
  • One of the openings. If I die before i come back to the Dolomites and climb with a rope and a partner I will be a very sad ghost.
  • Alas the summit! Okay now I know my eyes look funky here and ill admit its cause I lightened them in photoshop. I didn't know how much until I looked again. Is it how they really look? I don't know, I only lightened them, but I doubt it. ;) On my helmet you can see large crack through the Black Diamond logo. Know how that happened? Yup, you guessed it, baggage handlers. Oh well, better that then an accident!
  • I was heading down to another ferrata that traversed the ridge called Ferrata Masare. It looked really good and I was getting excited about the growing difficulty. The walls surrounding me were beckoning me, "Stop calling me! I cannot come alone and unprepared. You'll take my life." It is often hard to talk myself out of dangerous situations.
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