Piz Badile is a mountain I’ve wanted to climb for a long time. Routes like the Cassin and the North Ridge tackle such inspiring features no self-respecting climber could resist their pull.
The South Face of the Badile, although less dramatic and smaller in scale, still stands 500m high and is home to some dramatic and awe-inspiring routes. The face is bordered on the left by a rocky spur which the Normal Route follows, and on the right by the Marimonti ridge – a stunning line which Charlie and I climbed a few days later. The Monteleni (established in 1935 by M. Molteni and M.Camporini) is the classic of the face. A weaving and wonderful line taking the most amenable line up the face – precisely weaving together ledges and groves to create an undeniable masterpiece of a route. For modern climbers – the difficulties are perhaps too low to be interesting, never getting harder then V+, and mostly around III-IV. Other modern routes on the face are far more serious propositions with sections of VII and VII+ – and as is standard for the area – have limited gear and no in-situ belays. For most – Stella Retica marks the sweet-spot. Generally well equipped with bolts – and with retreat possible for almost the entire route – it tackles a wonderful line, on excellent rock, up the right-hand side of the face. The climbing is fairly sustained around 5c-6a, and the route is 500m in length.
We woke up at 4:30 in the Gianetti – our noise awakening a Swiss Couple who would be behind us on the route (who later chastised us for being too noisy). After a swift breakfast, we set off to the base of the route. The amphitheatre at the base of the South Face was stunning – smooth granite slabs melted seamlessly into shear walls, with streaks of water glistening in the early morning sun.
We had some difficulty locating the start of the route – the guidebook topo was frankly awful, and there were no bolts or paint visible. We opted to quest up a grove and hope to find a bolt – which luckily, Lara did after 50m of climbing! Great success! As Lara begun her pitch – the swiss couple approached from behind…
‘Very noisy in the morning, yes. Quite route you see’
We’d spotted them from afar on the approach and joked that they’d be following us up the route. We were both rather displeased.
‘Ah man…very fair. I’m sorry totally our fault’
‘It is ok yes, but you must move fast today yes there is a storm approaching later – you need to move very fast to stay safe’.
‘We can overtake if you move slow?’ Asked the swiss women – a rather reasonable request, but nevertheless, it came across as a little rude.
‘Yes of course’ I sighed.
The ropes went tight and I begun following up the pitch. I reached Lara and told her about my conversation at the base. She too was displeased. We decided that we would climb at our own pace – and just enjoy ourselves regardless of the pressure from behind.
The next pitch was excellent – a flakey juggy pitch up to a rightward traverse. The bolting was sparse, and I was glad to have a few friends to keep everything a bit safer. Lara followed swiftly and set off up her next pitch.
The Swiss man followed swiftly. He was tall, perhaps 195cm – and climbed beautifully. He was like a spider – climbing with his hips far from the wall and his arms moving in a long, lolloping fashion. The ease with which he dispatched the pitch was quite inspiring. After our…tense… interaction at the start, we both had an enjoyable conversation about the quality of the climbing on that pitch, and how nice the positions were.
Upon reuniting with Lara – I did the easy walking pitch across the ledge and took Lara up to the base of the crux slab: a 40m friction slab pitch with no gear and one bolt to protect the crux. Lara climbed it excellently – calmly, accepting the massive runout at the top, where a fall would have significant consequences.
The Swiss wads were some distance behind us at this point. Somewhat of a relief – it’s never pleasant climbing with a team close behind you. I led the next pitch, and enjoyable 55m quest up a corner system, then over a bulge to a slab above. The quality of the rock was superb – excellent granite – with beautiful alpine flowers on every ledge. Although the sheer exposure of this face is undoubtedly less than the North Face of the Badile, and the face feels somewhat broken up, the warm glow of the sun on your back and the views out and across to Italy are genuinely stomach-churning. The crag overall felt similar in character to Shelterstone in the Cairngorms, just South facing, and twice the size.
The next pitches were exceptionally enjoyable – although not difficult (no harder than 5b), they provided an enjoyable ramble up to the difficulties on the upper pitches. The bolts – although sparse – meant you were never left doubting which way you had to go, and every belay was on a comfortable ledge.
The last few pitches were a little harder – a long corner, with a fair bit of trad gear required to keep it safe was an exceptionally enjoyable pitch. The positions here were excellent, as the route traversed onto the steeper and less ledgey central portion of the face. I loved this pitch, especially the section overcoming the bulge in the middle.
Lara’s pitch looked rather intimidating – a long rising traverse, about 45m, on fairly poor rock. In classic granitic fashion – this was not simply ‘break a small hand-hold and take a whip’ rock, but ‘pull on the entire flake your climbing on cautiously because it feels like it might snap rock. The bolts were very sparse, and the opportunities for good gear were limited due to the poor quality of the rock. Lara cautiously (and brilliantly) edged across the void, gingerly pulling on every flake, and slotting cams hopefully behind expanding flakes. The Swiss couple below were watching us from below – but kindly waited on the ledge, putting no pressure on us to rush now: they were satisfied we’d made fast progress up the face. Lara reached the belay and began bringing me across.
I led the last pitch, a bold but not excessively difficult pitch rambling to the final ridge. Lara followed quickly, and we took coils and began the short traverse to the proud monument marking the top of Piz Badile. As we moved along the crest – the views down into Switzerland and down to the North Face and the Cassin were frankly awe-inspiring. I knew I would have little choice but to return as soon as possible and tackle that gut-wrenchingly stunning line.
We had lunch at the summit – perhaps one of the happiest meals of my life. It had been the best month of my life – and I was so proud of what we’d achieved. All that awaited was a straightforward descent, then Ritter, Coke, and Coffee a the Gianetti.
And luckily for us, the descent was just that: straightforward. After initial route-finding difficulties, we moved together down, climbing the normal route – placing a few points of intermediate protection between us. A few abseils were required lower down the ridge, and we reached the ground just as the thunderstorms the Swiss had warned us of began to rumble in the distance.
That night, after the storms had passed, and we sat and had dinner looking across the Italian Alps, the Swiss man approached us:
“Good touring with you guys today – you were fast today yes well done!”
A beautiful route, a great trip, and most importantly, the approval of a Swiss mountaineer. Great Success.
Oscar Outdoors 