Cinque Torri

The history of mountaineering is entwined with the history of guides, so overcoming initial feelings of inadequacy, that I am unable to do it all myself, I arrange a guide for a few days of climbing in the Dolomites during the final week of our holiday.  The guide is fully qualified, with a price tag to match and knows the area well, having grown up in Corvara and was lucky enough to be in the Alpine regiment when completing his compulsory national service.  The Alpine regiment at that time was based in Corvara: he skied the winter and climbed the summer.  The army – he loved it.

Now, he gets paid by people like me to climb the cliffs he would be climbing for fun if I was not here to pay him.  Guides are always in a good mood and are great fun to be around, full of stories and pithy quotes.

"The most important things to an Italian are food, coffee and football.  You could murder someone and no-one will care too much, but if you are served bad coffee then ring the police - and they will come."

We talk about his ascents of the north face of the Eiger – the toughest of alpine faces, that he has done by the Classic route and others.  Sadly, the classic route that is so etched in climbing folklore is no longer possible, it being so warm now in summer that the famous ice fields and snow sections no longer exit, there being only ice on the White Spider.  People who travel regularly to the mountains and see the glaciers retreating need no convincing of the existence of global warming.

For our last day we go to the Cinque Torri.  Not the Cinque Terre which is a string of 5 pretty tourist towns on the coast near La Spezia, but the Cinque Torri – the Five Towers.  We are to do the hardest climb on the highest tower: I bet he says that to all the clients.

As we drive up the final hill, Marcello stops, leaves the car in the middle of the road, and fills up his water bottle from a little stream running beside the road: “my father told me, if you drink the water of the mountain you are about to climb, you climb better”.

The initial 2-3 pitches of our chosen climb are shared with other climbs.  The Cinque Torri is popular, there being already a group on the initial pitches and several groups getting ready to go up.  But guides don’t wait!  We walk a little further up the hill and round the corner to an alternate start.  Marcello climbs up “no need for belay for me Neil”.  The pitch is basically a steep scramble, up and around and back again with several obligatory traverses.

Once past the initial few pitches the climb is;

~ 20m up and then short rising traverse to semi hanging belay

~ 40m traverse, traverse some more, than up steeply on good holds, up slightly less steep on slightly smaller holds to semi hanging belay

~ 10-15m up steeply, steepest part of climb and then easy to good belay ledge

~ 40m easy meander on indifferent rock to the summit

‘I think the holds are hiding from me’ I shout up to Marcelo. On all the routes and now on this one I had found it hard to read the rock, to quickly recognise what is usable, and what isn’t.  This pitch is graded 6b and by the end of the hard section I am pumped .  With more than 100m of climbing to go, experience kicks in: I grab a bit of gear, clip in, and rest.

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The other day on the Sella, Marcello told me a funny quote.  He had a client who was saying ‘I’m scared, I’m scared, I can’t climb this.’  His response was ‘it’s ok you are scared, you have the fear, but still you can climb and your fear can come along if it wants to’.

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Having climbed from higher ground across the initial pitches, we are now up what seems very high.  I mutter something about traverses in the Dolomites as I pull onto the belay and Marcello laughs ‘ahh, then you’ll like the next pitch’.

My reply, ‘I think my fear has come along with me today’.

He starts off the next pitch, not by going up, but by heading across to the left maybe 10m or more.  It would seem the objective of this route is to take in all the exposure available on this tower because the rock underneath us is overhung, so my foot holds are the last pieces of vertical rock on this side of the face.  There is a bolt or piton at the start of the traverse but nothing at the end, meaning that once I start climbing, if I were to fall, there is nothing to limit my swing, and with the stretch of the rope, I will swing underneath the face that we are climbing and be unable to rejoin the climb.  I prefer Rock to Swing myself.  Before Marcelo had started climbing he said ‘this traverse is easy, you will see’.  Thankfully he is right.  And the climbing above the traverse is fantastic, hard enough that you have to think and work, but easy enough to be fun

The next pitch is steep, overhung, big moves on big holds with the wall now hanging over the climb below us.

Marcello spots a beautiful flower as he is climbing – the Rapunzo – and tells me a story about when he was here with another client.

‘You must look at this beautiful flower, the best in all the Dolomites’  he says to the client.  When he sees the client reach the flower he says ‘look at the flower’.

The clients response

‘@#$% the Rapunzo’

‘No you must look it is very beautiful’

‘@#$% the Rapunzo, @#$% you, @#$% the Rapunzo’

I reach the spot where he had seen the flower, it is steep, exposed, my forearms are burning,

‘Neil, look at the flower’

‘Yes it is beautiful’ I shout back, not having looked yet.  I set my feet and find a good hold and have a look.  Yes, it is an amazingly beautiful flower with a remarkable shape.  ‘yes, I like it, it is pretty’.

The hard climbing finished we do the ramble to the top.

The top, maybe the size of two netball fields.  The view, breathtaking, a phrase that is overused.  Here, on top of the cinque torri, it is as though I have stopped breathing, time has stopped,  the world has stopped.  In every direction there are mountains and cliffs, between, deep valleys.  I feel I am lost in a sea of rock.

Marcelo points out his favourite cliff in the Dolomites – La Tofane.  It is 1,000m high. There is a route he guides up it.  It is very nice he says and there are many pitches where you don’t even have to use your hands.  It is a ramble: 6-8hrs if doing it with a guide, several days if you don’t know the way.  To be guided up that would cost almost double what I am paying per day, or only 50% more if you do several days of guiding with him as I have done.

How do you get off a tower: only by abseil.  First a 25m abseil onto a chockstone between the two tallest towers.  Then a 60m abseil down between the towers – it feels like I am caving or canyoning.  Then another 25m abseil to the ground.

And that is the Cinque Torri.