Alpine Logistics

This is one of Gran Paradiso’s best known peaks amongst rock climbers. You can see it from the valley floor; a vertical, golden slab of granite perched on the eastern side of Piantonetto valley. It is home to a series of classic climbs, all trad style, although many have some pitons in place from the first ascents in the 1950’s.

The mountain is 3360m high but the face itself is only 250m….the approach is long. Usually this is achieved in 2hrs30mins from Rifugio Pontese but since we had to be back home by 6 o’clock the day of the climb we chose an alternative approach.

The night before we marched for two hours up and across the mountain-side with tent, food and climbing gear in our packs. When we reached the base of the boulder and scree slope under the wall we pitched our tent and prepared our gear for an early start the next day.

We got there just in time to see two hikers descending from a near-by col to the refuge. Soon after the last rays of sun left the mountains on the other side of the valley but it was still light…I thought how fantastic these long summer days are.

The alarm went off at 6am. The sky was clear, it was freezing and covered in frost outside the tent so we quickly got up and headed towards the sun, which had just dawned at the top of our east-facing rock face.

Boulders, steep scree and a final section of scrambling lead to the base of the routes. We were there to do Conto Fino a Zero, a popular classic near the right side of the wall. Apart from an exposed and slabby first pitch the rest is all about jamming up cracks of varying widths…Manuel led the hardest pitch of 6b+; a very thin finger crack where you have to choose whether to use the larger slots to protect yourself or as holds!

Around midday we reached the top just as some clouds had started to form. The wind had also picked up and the temperature dropped. The descent for all the climbs on the face is preferably down the bolted abseils on the climb we had done, so we gratefully threw down the ropes and descended in four rappels.

We had to concentrate as we down-scarmbled the initial section back to terra ferma but the boulders and scree below made for a relatively rapid descent back to our tent. The rest of the valley was still basking in the midday sun.

The descent back to the car with our heavy packs was long and my knees didn’t thank me. When we got down I looked back up at our peak and found it hard to believe we had done all that in less than a day.

Becco della Tribolazione had inspired me several autumns ago from the valley floor whilst climbing in Valle dell’Orco. I was informed that it would have to wait until the summer since late in the season it gets too cold and then snow covers its base until late spring.

Finally I had been up there to climb it…what a day!