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The Delago Tower, one of the three Vaiolet Towers, on the right. On the left, the East and North Towers.
In the best of Alpine company The two Alpine Associations, the Bergler and the Tschamintaler, are wholeheartedly devoted to climbing and mountaineering, and they know every stone in the Catinaccio region. Tires is the door to the Dolomites for both clubs, and the point from which they set out on myriad climbing tours.
W
hen an elderly gentleman spor ting a windcheater and a ruddy complexion walked into the hostelry in Bolzano where we had arranged to meet, I could tell at a glance that it was my interviewee, Rochus Oehler. Mountain climbers are never hard to recognise; they have something more than just a fresh-air glow. Rochus Oehler is President of the Bergler Alpine Association, whose members have chalked up over 100 first ascents in the Sciliar-Catinaccio re-
gion alone. He follows in the footsteps of the wellknown mountain climber Otto Eisenstecken, who died in 2004 and was on the Bergler board from 1967 until 2000.
The history of mountain climbing in the Alps. In the early days of mountaineering, towards the end of the Middle Ages, it was mainly academics and scientists who began to climb low-lying summits for fun and out of interest. Prior to that, the only people who took to the slopes were hunters Âť
Text: Katja Sanin Photo: Helmuth Rier
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The Bergler hut has been the set-off point for their climbing expeditions since 1923.
or those who needed to cross the mountain passes. The prospect of climbing the mountains out of an interest in flora or fauna, in geology or in climbing for climbing’s sake was unimaginable. Even the first ascent of the highest mountain in the Alps, Mont Blanc, in 1876, was more of a scientific nature than a “fun” expedition. However, it certainly laid the foundations for the battle with the mountains. The Golden Age of mountaineering in the Alps was around the middle of the 19th century, when the principal mountains in the Western Alps were first conquered. At this time, the first Mountaineering Association was also founded. The hub of Alpine exploration at this time was Switzerland: the small country nestled in the Alps became the most popular holiday destination in Europe, attracting high society from foreign lands who were drawn by the allure of the mountains. The Dolomite summits at that time were not considered high enough to be of interest. The opening up of the Eastern Alps and
mountain climbing in the Dolomites began at the end of the 19th century with the first ascent of the 3,168m high Monte Pelmo in the Ampezzo Dolomites, while it was the German and Austrian Alpine Association who first addressed the fact that the Dolomite Mountains could be accessed more easily by mountain climbers if there were a trafficable route leading to them; at that time, although the Ega Road had been in existence since 1860 and the Carezza Pass since 1896, the higher routes were paved only with gravel or dirt roads. The man who organised the building of the Dolomite road was the passionate mountaineer and pioneer Dr Theodor Christomannos, and it was this that led directly to the tourist development in the Dolomite Valleys. The old road to Tires was built in 1811, and with it the village of Tires inherited a vital role in the development of climbing in the mountains of South Tyrol – it became the Door to the Dolomites. At the end
Dwarf Laurin’s kingdom There are countless tales, myths and sagas surrounding the Catinaccio. It was here that the Dwarf King Laurin reigned over his subjects and darkened the land with a curse. High up in the grey rocks of the Catinaccio, where today lies only barren screeland over the “court”, King Laurin’s Rose Garden once bloomed. The Dwarf King Laurin had abducted
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the King’s daughter Similde, and, as he led her into his Kingdom the swaying of the roses revealed his position to the king’s loyal men. When captured, he cried “These roses have betrayed me! May they never bloom again, neither by day nor by night” In the heat of his curse, he forgot to mention dawn or dusk! And so it came that the roses of the moun-
tain bloom in all their glory at daybreak and dusk, when the rocks glow red. In the far distant past when it was still submerged in water, the Catinaccio knew another lifetime as a coral reef. Today it is a diamond of the nat ural beauty of the Dolomites and since 2009 it has been, along with most of the Dolomites, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Bergler hut book.
of the 19th century, the first mountain refuge huts began to spring up with the Bergamo hut, the Vajolet hut and the Fronza alle Coronelle hut leading the way. These soon proved to be too small to cope with demand and were extended to their present-day size before the outbreak of World War 1. The first refuge in the Catinaccio was the Bergamo hut, built in 1887 on the request of Johann Santner from the Leipzig section of the German Alpine Association. From there, one could ascend the highest summit, the 3,004m Catinaccio of Antermoia, in just two hours. In 1888/89, Johann Santner, together with a few mountain climbers from Bolzano and from abroad, founded the Tschamintaler Association while, rounded up by the brothers Johann and Alois Villgrattner at the turn of the century, a group of experienced climbers struck while the iron was hot and founded a Mountain Guide Association. The same Alois Villgrattner, together with Johann Santner, opened what would come to be known as the Santner Pass on 19 June 1878, making the Catinaccio accessible from the Tires side. Given that it was only the affluent who ventured into the mountains at that time, the mountain guides and porters earned a small fortune. A tour from Tires to the summit of the Catinaccio, for example, cost 14-16 guilders, while in comparison a manual worker earned at the most half a guilder a day. However, only the best of the best, such as
Franz Schroffenegger and Franz Wenter, were able to make a living from mountain guiding alone. The latter was also a member of the Bergler Association founded in 1914 and a name which, like Otto Eisenstecken, never fails to come up in conversations about the Dolomites such as myself and Rochus Oehler are enjoying now. Before World War 1, Schroffenegger and Wenter climbed numerous difficult routes in the Catinaccio area: the first ascent of the north-west face of the Delago Tower, the north-west face and the east face of the Sella, the east face of the Roda di Vaèl and the difficult North route of the Laurino face are all credited to them.
Climber’s paradise Catinaccio. “After the Se cond World War, it was Otto Eisenstecken who heralded the new era of mountain climbing, with his firsts of the Roda di Vaèl, the west face of the Laurin, the main tower of the Vajolet and so many more” explains Rochus Oehler. And after the outlawing of associations during the Fascist period in the 1920’s and the turmoil of the war years, it was Eisenstecken, he relates, who, finally brought the Bergler Association back to public life at the end of the war. “To this day, we meet every Thursday at our table in the Hanny Hotel”, says Rochus Oehler. And there they sit and talk, with joy and pride, over the many traditions that have been in existence for hundreds of years. Thursdays were not chosen without good reason; in days gone by, »
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Both climbing associations are closely connected with the Catinaccio and carry out numerous association activities which reach far beyond the Catinaccio and the Dolomites. For the Bergler from Bolzano, the Catinaccio was practically on the doorstep and for the Tschamintaler group it is their home mountain. The Bergler in earlier times would
the Wenter peaks. The construction of the Bergler hut lasted from 1921 to 1923 and, during the fascist era, as German culture was outlawed in the region, it became a secret headquarters where one could shake off the constraints of Fascism for a while and sing their own songs in their own German language. And so they remained, undiscovered, until the prohibition of Associations was repealed in 1943. Unlike their Bergler counterparts, the Tschamintaler Association do not meet up every Thursday but, aside from association concerns, only once a year for an AGM – as do the Berglers. As the wife of one of the 17 members of the association, I had the honour of attending this year’s AGM, to which women were also invited. We met close to the Bergler hut; a few people came straight from an ice-climbing expedition, and others walked up the path leading to the Haniger hut. As we sat around the table, I gave all those present a piece of paper and a pen to write down their favourite climbing routes of the Catinaccio. Green as I am in the subject, only then did I discover that in the Catinaccio area, quite aside from the well-known routes of the Catinaccio of Antermoia, Laurenzi, Masaré and the Santner Pass, which are accessible to any practiced climber, there are as many climbing tours as there is sand on the beach. Practically everybody chose a different route. The only tour that was “doubled” was exactly the one that my
take the train to Prato Isarco and then cycle on to Tires, where they slept in haylofts and set off on their expeditions early the next morning. Tales of climbers being unceremoniously kicked out by the farmers of the area, led to the building of a refuge hut at the foot of the Laurin face for the ascent of
interviewee Rochus Oehler picked when I asked him about his favourite climb at the end of our talk – the route which Otto Eisenstecken climbed on 2 September 1946, the grade 4 west face of the Croda di Re Laurino, which went on to become known as the Eisenstecken route. n
there were no smart phones to keep each other up to date, no text messages, and no WhatsApp, and so the climbers met in person every Thursday to plan their tours for the coming weekend. The First World War broke the routine of the climbers and brought a shadow over the years to come, both for the history and the development of Europe. The Tschamintaler Alpine Association disbanded completely at that time; it was re-founded in 1959 by five climbers from Tires: Markus Villgrattner, Toni Trompedeller, Sepp Robatscher, Albert Robatscher and Günther Pattis. This association today has 17 members and a young member waiting to join who, when he reaches eighteen, will be the youngest member of the association.
The Berglers’ private hut with a view over the Bolzano valley.
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