Technical introduction

Gear

There is no need to use too many words to explain what gear is needed on a climb: every climber has their own personal habits. But every route description in this book includes the gear needed on every specific route.

Weather

It is possible to consult the weather forecast on the following websites: www.meteoam.it - www.ilmeteo.it www.meteo.it - www.3bmeteo.it

Advice And Recommendations

The majority of the routes described here have been repeated by us. For the remaining itineraries we have directly asked the route openers or the alpinists who have climbed the route. We have tried to write this guide book as carefully as possible, repeating as many of the routes as possible, however this does not guarantee that the text does not contain some inaccuracies and some incomplete information. We apologize in advance and invite readers-climbers to notify us of any inaccuracies through the publisher’s addresses to help us improve the next edition.

Mountain Rescue

Mountain Rescue is active in the region of Trentino-South Tyrol. If you need their assistance call the phone number 118.

Evaluation Of The Routes

To classify the routes as completely as possible, we have used the extended grading system which does not differentiate the general effort required on a route (the environment, the distance from the valley floor, the length of the route, the psychological effort) from the effort relative to placing protection and the distance between protections. All this has to be considered separately from the technical difficulties, commonly expressed using the French or UIAA grading system.

We thus have three parameters to take into consideration and three different grading systems to use together with the route’s description: technical difficulty, protectability, overall effort.

To get a precise idea of a route it will therefore be necessary to use all three of them together, because each one used separately will not give sufficient information to the climber who wishes to repeat the route.

Technical Difficulty

S1 Normal protection system such as on cliffs. Average distance between bolts: 3,4 metres. Potential length of fall: some metres; fall without danger.

S2 Distant bolts and compulsory passages from one bolt to another. Potential length of fall: a maximum of 10 metres; fall without danger.

S3 Distant bolts, almost always compulsory passages. A distance of sometimes more than 5 metres between bolts. Long falls but not very dangerous.

S4 Very distant bolts (more than 7 metres), compulsory passages. A fall can potentially cause an injury.

R1 Easy to protect, always solid, safe and numerous protections. Few compulsory passages. Potential length of fall: some metres; fall without danger.

R2 Fairly easy to protect, always solid and safe protections, smaller in number. Compulsory passages between protections. Potential length of fall: some metres; fall without danger.

R3 Difficult to protect, not always good protections, bolts rather distant from each other. Long compulsory passages. Potential length of fall until 7-8 metres, fall with possible injury.

R4 Difficult to protect, scarce and/or unreliable and/or distant protections which could allow just a small fall. Long compulsory passages. Potential length of fall until 15 metres with possibility of losing the anchors. Fall with a high possibility of injury.

S5 Bolts more than 10 metres apart, compulsory passages and parts where a fall can surely cause an injury (fall on terraces and ledges or directly to the ground).

S6 Partially bolted but far from cruxes, long parts (more than 20 metres) from which a fall could be mortal.

Overall Features

I Short route just taking a few hours, near the road and with a comfortable approach track, nice surrounding and easy downclimb.

II Multi-pitch route on a wall of more than 200 metres of length, easy approach track, rather long, easy downclimb.

III Long route of more than 300 metres that will take all day long, difficult surrounding. Long approach track and rather slow downclimb.

IV Very long route of more than 500 metres, on severe wall far away from the bottom of the valley. It will take you all day long and the downclimb might be complicated, as you can‘t climb down the same route.

R5 Difficult to protect, scarce, unreliable and/or distant protections, which could allow just a small fall. Long compulsory passages. Possibility of long falls that might lead to the ground with consequent serious injuries.

R6 Not possible to protect but for short and insignificant passages far from cruxes. A fall could be mortal.

V Very long route, big wall style, requires a bivvi on the wall. Difficult downclimb, difficult surrounding.

VI Big wall which requires more days on the walls, High Mountain surrounding, difficult downclimb.

VII All the features of the 6th grade, but exasperated, such as on big walls in the Himalayas, which need a real expedition.

Technical Difficulties

The French grading system was used for the bolted routes and sports routes while the UIAA grading system was used for the alpine routes which are protected mainly with pegs. For each route the highest difficulty is described as well as the obligatory grade.

Protectibilty

We have used a grading system which takes into account the distance and reliability of the anchor points using the letter “S” in the case of bolted routes and the letter “R” in the case of routes which use pegs or routes which are not equipped. For any mixed routes the letter “RS” was used.

Overall Effort

This grading system replaces the French grading system (TD, ED..) the following aspects are taken into consideration when evaluating the route’s overall effort, the environment in which the climbing is carried out in, the difficulty in re- treating and the distance from the valley floor. It is basically the American grading system used on big walls, expressed with Roman numerals from I to VII (open scale) together with the technical difficulties. As you can tell from the table, the grades are totally independent from the difficulties, which will therefore always be used with the Roman numeral.

Photos

Each photograph is associated with a description that includes the name of the person who took the photo.

Topos

All opos have abbreviations.

• ch Peg

• cl Rock tunnel

• sp Rock spike

• X Bolt

If you ask me why I climb you will never understand my answer

Peter Boardman

The peak of Pisciadù, 2985m, rises on the north face of the group at the end of the vast Mesule plateau. Near the peak the Torre del Pisciadù rises with its imposing east face. At the base of the peak lies the mountain hut Rifugio Franco Cavazza al Pisciadù, situated in a vast flat area, beyond it the beautiful rock faces visible from the road which connects Passo Gardena to Corvara; this is the eastern wall of Pisciadù with Torre Colfosco and the Western Wall with Torre Brunico. This face is carved out by the steep Val Setus and the well known Tridentina ferrata runs across it; both lead to Rifugio Pisciadù.

Rifugio Franco Cavazza al Pisciadù

+39 0471 836292 +39 335 6096141 01.

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