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The Sella Towers are among the most accessible alpine rock climbs anywhere. A fifteen-minute hike from the Sella Pass
highway gets one to the start of any route on the First Tower. The routes are accordingly popular, and the limestone is
accordingly polished. Still, the climbs are amazingly impressive. The Trenker crack in particular is a route that I
could not read enough about as a kid. (Luis Trenker was a popular climber and film maker in the first half
of the 20th century.) Forty years later I finally climbed it, so never say never.
A word about alpine ratings .
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The Sella Towers from the Sella Pass |
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Party: Dietrich, Paul, and Monique Belitz
Route: Steger/Holzner
Equipment: alpine rack
Time: Start of route - summit 3 hrs
roundtrip from Sella Pass 4 hrs 30 mins
Trip report:
We had just an afternoon on our first day in the Dolomites, and when we climbed the Steger last year (also on our first
half-day) I had been so sick that I could not remember anything of the route, so we decided to do it again. This time we
approached from the South, and found the scramble up to the notch between the `Locomotive' and the First Tower sufficiently
technical that we roped up for the approach pitch. (The technical section proved to be very short, though.) The pitches are
hard to define, and we wound up building anchors rather than using the cemented-in belay pegs, which unnerve us anyway,
as the Europeans don't believe in backups. I led the approach and the first pitch, then Paul linked the second pitch and
most of the third one, which produced some tremendous rope drag that slowed him down to a snail's pace. Monique went second,
and I went third whenever Paul led (we usually climb as a three-person team on two full ropes; we don't climb as a
three-some often enough to warrant learning double-rope technique). On the third pitch the second rope, that Monique had
trailed, but failed to clip into the protection, got hopelessly stuck about thirty feet left of the route, and for quite a
while I seriously thought one of them would have to rappel in order to free it, before I finally managed to shake it loose.
This time I led the crux fourth pitch, which is very well protected even by my wimpy U.S. standards, and really cool. Shortly
thereafter we were united on the summit, and after some summit photos we took the descent rappel/scramble on the East side
back to the pass on our car. We just barely made it to dinner at our Pensione.
A good warmup for the area, and a great family climb.
Party: Paul, Dietrich, and Monique Belitz
Route: Trenker
Equipment: alpine rack
Time:
Trip report:
Party: Paul, Monique, and Dietrich Belitz
Route: Steger/Holzner
Equipment: alpine rack
Time:
Trip report: This was our first route in the Dolomites. Unfortunately, I had caught the flu
on the transatlantic flight, and by the time I got to the top of the first pitch I felt so awful that I happily relinquished
the lead to Paul for the rest of the climb. I know that the crux pitch struck me as kind of cool, flu or no flu, but when
I led it a year later I found that I remembered almost none of it.
Photo Gallery:
Click the pictures to see a higher resolution image.
View of the Marmolada from the approach
Monique on the second pitch
Dietrich approaching the crux
Monique and Dietrich on the summit
Monique and Paul on the summit, Langkofel in background
Monique rappelling
Date: June 24, 2003
Date: June 23, 2003
