Aaron Durogati and Simon Gietl climb & fly Mount Rauchkofel North Face

On Sunday 29th November Simon Gietl and I established a new line up the north face of Rauchkofel, high up in the Zillertal Alps in the South Tyrol. Thanks to the excellent conditions on the north faces and due to the stable weather Simon and I recently climbed and paraglided off Antelo, Wasserkopf and Hochgall, combining the beauty of a climb with the pleasure of paragliding back down to valley. And it was Simon, clearly an expert of this Pustertal area, who came up with the idea of ​​trying the north face of Rauchkofel which, as far as we know, had never been climbed before.

After meeting at Sand in Taufers at 6 on Sunday morning, we started our approach with fairly light rucksacks despite our paragliders weighing about 2 kg; we’d saved a little weight on just about everything else. Once at the base of the wall we followed a logical ramp then began the ascent proper. After the ramp, ice sections and rock bands alternated as we made our way up the ridge towards the summit.

Flying off the summit is practically impossible as there’s no place to open the canopy, but after descending the ridge we found a slope that enabled us to take off.

The flight was a bit turbulent at times due to the north wind, but after just a few minutes we landed close to Sand in Taufers, super happy for the amazing adventure together.

by Aaron Durogati

Mount Rauchkofel - Lee
Grade: M5
Height: 500m
Gear: a set of Friends & pegs. No gear was left in-situ.

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