Alpinists who make the difference: via Stenghel at Torre d'Ambiez by Ivo Ferrari

At the time we trained for the upcoming season in the Dolomites, but only as the years passed did we realise that "perhaps" we should have first gone to the Dolomites to prepare ourselves for Giuliano's routes!

This Saturday the bottle stopped spinning and pointed to a short route Stenghel and China had climbed up the slender Torre d’Ambiéz in the Brenta group. The alarm clock went off early, the appointment was for 6am in the Dolomite car park to drive up to Rifugio Cacciatore by Jeep. Paying for the ride, of course!

The famous Nebbie dell’Ambiéz, the Ambiéz fog, rose early just like we did and the Sun was swallowed by this humidity. We sweated heavily as we made our way from Rifugio Cacciatore to Agostini; there's plenty of snow this year, making the ascent easier while the slide back down would be even greater fun.

Numerous climbers were already at the base of the tower, some on Diedro Armani, others on Via Anna. And we? As often happens, all you need to do is choose a climb which is slightly less popular and you're completely alone. Right from the start the route demonstrated all Giuliano's ability and style, no pegs, logical and decisive. I never talk about difficulties and grades but everyone knows that there are different scales and parameters and... different Alpinists. Giuliano Stenghel is a true one of these!

This explains why, apart from physical fitness ,you need to use your head, make decisions, climb long runout sections from one friend to the next, go on short mental trips... We climbed parallel to others, I heared their voices and the sounds of their "sassi". After ever pitch my hammer sung and makes the belay pegs sing, as usual I was having fun, because I was climbing and because no one was above or below us, we were on an out of fashion classic, that's how I like to think of these routes.

I remember Giuliano recount that when he was on form he weighed hardly anything at all and climbed from belay to belay without much ado... I remember this well and could see it unfold right before me!

We joined numerous other climbers on the summit, an infinite amount of coloured ropes competed to get down first, to the belays we all knew while in the air the scents of women differentiated from those of us men. I'm beginning to think that alpinism is a beautiful sport, obviously if there are women around!

IVO FERRARI 2013
01/07/2013 - Alta Val Masino and Venti Polari di Ivo Ferrari
12/04/2013 - Sperlonga, rock climbing, memories and beauty by Ivo Ferrari
03/01/2013 - Hellzapoppin', a journey through the history of climbing Ivo Ferrari