Brenta Dolomites: new mixed climb on Castello di Vallesinella by Marco Cordin, Martino Piva

We're heading towards the legendary Princess winter crag with a few friends and the music playing when I catch up with Martinz and ask him if he has seen the line on the opposite face. Logical, elegant and short. It has all the prerequisites that we like, so on New Year's Eve we take one of the first lifts and walk up slowly.

The route begins with two very particular ice pitches: it traverses, across a fairly narrow ramp of ice, past a crazy cave in the middle from which the ice spurts out. When we reach the belay of the second pitch we're greeted with a little surprise that we certainly weren't expecting, a bolted belay right below the crack we're aiming at.

We decide it makes no difference, whether the route has been climbed before or not, we're here to have fun. And perhaps the thought that someone has already climbed the line helps made us climb with the tranquil mindset you have when you're repeating something. We climb one meter after the next up an excellent crack that takes plenty of natural gear, onsight all the way to the top. Only a few days later will we discover that the bolted belay had been added by Andrea Speziali, who had climbed the central drip and stopped at that point.

What we'd climbed seemed like a crazy route to us, which is why we highly recommend it and are sure it will prove to be a highly satisfying outing. The difficulties we've put forward are fairly sort, perhaps excessively so, but we opted for some generous grades, which are needed these days...

by Marco Cordin