Dani Moreno, a successful summer in the Dolomites

My first visit to Dolomites this year was in July with Dani Fuertes. We had been climbing at Ceüse but because of the poor weather we decided to move elsewhere. It didn't take much to persuade him to head for Dolomites where last year I'd sent Pan Aroma. I had my sights set on Bellavista, we arrived on the 23rd and on the 24th we were already up there, trying the crux pitch (8b+). Just once though, because the humidity was terrible; I failed to figure out one of crucial moves on the lower section of this pitch.

We returned the next day, the humidity wasn't somewhat better and this really motivated us. Our plan was for me to try the crux and, if I failed, Dani would give it a go. So off I went... using the sequence Dani suggested I didn't fall on the difficult move low down and although really nervous I managed to reach the belay. The next pitch is hard, 8a, but I managed to onsight this and link it to the next 7a.

At this point things became stressful since the next two pitches were very, very wet, like a waterfall, and I didn't know if we'd be able to climb past it all. It was like a déjà vu because last year, after sending the 8b+ and 8c on Pan Aroma, I was forced to abseil off for exactly this reason, so I really didn't want to do the same again. We had to get up, no matter what! After some scary moments we reached the big ledge, shared by the Cassin Route, and we followed this to the summit which we reached after 9 hours... Bellavista was in the bag! Two days later we climbed both Hasse Brandler up Cima Grande and Gelbe Mauer put up by Stefan Glowacz and Kurt Albert on Cima Piccola, to make our summit hattrick!

After a trip to the Frankenjura and Voralpsee I returned to the Dolomites in mid-August with Alejandro Giménez. On our first day we decided to try the famous Camillotto Pellisier established back in 1967 by the brothers Enrico Mauro and Mirko Minuzzo with 9 bivies! The route runs up the very steep Cima Grande and is protected by plenty of pegs and pressure bolts. I managed to onsight all the hardest pitches and redpointed the rest, and now that some sequences are clean I agree that the grades are slightly easier, as suggested by Stephanie Bodet and Arnaud Petit. It's certainly an excellent, three star route, really worth repeating!

On our final day we decided try Akut, put up by Kurt Astner and Urban Ties in August 2000. It's a more modern route, with some runouts between the bolts and pegs. The 8a crux pitch climbs through an impressive roof that I managed to onsight. We reached the big ledge, circa 80m below the summit, after 8 hours. It's another incredible route and those two fantastic days rounded off an excellent trip!

Dani Moreno
After redpointing up to 9a and onsighting up to 8b+, the 2010 Spanish vice-champion has recently shifted his attention away from pure sports climbing and devoted more time to alpine multi-pitches in the Mont Blanc massif, the Wendenstöcke, Riglos, Naranjo de Bulnes and Dolomites.