Dolomites rock climbing: new outing above Val Gardena in Geisler group

Although virgin rock in the Dolomites is few and far between, and finding a beautiful unclimbed line is no mean task, for those wishing to walk that little bit further into lesser known areas there are still numerous possibilities. Matteo Vintager and I were both keen on climbing something new and so whenever we were out and about we always kept a lookout for untouched rock, and followed this up by studying the guidebooks. We finally struck gold on Sas dla Porta, the mountain to the east of the Sas Rigais, where we stumbled across a 350 m face, both steep and beautiful, with no route through the central section. We immediately wanted to see what it was about and made our first attempt in summer 2014.

At the time neither of us had ever established a new route before and as we set off we knew we were pretty inexperienced. The first 100 meters happened to be the most difficult: at times past dubious rock, always overhanging. I took the lead and slowly inched my way upwards; with no corner of obvious crack to follow, every meter needed to be analysed carefully in order to locate the handholds and find pockets to place some Friends. It took quite a while for me to find a suitable belay. Unfortunately the weather worsened and it soon started to rain. We abseiled to the base and descended back down to the valley, not particularly convinced that we wanted to continue our route.

About a month later, however, we returned. I climbed back up the first pitch and from the belay studied the wall above me. Compact and yellow, it certainly didn’t look easy. I climbed leftwards but got stuck below a small roof, clipped into a skyhook. As I searched for holds I put my hand into a huge pocket and removed a wedged stone, which revealed a beautiful thread. This piece of pro gave me the confidence and courage I needed to continue. I slowly managed to climb this overhanging pitch, placing some Friends in some hidden pockets and hammering in two pegs where the angle eased off for a belay. All that was missing now was the final overhang, we could already make out the grey slabs above where we hoped things would become easier. I tried twice to breach the overhang but failed, my arms and mind were spent and in the end we decided to rappel and return another day.

Two years passed before we wanted to test ourselves on that face again. In summer 2016 we returned extremely keen on finally completing the project. We placed some pegs and used some aid climbing to get over the roof, and this opened the doors upwards. Three pitches up beautiful slabs past stupendous rock led to the summit and although we were lost in the clouds, we felt content.

As soon as we descend back down into the valley though I started thinking about the new route, in particular about pitches two and three which we’d climbed with the use of aid. It was obvious in my mind that we’d have to return and try to to free them.

Another two years went by, but this summer we finally returned to Sas dla Porta and we managed to free the second and third pitch and felt that it was a great climb, we’d remembered it less beautiful that it actually was. We shook hands at the top, our smiles revealing our joy. Unfortunately we were in the fog once again and couldn’t see a thing.

Seeing that whenever we climbed this route we became shrouded in fog, we decided to name the route Nuvole Bianche, white clouds.

by Aaron Moroder

TOPO: Nuvole Bianche, Sas dla Porta, Dolomites