Königsspitze West Face for Ivo Ferrari

I set off late at night from Lecco, sleepy faces, desire nil ... but then, you know how it is, once you get going, everything changes: people wide awake, unstoppable drive to get things done!

We left the car in the parking lot at Forni. Turned on our head torches and off we went, towards the day still obscured by the night. I protect my hands with gloves, it's cold and I'm happy… we reach Rifugio Pizzini that we hastily illuminate with torches, inside there’s a dimmering light that reminds us that in a few hours the ski mountaineering "folk" will start their day.

The line we want to climb today is still distant, the hard packed snow helps us to speed along. The "real" light reaches us in the middle of the glacier, just before Passo delle Pale Rosse: finally our mountain reveals herself in all her beauty.

We head down to the west, into that silence that these isolated places have... we quickly begin to climb along the line first climbed in 2011 close by Maestri, Colombo and Chiesa.

An icy pearl, hidden behind a bastion of rock, marks the clear line upwards. Paolo "resolves" it masterfully,we pack the rope (which we’ll use on the upper part) and begin to climb. The "high" altitude, for those who like us live at sea level, begins to make itself felt. It’s biting cold but the day is crystal clear and we dimly have to take in the panorama…

The mountaineering I love is the classic one, the one I, so to speak, am best at, and the quest for classic lines that have unjustly been forgotten about always fascinates me. Such as this one established recently, that takes a logical line in an area known only for the Canale delle Pale... but it’s a really great climb!

The last meters of hard snow we settle on the Cresta Northwest passing through the huge frames of the summit ... carefully and with the weariness of the ride just made we come to the Cross, highest elevation of a Top Beautiful and more ...

The descent becomes an ordeal: ski mountaineers overtake us to the left and right, while we descend slowly... what a fantastic day out, together with a Friend, serious and skillful, interested in discovering and rediscovering hidden corners of our beautiful mountains.

by Ivo Ferrari