Maja Vidmar and her first multi-pitch climb in the Dolomites

24 HOURS IN THE DOLOMITES by Maja Vidmar

I had a long competition career that ended this year. Now, no longer bound to the demanding competition circuit, I am finally free to explore climbing in all its forms… so why not, I asked myself, try a multi-pitch route?

This summer I finally realized my idea of climbing in the Italian Dolomites. I picked up my  "dream team" and next day we were already on our way, destination Tre Cime di Lavaredo.

My boyfriend Anze had been busy in summer due to preparations with the Slovenia Youth Climbing team for the upcoming World Youth Championship in Arco. So until that competition we would only have one day off to climb together. We asked his parents Andrej and Maria for ideas seeing that they are both expert alpinists  and mountain guides. The four of us would have created a perfect combination: two sport climbers with no experience in multi-pitch climbing, jointing forces with two alpinists, with lots of experience in the mountains but slightly less strong at the crags.

We left home at 3 am and I slept almost all the way. When I opened my eyes I was deeply impressed with a landscape: three majestic rock towers rising straight up into the sky. I was awake in a second.

We began climbing the steep north face up the Comici - Dimai route. The funny thing was that climbing the hardest pitches was easy for me, but I "struggled" on the easier pitches , because my legs weren’t that well trained…😜. This was my first time on a route without bolts, which needed protecting with nuts and Friends. Naturally the process was made more simple by having the two mountain guides close to me. Some sections were wet and scary, but surprisingly the higher and more exposed it got, the more fun I had. In the back of my mind I kept asking myself what would happen were I to fall, but in truth I was never too scared simply because the route was way below my limit and I had everything under control.

After an entire day’s climbing we made the short scramble from the end of the route to the top of Cima Grande. The view from the summit was amazing so we took some photos and then quickly started our descent. This posed the next challenge: abseiling down. But once again our team worked perfectly, Andrej and Marija did all the rope maneuvers and just before the dark we returned to our car.

We were pleasantly tired but I was so psyched that I managed to drive all the way home. This time it was all the others who slept 😀 . We stumbled through our house door at 3 am and finished our 24 raid in the Dolomites.

This experience was great and I’m really looking forward to my next adventure. This will start in the middle of October, a trek in Nepal.

by Maja Vidmar

Maja Vidmar thanks her sponsors S.C.A.R.P.A. and C.A.M.P.

TOPO: Comici - Dimai, Cima Grande, Tre Cime di Lavaredo, Dolomites


17/10/2012 - Maja Vidmar climbing interview
Interview with Slovenia's Maja Vidmar, one of the strongest sports climbers in the world.