Monte Nero di Presanella new climb by Santiago Padrós, Francesco Rigon

I learnt that conditions were good on Monte Nero di Presanella, so I decided to repeat one of its beautiful climbs, such as Rolling Stones or Wind of Change. But while looking at the photos I came up with a somewhat illogical idea... so why not?

I wrote to Francesco Rigon - he’s always keen for something new - and we immediately packed a few more cams and a lot of pegs and even more rope. Obviously we weren’t sure of what to expect, but we knew from having repeated Diretta Solitudine five years ago that Monte Nero holds some great rock and offers plenty of good pro.

At 8:00 in the morning we are ready to start climbing. I led the first pitch and from the start of Couloir del H we climbed directly upwards across exceptional frozen slabs. The conditions were great, hard frozen snow, let's call it Alpine Ice "AI".

We progressed easily, pro was sufficient. We climbed across open terrain and up fantastic gullies. The 4th pitch was perhaps the most difficult, it started with a leftwards traverse towards the icy slabs, then continued up a fairly steep gully for a few meters that didn’t accept much pro (we recommend you place a good peg here!).

Pitch 5 proved a bit spicy, too, even if the protection was somewhat better; after a long traverse right in continued up a narrow, vertical gully with excellent ice. Towards the end of the pitch it continued rightwards to a corner, past some frozen turf that reminded me of my origins in the Spanish Pyrenees.

The climb continued up other beautiful pitches, always up frozen gullies. We were even spoiled for choice, just like last year on the north face of Monte Pelf in the Dolomites! At the end we joined the north ridge of Monte Nero, from here we climbed one more pitch on easy mixed terrain to the summit at 3344m.

Most of the pitches were 60 meters long. We left a peg on the traverse on pitch 4 and several slings on spikes, used for protection or for belays.

Descend by abseil via  Diretta solitudine or reach, just before the last pitch, the col exit of Couloir dell’H, then follow the recommended descent of this route. In order to repeat IllogiKa you’ll need a set of Cams up to blue BD (2 x medium sizes), 3-4 pegs and slings for the spikes.

by Santiago Padrós

TOPO: Illogika, Monte Nero di Presanella

LINK:All routes on Monte Nero di Presanella in the planetmountain.com database

Santi Padrós thanks Trango World, AKU, www.dolomismo.com
Francesco Rigon thanks Karpos

Note: An old peg was found on pitch 2, at present it is unclear whether it belongs to an old attempt or to a summer route. According to initial research it seems to belongs to the route established in July 1964 by S. Calzà, G. Emanuelli and R. Mandelli.