New climb on Coston d'Averau (Dolomites) by Michal Coubal, Anna Coubalová, Martin Tučka

Mountains. My strange companions, or rather shadow, that have accompanied me for the greater part of my life. In books one reads that they are a place where people seek peace. There where people run away from others, climbers are to be found, happy, ready to call them their own.

Perhaps because of my, possibly slightly exaggerated, respect for them, I have always viewed these places a little differently. Maybe as a motionless world, absorbed in itself, which I am not always interested in. Only from time to time do I visit this realm, to open a door on a rock face, to enter for a moment and to take in the eternal atmosphere of its walls. Then in my mind I say thank you, and quietly slip away again into the world where I belong.

What I never looked for in the mountains, and yet always found, were the people. Over the years I have had countless climbing experiences. Nevertheless, more often than not I remember not the routes but the people I met through climbing.

For instance the family we once crashed our car into after we had just been robbed of all our money. And they, instead of being mad at us, helped us get our museum exhibit back on the road in a matter of days, gave us money for our trip, and waved goodbye to us like we were a part of their family.

From them we hurried north, to the Rifugio Locateli hut, to Hugo Reider and his dad, who had given us shelter on one of our adventurous expeditions, and who for the last two years of communism had sent money into our account, without which we could not have travelled to the mountains beyond the Iron Curtain.

And also Sergio Matten, a mountaineer and tiler from Agordo, who every evening came to our tent pitched below Monte Agner, just to make our endless waiting for good weather more pleasant and to bring us the latest forecast.

After all this time these are the people I remember most, and it is thanks to them that Italy gradually became a second home to me. But I only got to know these people because of the mountains, which however always gave me the impression that they didn't care about me in the slightest. And so I am all the more pleased that I could spend a few days this year in the Dolomites, in such good company of my daughter Anna and my friend Martin Tučka.

The route Hasta la vista is mostly on solid rock, only the initial and final pitches require a bit of care. It is certainly not a sports climb. Only the belays 2 to 8 have been equipped with one bolt. In order to provide basic safety there are 2 bolts in pitch 2, one bolt each in pitches 3, 4 and 7. A good range of mostly thin pegs, cams and nuts are useful for a repeat.

by Michel Coubal