Pizzo Badile Corti-Battaglia first winter ascent by David Hefti, Marcel Schenk

In mid-January, Simone Porta and I completed the fourth winter ascent of the British route on the east face of the Pizzo Badile. We were the first team to climb the route in a single day in winter and I realised that conditions were extremely good.

I arranged to climb with David Hefti for 3 days at the beginning of February. We'd already climbed some some difficult projects together in the past and we work well as a team. Seeing that this winter it still hadn't properly snowed yet, and working as a mountain guide has proved difficult, or even impossible depending on the region, David thought my suggestion of trying the Corti-Battaglia route was a great idea.

The route was first ascended on 17 and 18 August 1953 by Claudio Corti and Felice Battaglia. Battaglia was struck by lightning on the second day and fell to his death. Corti reached the summit alone and subsequently named the route after his climbing partner.

There is not much information about the route, however there are conflicting topos. Since this was the first route on this face and it was climbed with gear used in 1953, we assumed that the first ascensionists had followed the line of weakest resistance and that we'd be able to follow this.

After exchanging a few Whatsapp messages we met on Monday, February 13th in the Engadin and drove to Bergell together. We then carried our gear towards the foot of the wall, however this proved somewhat strenuous; there was little snow and we had to carry the skis and all the gear a long way. We were understandably relieved and confident when we reached the comfort of the winter room in the late afternoon. The next morning the alarm clock rang at 3:00 am and we woke up slightly whacked. After an invigorating cup of coffee, we set off shortly after 3.30 am towards the base of the route. The night was starry, nothing could be heard except our own breathing and the crunching of the snow with every step we took. After two and a half hours we reached the Bergschrund and geared up with crampons and ice axes, and tied-in.

After another hour we reached the start of our route proper. Night gave way to dawn and the first pitch immediately tested us. We made good progress and, swinging leads, we reached the point where the British route continues straight up and our route branches off to the left. Up to this point the route line had been obvious. Now we entered new terrain. David dealt with the traverse on pitch four. I watched him from the belay and realised from watching him move that the climbing wasn't easy. As I climbed up, I comprehended once again why I climb routes like these with David. The climb is almost vertical, the ice axe had good hooks, but there are only a few smears for the crampons to bight into. Luckily it was possible to place good pro in a crack and David had found a solid belay.

The next pitches led us over icy slabs and corners towards the summit. A distinctive peg, placed during the first ascent and mentioned in all descriptions, provided us with the certainty that we were on the right route.

We were excited about the climbing and enjoyed the very demanding ascent. Various difficult sections awaited us on the upper part of the wall, including two consecutive pitches that are among the very best I've ever climbed. A crescent shaped corner brought us to the base of a vertical chimney filled with ice. Demanding climbing, which we managed to protect with good trad gear, made our mountaineer hearts beat faster.

We'd been on the go for more than 13 hours when we reached the east ridge at 4:00 pm, circa 50 vertical meters and about half an hour below the true summit. The sun shone on our faces beaming with joy, and we savoured this short, very intense moment. We had two hours of daylight and a challenging descent still awaited us. Because of this we decided not to proceed to the summit. This decision was not an easy one to take, however, we knew what the conditions were like and knew fullwell that the descent would once again require us to remain fully concentrated.

After a short break we started the descent over the Cengalo Col back to our ski stash at the base of the Cengalo Couloir. The evening atmosphere was heavenly and it soon got dark. We reached Bondo at around 7:30 p.m. and a short while later we celebrated our ascent with a beer at the petrol station.

We are thrilled by what our home mountains have to offer. We came across six pegs along the entire route, most of which were placed by the first ascensionists. For us it's crystal clear that the best adventures and challenges can be found right on our doorstep, and that we want to make the most of the current lack of snow. For this all it takes is some patience and creativity, and no plane ticket to the other end of the world.

by Marcel Schenk

Info: govertical.ch