Remote icefall climbed on Becca des Arbiére in Italy's Aosta valley

On Saturday 27 January François Cazzanelli, Stefano Stradelli and Giuseppe Vidoni ha planned something completely different but, given the high temperatures, the trio chose to climb higher than usual and take a closer look at Becca des Arbiér in the Saint-Barthélemy valley. They ended up establishing La Cascata dell'Arbiére, at an altitude of 3000 metres, a "not particularly difficult outing, located in the wild high mountains, with a complex and long approach."

When asked for further details, Cazzanelli told planetmountain "It's located in a very beautiful, wild valley, one of the most beautiful not only in the Aosta Valley in my opinion. I'd noticed the line while training with my cousin Stefano, and so we decided to go and see it up close.

From a technical point of view the route is actually nothing special, two pitches of WI4, which would probably be super popular if somewhere different, but since they are way up there I don't think the route will get many repeats.

Actually, the ski mountaineering approach is very complex, you first have to follow the long cross-country piste up to Rifugio Magià, and from here you tackle more than 1000m of altitude gain past some fairly challenging couloirs, in a really wild setting where you can only venture when the snow pack is stable.

Bearing all this in mind, it's clear that if one wants to do a pure ice climb, this isn't it. But the beauty is in the entire package, in the full day out in the mountains: starting at night, skating on the cross-country track, skinning up a thousand-odd meters, then finally the route that offers a pleasant climb, then all the way back down again. It's not an undertaking in the true sense of the word, but when you explore such beautiful new places, the grade and length of the route take a backseat. We really enjoyed the day."

Cazzanelli thanks: La Sportiva, Cervinia-Valtournenche, Garmin, Grivel, Julbo, Ski Trab