Simon Gietl, first winter ascents in the Dolomites

After last year's first winter ascent of Pressknödel on Cima Ovest, Tre Cime di Lavaredo, this year Simon Gietl decided to carry out a couple of first winter ascents in the Dolomites, namely the routes ISO 2000 (8+, Kurt Astner and Kurt Brugger) on Cima Ovest and Zauberlehling on Cima Scotoni. The Sorcerer's Apprentice was established by Christoph Hainz and Oswald Celva (and first climbed alone by Pietro dal Prà) and Gietl had already climbed these 750m in 2006 with his brother prior to the winter ascent at the start of March with Klaus Gruber.


WINTER ASCENTS IN THE DOLOMITES
by Simon Gietl

When I returned from my Patagonia expedition which resulted in the new route Let's get wild (600m, 7a, 90°) up Aguja Guillaumet, all I wanted to do was climb in the Dolomites once again and so on 22 January Daniel Tavernini and I climbed the route ISO 2000 on the Tre Cime di Lavaredo. We were the only ones there, the temperatures were fairly wintery and it was then that I thought about giving Zauberlehrling a go, but this time in winter. For me this route represents the quintessence of demanding alpine climbing! And last Saturday afternoon I stood on the summit of Cima Scotoni along with Klaus Gruber, delighted, after 2 1/2 days of climbing. We bivied on the second ledge and while I redpointed the 9- pitch, I took one fall off the crux and didn't redpoint it. Conditions were good, there was some snow on the first and second ledges but apart from this the route was clean. Fantastic!