Tre Cime Enchainment Integral - Micha Rinn, Christian Bickel complete first Skyline Traverse

Sitting in front of Locatelli hut a few years ago and looking at the fantastic panorama of the north faces of Tre Cime, I noticed a line that still fascinates me today: the skyline of all the peaks from pass to pass – from the western Forcella Col di Mezzo over all nine visible peaks to the eastern Forcella Lavaredo. How great would it be to climb this traverse along the skyline one day?

The two common traverses that have been climbed so far are the classic enchainment of the small east-west traverse (Cima Piccolissima, Punta Frida, Cima Piccola) and the large west-east traverse (Cima Ovest, Cima Grande, Cima Piccola, Punta Frida, Cima Piccolissima). Both traverses have been climbed in summer as well as in winter on different routes.

After intensive research, it turned out that the Skyline Traverse had not been climbed yet. This suspicion was confirmed when I was looking for a climbable connection between Torre Comici and Cima Ovest together with Christian Bickel last year during an ascent of the Dülfer/Harrer route on Cima Ovest. The only direct connection runs through a deeply incised gorge. Due to the onset of bad weather, however, last year we were ultimately unable to realise our plan.

In mid-July 2024, we were both active for preparatory work on Tre Cime to set up a new rap line down from Torre Comici into the gorge to Cima Ovest – to close the missing connection. On another day, we improved the abseil stations at Punta Frida down to the rope pendulum through the gorge to Cima Piccolissima (we established new and improved the existiung abseil belays with slings and pitons).

We then successfully climbed the Skyline Traverse over the nine peaks from the western to the eastern pass on 23 and 24 July. We set off at around 4:00 in the morning from Forcella Col di Mezzo. After the first two peaks, we quickly got into a climbing flow that accompanied us over all the peaks. Even a broken rope, which we had to accept due to a rockfall in the abseil gorge after the fourth summit on Torre Comici, couldn't stop us from climbing. Bad weather with heavy rain forced us to make an early bivouac in the area of the cavern after reaching the summit of Cima Ovest, from where we continued climbing the next morning.

The Skyline Traverse is more than just a route – due to its length, it is a fantastic journey through the different eras of climbing history on the Tre Cime di Lavaredo.

by Micha Rinn

ROUTE DESCRIPTION:
Start: Forcella Col di Mezzo, 2315m
1. Torre Lavaredo pre summit/helmet, 2500m (▲west,▼east),
2. Torre Lavaredo, 2536m (▲west crack/6a,▼east)
3. Sasso di Landro, 2763m (▲west,▼east), Forcella Alta di Longères
4. Torre Comici, 2780m (▲west,▼abseil in east gorge)
5. Cima Ovest, 2973m (▲up from gorge, ▼Innerkofler)
6. Cima Grande, 2999m (▲▼Grohmann/Innerkofler)
7. Cima Piccola, 2857m (▲Innerkofler/Zigmondy,▼Helversen/Innerkofler)
8. Punta di Frida, 2792m (▲Siorpaes/Grünwald,▼east face), rope pendulum in gorge
9. Cima Piccolissima, 2700m (▲west traverse,▼Preuß crack)
Finish: Forcella Lavaredo, 2454m

Details:
The ascents/descents marked as "west" and "east" follow the most obvious lines and no specific routes.
The abseils from Torre Comici in the east gorge are new, the abseil belays were set up by us using pitons and slings. Technical highlight was the rope pendulum from Punta di Frida through the gorge to Cima Piccolissima.

With the Skyline Traverse we didn't want to set a new speed record on Tre Cime, nor climb the highest difficulties, but rather climb one of the most obvious lines, the Tre Cime skyline from pass to pass.

Total altitude meters: 2030 m
Total time: 23 hours

Links. www.vertikale-welten.de, www.camp.it