Summer 2022 has been so amazing! Definitely very hot, but with an incredible series of beautiful days that I almost lost count of all the climbs I’ve done in the mountains together with @GioPilli (follow him on Instagram!) and others.
Among our adventures some deserve to be remembered with a few words and images.
Pizzo Badile and the Cassin route was one of the great goals that Giovanni and I set for ourselves a few years ago. Projects must be carefully prepared, and dates must be fixed in the calendar, with a bit of flexibility but also with a good dose of luck. It’s a bit like betting three numbers in the casino and hoping they’re the lucky ones. 31, 1 and 2 (August), we gambled everything on these three, and in the end it went great.
Before leaving you to Giovanni’s story, I want to share with you briefly my thoughts about the Cassin route on Piz Badile. It’s a beautiful route, famous and therefore very busy when it’s in good condition (read dry rock). It is essential to plan the ascent well and above all the approach, if I would have found my self at the third pitch with 8-10 teams ahead that day, I think we would have bailed.. I find the traffic jams on the rock face unbearable, especially on long routes like this.
You can find many topos of the Cassin route on the web, let’s say they are all more or less correct, this one below is my favorite (link). Almost all the topos I found they describe the route with French grades. We agree the maximum grade is 5c+, which is very easy these days. Who aiming to climb a route like the Cassin warms up on a 5c at a crag? I think nobody. At least a 6a to start with. Personally I find that rating alpine routes with French grades is quite misleading, it seems to me that we want to make them look easier. Three pitches are a solid VI (UIAA grading system), there are also many pitons securing those pitches, old ones and some very ugly and rusty. The belays are all equipped with old bolts that should also be replaced, but it’s better than nothing. For a good team and if everything goes smooth, you can top out on the North Ridge in less than 7 hours. 12 quickdraws and a set of cams up to #2 are sufficient.
Cassin route, Piz Badile. Cr. Elia Deschenaux 2014
Riccardo Cassin and his Badile.
written by Gio Pilli.
It’s more or less 4:30 in the morning. It’s all dark around me and the light from my headlamp lights that short stretch of path between the rocks. I’m cold and hot at the same time. A feeling I’ve never experienced. I took off my jacket as the trail is so steep and bumpy, I was sweating but now in my short sleeved shirt I am also cold as there is a nice morning breeze blowing. Tired, more and more tired. And we just left the hut! The path is steep with few marks and with uneven rocks to be overcome with great leaps. I no longer see Alberto’s headlamp. Mario and Jared are already way ahead. Alberto shouts to me: “Come on, there are other teams behind us… hurry up! I can’t always wait for you, you always break my pace”. I have at least 11 hours of climbing and descending ahead of me and I don’t know what to say. Maybe at the col I’ll tell Alberto that it’s not my thing today. That I didn’t sleep at all in the dormitory last night. That I can only climb the North Ridge but not the Cassin. We have to go back. Doubts, fears. And then the darkness around me. “Man up” Alberto yells at me again. Then his headlamp disappears into the dark and I’m standing there in the dark with my little lamp pointing at my shoes. How disturbing that darkness is. I know the sun light will come, but maybe the dark will swallow me first.
Via Cassin, Piz Badile
But let’s take a step back. 3 steps back. To be precise, 3 years. In 2019 before Covid, Alberto, speaking of the Comici Dimai at the Cima Grande di Lavaredo north face, introduced me to the great 6 North Faces of the Alps. Among these, Pizzo Badile. At the time I knew absolutely nothing. I googled it and immediately the image of an imposing wall appeared to me with an absolutely spectacular and alien shape at the same time. A granite wall that certainly reminds that of a shovel driven into the ground. And I still read about Riccardo Cassin and his feat with his lifelong companions. The same Ratti and Esposito who had previously shared so many adventures with him. And then the unfortunate Molteni and Valsecchi. Who knows how they could rely on weather forecasts in 1937. Certainly GoreTex and other materials that we take for granted today weren’t there at all. Courage, a lot of courage as well as technical skills and a lot of passion for the mountains. Piz Badile enters my dreams. But how to get there? Lots of training for sure. But also a good dose of luck: the weather must cooperate together with dates that are compatible with me and Alberto. It takes a total of 3 days and an alignment of situations that looks like the occasional sidereal alignment. But I still put Piz Badile in my dream list. 2020 was the year of the pandemic and therefore I couldn’t fly to Italy. I found myself climbing in the Adirondacks. A wild place with 20Km for 1000 meters approaches in altitude on uneven paths. It features friction climb on granite-style rock. In 2020 I only had that and I was grateful for it. Then 2021 came, and I finally had the chance to go back to the Dolomites.After climbing the Lacedelli route on Cima Scotoni, Alberto considered myself ready for a first North face of the Alps: the Comici Dimai at the Cima Grande. A few cramps at the end, a few moments of fear but that’s okay, a beautiful adventure. Now the Piz Badile, at least from a purely technical point of view, seemed a little less impossible. But in 2021 the Badile made itself desired and it never got in a good shape all through the end of August, there was only a small window in the beginning of September. And the dates didn’t match. The Cassin remained a life-long dream.
Via Cassin, Piz Badile
2022. We started the climbing season a little slow because I had pain in my shoulder. Then with Alberto we had a great adventure climbing the North ridge of the Mt Agner in one day. I felt like I was ready for anything. Meanwhile, the heat wave made Piz Badile ready quite early in the season. “Shall we go for it or not?” Alberto asked me. We could have used those 3 days in a row we planned for the end of July in many ways. For example with two consecutive climbs over two days. But both for me and for Alberto, the motto “quality rather than quantity” prevailed. So…Let’s go – 5 hours drive accross Val Venosta, the Swiss national parks and then St.Moritz. Still further down, but where is Piz Badile? Maybe is that one? Finally here it is but then after two more turns down the Maloja pass it immediately disappears as if it wants to hide and be desidered as a beautiful woman.
Me leading one of the hard pitches of the Cassin route, Piz Badile. Ph. @TheClimbingDoctor/Instagram
The village of Bondo has just few houses. It is clear that everything revolves around Piz Badile and the Sacs Furä refuge. We left the car down the valley, the mountain is still not visible. We started the approach around 2 in the afternoon. Alberto told me that there is about a thousand meters in altitude and it will take 3 hours maybe more. 3 hours for only 1000 meters – c’mon! The week before I climbed the Sorapiss (in Cortina d’Ampezzo) on a solo mission starting from San Vito – 2200 vertical meters in less than 5 hours. How is it possible that those 1000 meters take so long? I told myself I would impress Alberto, we would take 2 hours. What naive thoughts. After an easy stretch along a dirt road, the path becomes a vertical adventure. The heat of the afternoon and the trees made me sweat so much that half liter of water ran out immediately. We had to negotiate a wild stream and we followed a very steep track. I staggered under the weight of my backpack and told myself “It can’t be much longer”. Instead the path went on and on. Then suddenly you arrive at the Sacs Furä hut. A wonderful place. You look up and finally admire the North Ridge and part of the north face of Piz Badile. The summit appears very far away. And it is!!! “But for now, I only need to rest”.
The Sasc Furä hut. Piz Badile North Ridge behind, on the right.
I met the mountain guide Mario and he introduced me to his American client Jared. They would be with us tomorrow and we would make a group of 4 even if as 2 separate teams. What a familiar face Jared had as if you’ve met him before. We started chatting and he said he is a physiotherapist for the Olympic climbing team and other sports. I put two and two together and I understood that Jared is @theclimbingdoctor on Instagram and I’ve listened to numerous podcasts about training and injury prevention. In America Jared is well known. I was surprised he’s interested in classic alpine ascents. But then he told me that this is the type of climbing that interests him. How different people actually are from what social media make it seem, for me it’s a great discovery. Mario and Jared would prove to be not only nice but a key team for the success of the following day. In fact, at the hut there were already 6 other teams keen to climb the Cassin. Way too many. Alberto and Mario decided that the 4 of us would have woken up first at 3am and leave no later than 3:45am. An absolutely winning choice because later there would have been lots of teams stuck on the wall. We had a good dinner at the hut but then I couldn’t sleep at all. I had couple crazy dreams and the alarm started to ring at 3am.
At the col, “il Viale”. We got at the base of the wall at 6am. The sun rose and the terror of the dark disappeared. I was less tired and it surprised me. I looked out from the “balcony”, “il Viale”, and looked down into the basin of the north wall. What an incredible spot and what an absolutely great setting. A granite slate. Suddenly the environment made me feel much more comfortable. I knew that once you’ve done the rappel from the col, there’s no turning back: “Hic sunt leones”. But I felt good … so I rappelled. The fear suddenly vanished. After the short traverse we found ourselves at the base of the first pitch. Alberto lead safe and quick the first pitch and after a while it was my turn.
Me leading the first pitched on the Cassin, Piz Badile. Ph Vannuccini
In the meantime, 3 other teams arrived. I set off quickly still with approach shoes (it’s pretty much easy but exposed scramble) but it felt like being at the start of the Palio di Siena where the horse riders fight for their position, so I found myself with two people next to me and one stuck to my butt. I speeded up and fortunately the other 3 rope teams took a little wrong direction or pointed to steeper options to try overtaking and in the end I found myself at the belay before them. We climbed fast on the first corner (called “Rebuffat diedrhal”) and on the next two easy pitches. Our pace is really good. Mario and Jared didn’t waste any time either. Then we found ourselves in a small ledge, quite comfortable, next to a big rock. What happen? An Italian couple who later proved to be very nice on the final rope lenghts was standing above us and moving very slowly. Meanwhile everyone arrived on the same belay. We were 5 teams sharing the same small ledge, no more than 20 meters long. Another situation “Palio di Siena style” where sometimes you try to negotiate your position and other times you just need to get it. Moments of tension and general bother. We were too many and for all mountaineers that turned to be very annoying. As the clock was ticking, spirits calmwed down and we resigned ourselves. Jared properly called the situation a good “clusterfuck”. We found out those two above us slept in a tent the night before and carried very heavy backpacks, at least 15 kg each. They were not bad climbers – they were just extremely heavy. As I asked them (once at the top of the Badile) “But why are you doing this and not sleeping in a hut?”, they replied “we would like to but we don’t have money, we simply can’t afford it”. And then I smiled, I forgave them and I saw in them all the lightheartedness of a youth that leads you to do somewhat meaningless things.
On the Cassin route, Piz Badile
Eventually after 30 minutes the two Italians speeded up. In the meantime Alberto negotiated our second position on the grid with a couple from Munich who, not knowing well the trend of the route, agreed to swap positions in exchange for betas. Franz the leader turned out to be a very pleasant person and we would spend pleasant minutes together at the belays. Several times Franz would shout to me from below: “Where should I go now?” – and me saying “a little further to the left there is a pocket, can you spot it?” – valuable information for him too.
In the end, the two Italians moved higher and the teams started to split up. The climb became beautiful and easy, on granite slabs. I felt great and at ease with that rock and all those friction moves. It turned out that the 2020 climbs in the Adirondacks on slabs came in handy for me. That’s it! The morning light now had a golden yellow color and added grandeur and beauty to the surroundings. We reached the large ledge at 9am, where once there was a snowfield. From there the difficult pitches begin and you are “halfway” on the route. There is a tin container for the log book but no book inside. What a pity. Meanwhile the two Italians felt the full weight of their backpacks on those 3 difficult ones and slowed down.
The 3 pitches from the ledge are 5c+, 5b and 5c+ respectively and although not terribly difficult they have some thin passages and sometimes the protection is not great. All the teams behind us reached the big ledge as well. But this time the general mood was much better. We were on a large ledge and plenty of room for everybody to sit down, enjoy some rest and have a bite of a snack bar. We were all happy and smiley. Mario, Jared and Alberto chatted a little further up while I was waiting few meters below them, I killed some time talking to Franz. 45 minutes went by – eventually it was time to climb on. Partly because Franz started immediately behind me, partly because I never like to keep the others waiting, partly to make up for a bit of wasted time at 2/3 of the 5c+ pitch which up until then seemed easy to me, I did a sort of “risky” move. I saw a small crystal on my right foot that would allow me to stand up even faster. I put my shoe on it and so my weight. Suddenly my foot slipped…the rope got tight and I found myself hanging with my ass 30 centimeters from Franz’s face. What an idiot! I blamed myself several times – when climbing moves are done in a hurry the result is never good. Franz told me to take it easy, he apologized for being too close to me and left me more space.
The next two pitches were very beautiful and I really enjoyed them. The second pitch of 5c+ has a small roof with underclings, it’s a bit psycho, the holds are strange but they’re all there if you have the patience to look and pull what’s best – I liked it. We got back to it and from now on to the summit all the rope teams continued more or less at the same pace and we couldn’t get in each other’s way anymore. The climb is always beautiful and the exposure gets more intense.
Giovanni climbing the V shaped chimney. Cassin route, Piz Badile
We finally arrived at the long exit chimney. It is divided over two lengths. the first is a characteristic V shaped chimney. I saw Jared sending the pitch with some elegant moves. All the time standing outside the chimney. Then Alberto who patiently lead the pitch and found all the necessary hand and foot jams. The pitch rating is a mere 5a. There’s no more slack on the rope, it’s my turn to climb. I don’t know why but I kept climbing inside the chimney, every moves more and more into it… I got almost stuck that I couldn’t get out anymore and it seemed to me I was swimming inside – what an effort. A proof that I could turn something easy on some sort of nightmare. For me it will be the hardest pitch despite the really moderate grade. The next 4 pitches are the last ones, so beautiful. The light suddenly changed and became brighter and clearer. You realize that you are finally emerging from the shades on a wall facing north-east. The light charged me up. Until that time I hadn’t eaten anything. But I was still full of energy. And, as if by magic, I found myself with Alberto on the North Ridge, off the Cassin route. We did it. Another 30 minutes on the ridge and we officially reached the summit of Piz Badile. I hug Albert. It seemed surreal to me. 2:50pm. At the beginning of the journey I wondered if I had the strength and now at the top I felt still full of energy. Darkness plays tricks with the mind. Jared and Mario had already been there for a while. A small summit celebrations, half Ritter Sport chocolate bar each and off we went down the normal route. The normal route on Piz Badile isn’t a hiking path, it has several exposed and difficult sections, especially if you are tired. The Giannetti Hut seems to be very close. But as you downclimb, it always remains there, far in the distance. Like you can’t reach it. Abseils, ledges, down uneven paths. When does this torture end? At the big cross of the normal Alberto called the hut to find out if there were couple beds for us. The answer was: “sorry, we’re full”… a few seconds of panic and then we explained that we were coming down from the Cassin route and we were quite tired. Then everything changed – first they offered us the winter bivouac but then the hut keeper would eventually find us a nice place inside the main building. We kept hiking down and resignedly I focus on one step at a time and on my breathing. And as if by magic, the terrace of the Giannetti hut appeared in front of my eyes.
It was 5:15 in the afternoon. pur journey was really over. Time for beer and chips and more beer. Most of the people were at the Giannetti hut to hike the “Sentiero Roma” and some the normal route on Piz Badile. At dinner, both Alberto and I literally swallowed whatever was put in front of us. Next to us sat two ladies, Erika and Francesca who started chatting with Jared in English. Seeing how hungry we were , they offered us their dessert – a delicious cup of tiramisù. I didn’t have time to say thanks to Francesca that I had already finished it! “But why am I so hungry?”
Hiking down to Bagni di Masino the next morning. Via Cassin, Piz Badile
Some people asked us where we came from. When I told them that we did the Cassin in the North face, they looked at us in admiration and congratulated us, and so they gave us 3 minutes of glory. And as they congratulated me I thought of Cassin and his friends. How much joy they must have felt climbing the route only to then see that joy vanish in the desperation of the loss of their companions, in the fear of that cursed storm. Having seen the environment of Piz Badile, it is easy to understand how a storm can turn into a desperate struggle for survival. True glory is not reaching the top but making it back home safely, making new friends and being in perfect harmony with your climbing partner.
