Piz Badile 3308 m / Bergeller Berge / Schweiz
"North East Face" VI-,A0 / 900 m
Climbing partner: Carsten Klug (Mainz)
NE-Face "Cassin" (3.308 m)
As long as I can remember, I've always wanted to be a Mountaineer.
When "Im extremen Fels" (Pause/Winkler) was published in 1977 it was
immediately recognised as a must for every climber's bookshelf.
It was the first of its type in German and a forerunner to the later
companion volumes of classic and extreme rock.
Piz Badile north-east wall belongs to the most famous walls of the Alps
and was the place of tragedy in 1937, where Cassin and his crew were
promoted to death.
It is one of the most considerable modest climbing routes. On the other
hand, it's rather overestimated. Fact is, that the north-east wall is not
that exposed then other granite walls. Perhaps you can compare it to the
south face on Graue Wand (Urner Alps in Switzerland). The ratings used are
subjective. There are generally given modest ratings compared to the
equivalent difficulty of a climb on granite. Beside that, it is crowded
during climbing season.
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On the day we were in the route, seven roped parties have been on the wall.
And some other roped parties have been descending already again before
starting to climb as they saw the crowded wall.
Unfortunately, an Italian party above us was climbing with huge backpacks,
so that they were very slow and brought us to messing up our schedule.
Eventually we had to wait half an hour at every pitch.
I was getting nervous as I saw the woman with backpack aiding every pitch
even in easy sections. I experienced that fast climbing and descending is
the crucial point of safe climbing to achieve the aim of staying alive -
particularly with regard to such an indefinite weather.
After all I asked them to let me pass by. They said No! Way NOT? Hum?
We are not intending to bivouac on the wall today! I'm sometimes irritable,
but this time I could hold up, hoping that they would give up.
But they were climbing faster. OK so far! May be they have seen my angry
face and that was the reason they hurried up. Finally we found an
alternative "escape" route right underneath the summit on north ridge side.
And we decided not to follow the Italian party to the top anymore.
It might have been four pitches before reaching the summit, we climbed an
easy slope, grade III, to the right.
OK, we have not been on top of Piz Badile! But as long as not ending up like
the roped party in 1937, where the weather changed and they were forced to
sleep on a ridge under the falls of snow, it was alright for us.
There are a several variations for descending. If you abseil on north ridge,
be careful of rocks falling down in case your rope is dragging which is even
worse, when other climbing parties are ascending on north ridge.
"Zustieg"
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"Piz Badile "
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"Einstieg"
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"Piz Badile "
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"Piz Badile "
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" Piz Badile"
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"Piz Badile "
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"Piz Badile "
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"Piz Badile "
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" Piz Badile"
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"Piz Badile "
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"Piz Badile"
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