Schubert (VI, 250m), Piz Ciavazes, Dolomites

16.7.17

Schubert (VI, 250m), Piz Ciavazes, Dolomites

A return visit to the Dollies. This time camping near Sella and experiencing the Sella Towers and the super accessible steep wall of Piz Ciavazes.

Piz Ciavazes is a roadside crag of about 500m. It is split at half height by an obvious terrace above which the rock deteriorates. Routes above the terrace are rarely climbed. Routes up to the terrace however are about as accessible as roadside cragging gets. It can be noisy however in the summer – motorbikes cruise through the area continuously...

Piz Ciavazes - Great crag

We started the week warming up on the easy Little Micheluzzi Direct Start (V-, 270m) . Pilar still struggling with a finger injury we figured it would be a good start. With bad weather predicted for the afternoon and having a nightmare finding the start we completed the route in not particularly fast time. We seemed to get lost at every turn. Easy lines in the dollies have proper route finding challenges. Not a bad first day by all accounts but it wasn't our finest hour...


5mins to the amazing Piz

Teams on Little Mich

Pilar on the terrace descending

The next day Pilar and I did a huge Via Ferrata on the Sella Towers called Delle Mèsules/Possnecker (VF4C, 800m). A huge route that was a proper mountain day. The route is long, has some intermediate plateaus (false summits). The walk over the summit plateau and down to the valley with great views of Piz Podoi is amazing. A great way to get up high. And fast...

Me climbing fast

Possnecker VF

Some big scenery

Robin and I returned to Piz to have a go at a sport route (Roberta -7A, 250m) . We got shut down by the 7a pitch however though in fairness I was not completely psyched to try and push passed it. Dolomite weather always has me on edge and though the weather was okay the forecast was for storms late afternoon. We bailed off from pitch 6 having had a fun morning and I felt satisfied that we had got as far as intended....(Well me anyway, Robin could have pushed on I feel)

Robin follows a pitch

An attempt as the 7a pitch

Pilar and I returned to Piz Ciavazes to climb the classic Schubert (VI, 250m) , This classic wandering climb was the best of the trip. I led the majority of the route as Pilar was still having injury issues. A great route with some stiff moves lower down and some route finding challenges of course. The crux is pitch 2 (steep) and from here the climbing is steady but with some long pitches which are pegged. Dolomite pegging on this sort of terrain is usually enough to help with the route finding but may feel somewhat runout if not carrying any trad gear. An astounding day out..

Schubert

Robin lobs the rope

Final Abseil

After a day of hiking we grabbed a sneaky route on Sella One before flying home. Pilar had her heart set on Vinatzer on Sella Three . In fact she had her eye on it all week and its a stunning looking line on a great tower. I however felt we weren't up to it on this particular trip claiming the weather wasn't stable enough. We opted for Trenker Crack (V+, 200m) in the end. Not a super hard route by any standards it was highly polished but thankfully we got the route done very fast and had ample time to head to the airport. No near misses this time.

A moody looking Sella Towers

Trenker Crack