Christoph Hainz, Simon Kehrer establish Bella Ramponella in Val dai Tamersc, Fanes, Dolomites

I'd analysed this face in Val dal Sé on many different occasions, but only the left-hand area where a nice 3-pitch ice line usually forms. Since this hadn't come into condition for the last three years, I thought I'd take a look at the right side of the wall.

I studied several photos and saw that it was possible to climb a continuous line there, to the right. Looking at the photo, however, I thought that the two difficult rock pitches were shorter than they actually are. I had to see it up close, so I immediately spoke to Christoph Hainz. A few days later we approached the base of the route, full of energy and with charged batteries for the drill.

We swung lead as we established the route, and I remember it was still quite cold that day, the thermometer in the car had indicated -17°C. On the first day we established the first 4 pitches and, 11 days later, we returned to finish the route we have now called Bella Ramponella. The front part of one of Christoph's crampons fell off just as he reached me at the belay. He didn't even notice it had fallen off. With the tag line there was no problem and we easily shared a crampon to finish the last two pitches of the route.

TOPO: Bella Ramponella, Val dai Tamersc, Fanes, Dolomites

Info: www.simon-kehrer.it