Dolomites Ultima Perla on Agner North Face climbed ground-up by Simon Gietl, Lukas Hinterberger, Michi Wohlleben

The Giant climbed in great style. This is precisely what Simon Geitl, Lukas Hinterberger and Michael Wohlleben carried out from 27 to 29 December, completing the coveted first "ground-up" ascent of Ultima perla, the beautiful mixed line established on the north face of Agner last November by Nicola Bertoldo and Diego Dellai.

In short, the South Tyrolean, the Swiss and the German set off last Wednesday at 10.00 from the car park at the end of the San Lucano valley and followed approximately 800 meters of the South Tyrolean route (Heini Holzer, Günther Messner, Reinhold Messner 17-18/08/ 1967) before joining Ultima perla, established on 23 November 2023 by Bertoldo and Dellai. In order to reach the icefall the pair had abseiled in from the summit.

Two bivouacs were necessary now and the mountain guides, after climbing all but one of the pitches free, reached the summit on Friday at 13:00. Making best use of the remaining daylight they descended rapidly and, after managing to hitchhike, they returned to the car at 17:00.

This is undoubtedly an important winter climb up a huge, wild face in the Dolomites. It is also, in all likelihood, only the second winter ascent of the South Tyrolean route; the first dates back to 1980 and was carried out by the Czechoslovakians Josef Rakoncaj and Jaromir Stejskal from 29 Febraury to 4 March.

More details to follow in due course.