Via Lisa added to Torre d'Ambiez in Italy's Brenta Dolomites by Alberto Bettoli, Francesco Salvaterra

10 September 2022. After a summer packed with rock climbing, Alberto Bettoli and I decided to spend two days in Val d'Ambiez up in the Brenta Dolomites. Our aim was to to climb a new route on Torre d'Ambiez and repeat Via Rovereto on Campanile Basso.

Torre d'Ambiez is one of the most interesting medium-level peaks in the Brenta Dolomites and, thanks in part to its relatively easy access, it is climbed fairly frequently. While repeating the two corners climbed by Matteo Armani in the 1930s on various occasions, I always ended up looking at the beautiful arête that separates them, and the time had now come to lay my hands on it.

There isn't much space left and we are worried about touching and ruining a magnificent classic. We therefore decide to climb quickly, placing as few pegs as possible, to see if the line we'd envisaged might make sense or not. We climbed up weathered rock and climbed a fun and exposed, logical route. After about a five hours we reached the small summit, having placed six pegs on the last belays along the arête. We immediately felt that what we'd climbed integrates well with the others on the face, that it offers good climbing but above all that it doesn't affect the other lines. Those who repeat the line will be able to tell us if we're right or not

16 June 2023. Together with Damiano Berasi we repeated the route. We took our time to clean up some loose rock, add a few more pegs, add some threads and, on most of the belays, we place a resin-coated peg to reinforce the normal ones. I'm not a fan of classic routes being significantly refurbished with bolts for instance being added to the belays, but on a new independent line such as this one, I reckon one can work things out on a case-by-case basis. During the repeat we established a more direct variantion up the final pillar; both pitches are good, so it's best to choose which one you wish to climb based on the grade. The following day the first repeat was made by the indestructible team comprised of Franco Cavallaro, Demis Lorenzi and Roberto Moreschini.

All that remained to be done was come up with a name. Initially we wanted to call it L'intrusa, the intruder, but then it occurred to me that I had dedicated a route on Cima Grostè to my eldest daughter Greta, so to be fair, here's Via Lisa.

by Francesco Salvaterra

TOPO: Via Lisa, Torre d'Ambiez, Brenta Dolomites

Salvaterra thanks: Climbing Technology, Ferrino, SCARPA, Salice Occhiali

Info: www.francescosalvaterra.com, FB Francesco Salvaterra