My First Steps to Climbing
After months and months spent in the Dolomites when we didn’t have school, my parents were always trying to find new ways to entertain us. I was always drawn by the heights of the towering mountains. The rocky architecture fascinated me, and I wanted to get closer. So, when I was eleven, my parents agreed to hire a mountain guide and allow me to go on my first climb. The Via Ferrata Tridentina.
A Via Ferrata is not your usual climb. There are no free ropes, but one metal wire bolted onto the mountain that guides you from the bottom to the top. When you get to a bolt you need to unclip and clip one carabiner at a time over the bolt. If you fall, you fall to the last bolt below you. A Via Ferrata is a great way to get into climbing because the actual climbing itself isn’t hard. You can enjoy the journey up the features of the mountain. You get to bring a backpack with you and there is no need to carry ropes.
This is probably one of the most popular Via Ferrata in the Dolomites because of the very exposed bridge at the top over a gully hundreds of meters deep. Even though you are limited to where the metal wire goes, during my first Via Ferrata, I finally felt free to explore the rocky faces, which I stared up at for so long as a kid. In the process, I admired how effortlessly my mountain guide scrambled up the rock. I tried to mimic his movements switching my hands from the wire to the rock and back. He taught me to test if the rock was good enough for me to pull up on it, to be aware that the climbing on one side of the wire might be easier than the other, and to look down at my feet when placing them.
I was fortunate enough that for the next few summers my parents supported me going on more Via Ferratas and climbs. My second climbing day was at another very popular climbing area in the Dolomites: Cinque Torri. The name translates to five towers because there are five main towers, of which we climbed two or three from what I can remember. This time it was top-rope climbing. The guide goes up first and sets up an anchor for the rope to pass through. He comes down and teaches us how to tie a figure of eight knot and then we climb as he belays. My younger brother came along as well.
Now it was more about climbing, no backpack, no hiking boots. Our lightweight bodies allowed us to swiftly climb up the wall, and as the guide used to say, we were like chamois on a cliff face. Sometimes he led us up longer routes with multiple anchors to the top of a tower. In those cases he belayed us simultaneously from the top. How he did this is still magic to me. Up there, as a kid, I felt powerful and free. On the way down the guide repelled us down, hanging in the free air, with our mom looking up at us from the ground, scared.
Climbing became a way to get excited for an unknown as a kid. A challenge into uncertainty of conditions, difficulty and weather of that day. The guide usually wanted to be one of the first ones on the rock, so we started early in the mornings, sometimes before sunrise. Getting ready and waiting for the guide’s van on a dark and empty road made each of these days special. Then, in the van full of climbing gear, the excitement rolled in. During the drive my guide frequently leaned forwards to look up from his windshield at the mountains, scoping lines in his head. I copied him. When we reached the parking lot, he said: “The most dangerous part of the day is now over”. And now the climbing began.
The same summer, I went on another Via Ferrata: Punta Anna. A more challenging ferrata along a very steep corner ridge. Near the end of the early approach a herd of chamois welcomed us as they fed on the alpine grasses amongst the scree. It was the first time that I saw so many of them together. A moment that made the early start worth it. The climb was on. The conditions were ideal and the views were even better. Very quickly the Via Ferrata got very exposed, but I learned to embrace the heights and enjoy the almost birds-eye view of the valley. There were a few moments in which I felt I was approaching my boundaries, but overcoming them was really satisfying.
At the end of the Via Ferrata Punta Anna, a new Via Ferrata starts to summit the Tofana di Mezzo at over 3000 meters of altitude. The guide asked me if I wanted to keep going or go back down. I was curious to go higher up, closer to the clouds, but I soon realized that I had to be realistic and turn around. The way down included a very fun glide down a mellow loose scree, in which you place your heel first and it naturally slides down amongst the small rocks.
Another special climbing experience happened after I did the Via Ferrata Monte Paterno. We had just left the tunnels that make this Via Ferrata famous, because they were built by the soldiers during World War I. Hiking out I saw this pinnacle standing out of the other rocks and I asked the guide if it was possible to climb it. He answered yes and not too long after I was climbing it.
When I reached the top I noticed a man with a camera taking photos from the trail in our direction. He looked like he knew what he was doing, and I wanted to see those photos. You might be able to spot him in the orange jacket in the last picture below. So, when I was back down I walked ahead and found him. I approached him and asked if he was willing to share the photos. He responded yes and so I gave him my email., but he didn't give me his, which turned out to be a mistake. Funny enough I never ended up getting those images. He must have forgotten, understandable. At least my friend snapped some photos.
There were other early climbing episodes with a guide that I didn’t mention. Mostly top-rope climbing and one multi-pitch climb. I was still young and so I was not interested in learning harder knots, anchors and leading techniques, and thus I didn’t feel ready to climb outdoors without an experienced partner. So, I stopped climbing outdoors for a while as we didn’t return to the Dolomites in the summer for the past two years. Recently, I have been climbing a lot more often indoors and I now feel ready to start to learn how to lead in sport climbing outdoors and this summer I'm back in the Dolomites.
