by Via Normale, from RotwandHütte / Rifugio Roda di Vael
Short, easy and amusing climbing route, with a double rope on a peculiar window with a cross.
Author's Note: I thank Armando and other friends, who on several occasions have shared this climb with me, and who appear in several photographs.
From Rifugio Roda de Vael, take the path signposted Torre Finestra. The trail initially goes up on lawns:
Then, when the trail comes close to the base of the Croz di Santa Giuliana, there are some cables, and finally a peculiar ladder that goes up inside a narrow tunnel:
At the exit, you will find yourself at the base of a large grassy basin, and at a fork. You take the uphill path, which brings you under the Croz of Santa Giuliana, also called Torre Finestra:
Just below the base of the Croz, stray from the path, pointing to a pair of plates, one of which is white and visible from afar. The attack is right at the plates.
L1: You go up, bypassing the plates to the right, then up obliquely to the left, following the easiest line of ascent:
In correspondence of a marked vertical crack, keep on going up diagonally left. Possibility of a stop on two nails with lanyard.
30 m, III.
L2: Continue obliquely to the left, until you find, some ten meters from the crest, a possibility of easy passage bending diagonally to the right.
30 m, III, III+.
Ridge: Proceed about twenty meters along the ridge to the south until you find in a clevis, a point of descent, on a cemented big chain.
You run an amusing 30 m double rope (knot at the end of the rope!)
This brings you almost to the base of the wall, from where you can easily complete the descent de-climbing on the last rocks of the base.
The rest of the return takes place along the forward path.
■ gb, 2013-08-04