Sunday February 4.
Travel day: Change of plans.

I had planned an Ultra Trail of 50km this day in Vaals, South Limburg.
Shortly after I planned this trip, I received an email from Wilco van Rooijen asking if I wanted to go ice climbing with a group of experienced men in Italy.
Of course I said yes without a second’s hesitation.
But this was scheduled the day after the Ultra.
Just before departure I decided not to do the Ultra because I would start the climbing week exhausted and I thought climbing was more important.
So at 10 o’clock we headed to Wilco and drove together to Valpusteria.
After a successful journey we arrived in Luttach and I met the rest.
Then we went to sleep quickly because the next day we would dive into the ice.

Monday February 5.

After a good night’s sleep, I woke up to Cas rumbling in the living room.
It was 7am so it was also a good time to get up.
After breakfast we packed the bags with all the gear and drove to another valley where the men had seen an ice wall yesterday that looked good.
We were able to get close by car and after half an hour of walking we were at the foot of the route.
Once there we made the rope groups and I went on the rope with Cas and Bert.
Cas climbed ahead, I followed and Bert came last.
It was a fun route with different ‘stages’.
Once we reached the top, we descended via an abseil and walked back to the car.
A little way back in the valley there was a rock wall where we did some dry-tooling.
The muscles are nice and warmed up after today.
Back in Luttach we did some shopping and Bert prepared a delicious vegetarian gnocchi dish for us.

Wednesday February 7.

After 2 days of ice climbing I thought it was time to look a bit higher.
In the mountains I always feel the need to stand on top.
So Wilco and I drove through the Dolomites towards the highest peak of this mountain range, the Marmolada at 3343 meters high.
There we could take the cable car up to the Serauta intermediate station at 2950 meters and walk up the slope.
When I arrived at the highest cable car station, I continued to the Punta Rocca, a peak of 3310 meters.
Wilco stayed behind because of his shoulder.
At the bottom of the ridge I wondered for a moment whether it was wise to do it alone because it was a fairly steep route.
But soon the doubts disappeared and I climbed up.
After some vertical climbing I reached the top and quickly took some pictures.
The wind was blowing very hard so I decided to descend again quickly.
After some scrambling and searching for the right route, I was safely back down and walked down the slope to Serauta, where Wilco was already there.
Take the lift back to the valley and back towards Valpusteria.
Had a bite to eat in Corvara in the sun along the way and covered the last part.
After a while the rest came back and we heard that Cas had a flat tire on the way.
Fortunately, they managed to replace the tire and were still able to climb.
Had a nice day again and got some good altitude.

Thursday February 8

Jeroen left early this morning.
He had the 75 kilometer Dutch Coast Trail on the program on Friday evening.
What an distance!
Wim, Bert and Wilco went for a walk to the Kasselerhütte on snowshoes today.
Cas, Melvin and I went looking for ice cream.
We drove back to the main valley and the two groups went their separate ways.
We saw at the bridge that there were many climbers in the route of the Ursprung icefall again, so we abandoned this plan.
Melvin had seen an icefall on the way so we decided to take a look there.
It looked good from a distance and we saw a few climbers in the route.
We parked the car and walked to the exit.
We climbed up and when we arrived the other climbers went down.
Melvin climbed ahead and reached a hole in the ice that put him behind the waterfall.
Cas followed and I came up last.
The ice was no longer in perfect condition, but we all made it to the surface safely.
All three of us could easily stand in the hole and take pictures.
Super fun behind such an ice curtain, never seen before.
Cas built the abseil and we took turns descending.
A really great route that all three of us enjoyed.
Back at the house, the whole group decided to go home the next day because of the bad weather forecast.
To conclude, we had a nice meal at the pizzeria.

Great week with beautiful ice routes and met nice people.