We picked the Tofana di Rozes as the grand finale of this year's romp through the Dolomites. Graded VI, it wasn't necessarily the hardest climb we did, but at 700 meters in 14 pitches of climbing and some scrambling it was easily the longest. It's one of the great classics and as such doesn't have very many pitons. We started very early, driving up the Passo Falzarego and the tiny gravel road up to the Rifugio Angelo Dibona. From there it's a short hike to the base of the massive wall. We brought several topos. Unfortunately they disagreed on where the start of the route was. We compromised and I started climbing a dihedral roughly in the middle of where the topos thought the first pitch should be. Talk about a stiff warmup pitch! We later estimated my variant to be one of the hardest pitches we did that day.
Just when I topped out on my first pitch, a mountain guide showed up with a father/son pair of clients. Of course he knew the correct route perfectly well. They proceeded to climb two trivially easy ramps to catch up with us. Not before dropping some widowmaker boulders down on Luigi. Luckily he avoided them, but this was a lesson for the rest of the climb. For most of the day the guide would be chasing us up the mountain. We were a little proud that despite the route finding and placing more gear than the guide, we always stayed a few pitches ahead of them.
We topped out after seven hours of climbing, just when the clouds started moving in. A good hour faster than the guidebook suggested. It was a clean onsight for the both of us and we even opted for the optional harder variant of one of the later pitches. Extremely satisfying. This left only the descent. Three options available to us: certain death; exciting; or long. The guide led his clients down the suicidal route and we saw them struggle but somehow make it. Luigi and I chose the exciting option instead. A narrow and exposed path left over from WWI times. Hard to imagine soldiers scrambling around here in winter, carrying heavy gear and taking pot shots at the enemy.
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