Ice Climbing near Cresta

Luigi is obsessed with ice climbing, it's all he's been talking about the past few weeks. He's monitoring temperatures obsessively, reads all the forums where people discuss conditions and organizes his family outings to locations that allow him to observe the ice forming. Thus, as soon as it looked at all feasible, we went to sample the conditions for real. Arne, Luigi and I drove up to the Avers valley and scrambled down the steep snowy slope into the canyon of the Ferrera creek. The ice was already nicely formed, if a little thin and brittle in places. Luigi led the easiest looking line and installed a top rope so we could all get a few practice runs in. I climbed five variations for a total of maybe 150 meters of climbing. Including the pillar in the middle of the image. Amazing, the kind of confidence a top rope inspires ;-)

On the approach.

The crag. Sören on ice.

View from above.

Arne hacking his way up.

Winter wonderland.

Summit selfie.

Luigi.

Arne.

Luigi.

Curtain of icicles. We climbed the pillar on the left.

Arne on the pillar.

Not everyone makes it through the winter. It's a very remote and wild valley.

Thron forming. The crown jewel in terms of ice climbing in this valley. Not yet fattened up enough.