Piz Bernina (4,049m), 11 August 2009
Excerpts of a climbers life
Scerscen glacier with (FLTR) Piz Scerscen, Piz Bernina, Crast’ Agüzza and Piz Argient
After the solo traverse of the Grand Combin early July it took me 2 days to get all set for the next climb. But not without the usual struggle. If you’ve never done a tough solo climb, you’ll probably not understand what impact it has, what it does to you. I’ll try to explain. There’s 2 unavoidable sides to this coin. On one side it’s amazing, it’s pure, it’s magical, demands your total focus and dedication, leaves you no room for error, incomparable with climbing in a team.
Piz Bernina and Piz Palü from the north
On the other side it exposes the deepest, darkest and most hidden parts of your mind to you, your dreams, your fears, and then leaves you to deal with that. Not saying this is a bad thing, on the contrary, I wouldn’t want to miss out on it, but for sure it’s not always easy. To me, such a climb often results in a restless feeling and a need to escape everything and everybody for some time.
I arrived at the car in Bourg St. Pierre at noon. Had an exquisite spaghetti Bolognese at the Bivouac Napoleón restaurant. Then drove to Martigny. And on to Sion. But that didn’t feel good. So I turned back and went to Chamonix instead. Too busy of course, madness.
On the way to the Marinelli-Bombardieri hut
Back to Switzerland again. As long I was driving it was OK, but as soon as I stopped this eerie feeling crept over me, suffocated me. Drove to Täsch. Slept in the car on a parking near Saas Grund. Next day I drove in vain trough the Saas valley, all the way up to the Mattmark reservoir, but there was no peace, no quiet anywhere. So back down again to Visp, heading for Fiesch. It was raining. I simply kept on going, over the Furka pass to Andermatt, the Oberalp pass to Chur, the Lenzerheide and Julier pass to Sankt Moritz. Wherever I went there were always too many people, too much noise. At around 4 pm I was at Pontresina. The weather was cold and wet. Finally decided to drive over the Maloja pass and stayed at a campsite at the Mezzola lake, just north of the Como lake. There at last I found some peace of mind. And delicious pizza.
Rifugio Marinelli-Bombardieri
I washed my clothes. Walked to the small village Verceia in the shadow of the famous Piz Badile, where I had a coke on a terrace and started thinking about my next climb. This time I’d set my mind on the easternmost 4000 meter peak of the Alps, the nearby Piz Bernina in Switzerland. At first I wanted to start from the Diavolezza, the “Blitz-Ding”, a modern private hut and cable car station at 2,973 meter. From there I’d have to cross the Pers glacier at the foot of Piz Palü, climb up the Bellavista peaks, traverse underneath Crast’ Agüzza to finally end up at the Rifugio Marco e Rosa at 3,597 meter, where the actual climb to the summit would start. It wasn’t the length of the route itself that worried me, but the long glacier crossings over heavily crevassed terrain that came with it.
Always nice to meet another solo climber
First attempt
I can’t remember exactly where it was that I overheard some men talking about Piz Bernina. They’d climbed it from the south, from Italy. It sounded like a much better option. I dug into the guidebooks and maps and made a new plan. Next morning at 6:30 I was on the road again. From Sondrio it’s a very nice drive on a narrow winding mountain road with countless tunnels up to the villages Chiesa in Valmalanco and Franscia (1,500m). From there I started walking. First to the Rifugio Carate (2,636m), where I had a coke. Then on to the Marinelli-Bombardieri hut (2,813m) – which looked rather deserted. After some time a man showed up. There were no guests at the moment and the hut keepers were having lunch in the kitchen, he said, but he could fix me a plate of spaghetti. I sat outside in the sun, enjoying the awesome view, while Zeus, the big dog from the refuge, kept me company. Loud Pink Floyd music coming from the hut added to the surreal feeling.
Scerscen glacier with the tiny Parravicini bivouac
This still wasn’t my final destination for the day. After a short rest I continued my way over moraine fields and small patched of snow to the Western Marinelli pass. From that point I could see the Parravicini bivouac (3,183m), but had to make a 3 km detour around the icefall of the Upper Scerscen glacier and some huge crevasses. The snow was getting soft and I was sinking in up to my ankles, but I was still making good progress. I reached the bivouac at about 3 pm.
This small shelter is built on top of a rocky outcrop on the edge of a row of cliffs. Right in front of the door it plunges down steeply almost 600 meter. Inside there were only 6 hammocks, 3 on each side, hanging from the walls. There was a tiny window looking towards the Monte Disgrazia and a door that didn’t close completely. Who needs more? For quite some time I sat in the sun looking over the Lower Scerscen glacier in the south and the peaks Piz Scerscen and Crast’ Agüzza in the east, with in between them the couloir that led up to the SE-flank of Piz Bernina.
View from the window of the Parravicini bivouac
Soon some large clouds came rolling in, blocking the sun, and it got really cold up there. I don’t mean regular cold. No way. After the sun had gone the temperature dropped 25 degrees in no time and enveloped me in a fierce cold. The kind that bites your skin and chills you to the bone. I picked a hammock and buried myself under a bunch of smelly woolen blankets. Still it was cold all night and I woke up shivering several times.
I had set my alarm for 4 am. It took me at least half an hour to find the courage to remove the blankets and get dressed. It was freakishly cold in the hut. I had a single muesli bar for breakfast and started walking right away to get warm. It was light by the time I reached the rocks east of the Fuorcla Crast’ Agüzza. There had to be a route up there to the Rifugio Marco e Rosa at 3,597 meter, a kind of via ferrata.
Looking down the couloir to the Scerscen glacier
It started with easy rocks which got gradually steeper. Then it turned to the right and got more exposed. From that point the route was secured with metal chains. Unfortunately the chains were stuck in the ice that covered most of the rocks. At some point it was really steep and the chains disappeared completely beneath the ice. It wasn’t clear to me how the route continued and I didn’t feel very safe up there without any protection. As much as I hated it there was no other option than to descend again and climb the couloir instead.
Through deep snow I climbed up the snow and ice of the couloir. It was 10:30 when I passed the Marco e Rosa hut. The first part over the glacier was easy. Then there was some steeper ice in the rocks. It wasn’t all that hard, but on crampons it took quite a lot of time to negotiate. By the time I arrived at the begin of the narrow Spalla ridge the wind had picked up considerably. At 3,914 meter altitude I could see the summit in front of me. It still looked so far away. And the heavy wind gusts worried me. I decided to call it a day and descend. Unfortunately the weather forecast for the next few days wasn’t good, so I continued non stop all the way down to the car. After some days in my basecamp in Quincinetto I drove home. Little did I know I’d be back to have a second go at the Piz Bernina later that summer.
On the Spalla ridge
Second attempt
Less than 2 weeks later I was back in the Alps. From Chamonix I went up to the Cosmique hut and soloed the Trois Monts route over the Mont Blanc, including the summits of MB du Tacul (4,248m) and Mont Maudit (4,465m). Next I did a flash climb to the Strahlhorn (4,190m) from Saas-Fee. I felt good, strong. It was time to visit Piz Bernina again.
I still wanted to do the Spalla ridge, but this time I started a bit higher from the parking at the Campo Moro reservoir (2,000m), a few km past Franscia. And I spent the night in the Marinelli hut instead of the stone cold bivouac. Maybe a bit less pure and stylish than the 1st time, but you gotta choose your battles. It made a huge difference during the climb.
Summit pyramid of Piz Bernina
After a good breakfast at 4 am I left the warm hut and quickly went up to the couloir and on to the Marco e Rosa hut. It all seemed a lot easier now. I had a hot cup of soup in the hut and went on towards the ridge.
I avoided the first steep rocks – where several climbers were struggling in the deep fresh snow – by making a new trace in hip deep snow around it and then climbed straight up to the ridge. From there it was a nice scramble / walk in the clouds. Visibility was poor, but there was little wind and it was pure joy. Without problems I climbed the summit pyramid where a small crowd had gathered of climbers coming from the other side, the famous Bianco ridge. I sat on the top for quite a while, contemplating the meaning of life and stuff like that. Good times.