Pillar Rib (South-West Ridge), South Face of Tofana di
Rozes, Dolomites
UIAA VI-
The South Face of Tofana di Rozes is a pretty impressive sight when
viewed from the road between Cortina and Falzarego. 'The Tofana' as it's
known rises to a height of 3225m and the original South Face route (UIAA
IV+) has 880m of climbing. It's not particularly sustained but it
certainly crosses some amazing ground and feels like a big mountain route.
Further east the face becomes steeper and divides into three distinct
buttresses. These buttresses are actually on a subsidiary, lower spur of
the main mountain and so routes are in the 500m range. However, this side
of the mountain is steeper and mainly consists of good quality limestone.
The middle, and most impressive of the buttresses is known as Pilastro di
Rozes (The Pillar) and hosts two famous routes. The Pilastro (also known as
South Face Direct) is the classic hard route in this area and at 500m and
UIAA VII+ is a classic tick. To the left of the South Face Direct, and climbing the
left arete of the buttress is Pillar Rib which goes at a more amenable
grade, has good climbing and finishes at the same point on the mountain.
Pillar Rib is mainly protected by pegs and they tend to be all over the
place on the harder sections. It's worth carrying a rack in case you do
come across missing pitons or just want to place some additional
protection on the easier sections. We found that carrying one rucksack
between us containing trainers for the descent, some abseil tat and food
and water worked fine allowing the leader to concentrate on leading
without lugging a rucksack around the place.
Pillar Rib is around 13 pitches long and you'll want settled weather
and an early start. Park at Rifugio Dibona and from there it's a forty
minute walk to the base of the route. It's a popular route so don't get
frustrated if you get stuck behind other parties. On a fine weekend day,
it's not unusual to arrive and find parties already strung out along the
route. The route begins with an easy scramble up onto a ledge before a
series of UIAA IV pitches take you up and across right to the start of the
difficulties. From here there are excellent views across to other parties
on the lower pitches of The Pilastro. There's a bit of V which leads back
left to a belay under the first yellow roof. In the Dolomites, the colour
of the rock is a good indicator of it's quality. Basically, grey or black
rock is usually pretty solid, yellow rock tends to be more loose and the
bright red stuff is like cake. So here you are standing under a big yellow
roof whilst a team of three above drop things down on you. To be honest,
it's not that bad. The route is well-travelled and most of the rock stays
where it's meant to as long as it's treated with care. The next (VI-)
pitch climbs up underneath the roof (lots of pegs) and traverses right
underneath it to arrive on a very nice ledge belay. The following pitch is
probably the crux and involves a tricky right to left traverse under
another big yellow roof. The climbing's strenuous but never desperate and
there are loads of pegs for protection on this part of the route. Once
you're back on the arete on the left of the roof the route follows a
groove easily for a few pitches before exiting left at the top to avoid
another roof. Again, you need to be careful with the rock just here. The
last four pitches of the route are straightforward enough but any rock
that you do chuck down here is likely to wipe out people on the belays
below so do be careful. "Achtung" is the thing to shout if the
worst should happen. Despite the route following an arete at the top, it's
quite easy to find yourself off route up here so it's worth sticking
pretty closely to the guidebook description. The route finishes on a
shoulder of Tofana and from there it's a short walk down to the closed
Cantore hut and the valley.
Click [here]
for some photos.
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