We left our camp in the morning and drove up the winding pass road to the Plöckenpass at the Austrian and Italian border. We parked at the car park on the border, presumably in Italy. It was busy with cyclists, cars and people. The plan was to climb the 8 pitch climb named Spigolo that ascends the big cliffs to the East of the pass road. It could have as easily been the big cliffs to the West as the pass road passes between huge cliffs on either side. The climb was a mix of easy pitches ranging from 3b to 4c and the route description assured us that there were enough bolts in place. Johannes was our chief climber and Ari and I were to be clients for the day. This reflected the amount of climbing we have done recently.
Pedro walked up the normal way to the top of the Kleiner Pal and we intended to meet him up there. We’d be slower of course. We followed a small unmarked track from the carpark, after hunting around for a bit, that took us to the base of the rock. After a little more hunting we found a climb with a red arrow and faded red writing. With some imagination we could make out the word Spigolo. The rock was nice and compact and following in second was easy and enjoyable. I didn’t really have my head in climbing mode and when Johannes asked if I wanted to lead some pitches I was not so keen. Each pitch took us about 45 minutes and Johannes placed cams to protect the climb a little better. There was also options to thread slings in some parts of the climb. The anchors were mostly pretty comfortable with enough space for us to sit.
We had a good view back down to the border and car park far below and a view into Austria to our right and Italy to our left. There were a couple of large wind turbines below us spinning in the wind that increased as the day went on. We remained in the shade for most of the climb until the last couple of pitches but it was a comfortable temperature.
We finished without any dramas and followed the track, marked with red arrows, back to the main track 401b. This was perhaps the scariest part of the whole climb. The route was exposed and involved some scrambling and climbing. Occasionally it was protected by a metal rope but not always. It was already 5pm-ish by the time we got back to the main track. We headed up towards the summit for a while before realising it was actually quite a way still. We turned around and headed back down the carpark. Pedro caught us up on the way.
We drove to another camp site in the evening arriving there with just enough time to quickly place an order for dinner at the camp restaurant.
