Steger

A frequently climbed “itinerario elegante”. The route basically follows the west ridge by staying mostly slightly climber’s right of the ridge proper.

From the low saddle between the locomotive to the left, and the main ridge to the right, scramble up fairly easy terrain to the top of the saddle, and, scramble across the low angle ridge and set up to belay behind a small pinnacle.

Climb up a short wall, follow a few fixed pins, and head up a face then slightly right to a fixed belay on a shallow ledge. 40m 5.4

Ascend a neat corner on steep, fun rock then traverse on a large ledge to the right to a fixed belay below a steep face. 40m 5.5

Climb up the steep face, past fixed pitons and a steep, awkward bulge, up to a notch on the arête, and, up just right of the edge to a belay at a platform on the ridge crest. 45m 5.6

Continue up the ridge crest, past fixed pins, then slightly to the right and up a steep, fun, crack (crux). Ramble up to the summit dais. Easy scramble leads to the summit, and, the descent towards the Second Sella Tower. 45m 5.7

A well polished classic with good position and movement and a bit of awkward climbing in places.

Descent: Scramble down to the airy notch between the First and Second Tower, then, traverse off to the east towards the Ciavazes. Follow a well worn, zigzagging trail down. Near the bottom, the trail splits skier’s right to a 20m rappel, and, skier’s left to a long ramp/trough. Follow the trail back to the Sella pass.

From Sella Pass, hike a well travelled trail to the start of the route. Hike up, passing underneath the “Locomotiva” (the rock formation at the base of the tower that looks like a choo choo train) on the south side. Aim for the low point in the notch between the Locomotive and the First Sella Tower.

While the route is fairly well fixed, a small set of nuts and cams is nice to supplement the fixed protection. A few long runners are helpful especially if double ropes aren’t used. Pitches seem to end usually at a large cemented fixed ring (or nest of fixed pins).