The Sella Towers - Third Time Lucky!

Hoorah! After two aborted attempts, we've finally made ascent of the Dolomite classic Sella Tower! Having been snowed off in 2007, rained off last week, today we climbed the first of the four towers.

The Sella Towers - (the first tower is the right hand tower)

But it nearly didn't happen! Another pre 6am alarm call led to another discovery of a soaking wet street and low cloud in the valley outside. Back to sleep... Later that morning as things looked like they were drying up, we set off to 'have a look' up at the Sella Pass. First impressions weren't as fantastic as I'd have hope for when we arrived as we could only just see the tower!

Rain, rain, go away! The foreboding view from the Sella Pass

But it felt like the clouds were beginning to break up, so we decided to go for it and walk up to the base.

The cloud starts to break!

Walking up to the Towers as the clouds part!

Sure enough, the gamble paid off! And this meant that we had (what was billed as one of the most popular routes in the Dolomites) to ourselves! The route up the main arete (Via Steger, Grade IV+) is actually pretty disjointed, but the higher we climbed the better the route became.

Top of the first 'slippery chimney'!

We still kept an eye out behind us on the weather, which almost spooked us, but gradually the clouds broke up to give some great climbing conditions. The rock was perfectly dry and in places highly polished by the volume of traffic.

'Weather' on the way

On the Arete

The top pitch gives the greatest exposure as you have to traverse around the (by now quite thin) arete above a huge drop, then shortly after we reached the summit!

Summit Team!

And signed into the summit log book!

Signing into the summit log book

According to the guidebook, it is possible to descend the route via a series of abseils, but due to the wandering nature of the route, this didn't really seem that appealing. Instead, we continued the traverse of the first tower, then under the base of the second which is well recommended. Then a bit of down climbing..

Ridge Traversing

Then finally one abseil, saw us back on the ground.

The final abseil (30m)

Flowers everywhere!

As we walked back under the base of the towers, we got a great view of the route and watched some other climbers on different routes.

First Sella Tower - The route follows the left hand skyline

Then, seeing how the day had brightened up nicely, we drove over to the Sella Refugio for a well earned drink and the use of a very comfy rocking chair!

And relax... with the Towers in the background

Ahhh.... View from the rocking chair - 'Mountain Lifestyle'!