LIFE ON THE VERTICAL

The clouds briefly disperse, and the towering peaks which stand watch over the village of San Martino di Castrozza, in the heart of the Dolomites, come into view. This, weather permitting, is our next destination. Little by little, the contestants selected to participate in Salewa’s “Get Vertical” competition begin arriving at the hotel in the postcard-perfect Italian town. As always, the organisers were looking for outdoor enthusiasts eager to take part in a unique experience in spectacular surroundings. Aspiring contestants were asked to share their experiences and worries, in addition to sending photos. The lucky winners, a group of strangers from various countries, were to take part in a vertical adventure amidst the Dolomites, during the last weekend of August. It may sound like a joke, or an International Space Station crew, but for three days, a Greek, two Belgians, three Italians, two Poles, a Czech, a Slovenian, an Austrian, and a Spaniard, would comprise the Salewa team. The San Martino guides arrive so we can get to know one another, and we head to the nearby climbing wall to take part in our first climbing session together, a wise decision since it’s pouring down. Here, we're split into two-person climbing groups, who will each be assigned a guide. Things couldn’t go better for me. I’m assigned to Loes, a younger Belgian climber, as strong as an ox, who informs me that she spends all day at the climbing wall, since her country doesn’t have many mountains or faces for climbing. It sounds like we’ll be moving pretty quickly. Our guide, Cristiano appears strong, as you would expect of someone in his line of work. He’s middle-aged and has over 200 climbs on the faces of San Martino under his belt, as he’s quick to inform us. Next up is getting us equipped. We hand out the Salewa kit as if we were in the sales, searching for things that would serve us for the lengthy, formidable faces of the Dolomite mountains. We’ve only caught a fleeting glimpse of them from the valley as yet, but their verticality and sharp silhouettes are nothing if not imposing.

ATTACK!

Mountaineering demands an early start and a decent breakfast, since you never know what lies ahead. That’s exactly what we do in order to reach the cable car, which will take us up to within easy reach of the Rosetta summit. As we gain altitude, we move through clouds, clear skies, rain and fog. The weather looks somewhat unpredictable when we reach the top, but we are all determined to try to climb, which is what we’ve come to do. First of all, we leave some of the equipment in the Rosetta refuge, which is where we will all be sleeping tonight. After a short walk, we are all ready get started. By now, we’ve already had the chance to get to know each other, and the group, with its interesting variety of cultures and perspectives, is beginning to take shape. Everyone has a story about where they climb, what "schools" are like in their country, or the other sports they do. The Belgians, Loes and Sebastian, have to go to France if they want to find a decent climb. In fact, they were so excited that they arrived early to give the Dolomite limestone a try. Dimitri, the Greek, comes from a different environment where the heat often takes centre stage in his climbs. The Polish girls, on the other hand, have to wait for the harsh winter to pass in order to be able to access their climbing routes. They waste no time however, training day in, day out at the “wall”. Conversations about climbing flow and fill the time-outs, as usually happens in this community, although in this case in a wide variety of languages. At the last minute, Carlos arrives, after a travel odyssey. He’s another old-school climber who has been taking on the mountains in northern Spain for 20 years. We discuss the Picos de Europa, Naranjo, old-school climbing, the tough people from yesteryear who designed the trails. But there’s no time to waste, they’ve predicted rain at noon, so we’ll have to move fast if we want to give the Dolomite rock a try.

Cristiano comes running out of the refuge in search of our trail. He knows this terrain like the back of his hand, so we follow him through the fog along ridges and rocky paths, as we circle the Rosetta peak to reach its southern face. There we find the Levitti trail, which is around 250m high and is split into five sections, with a difficulty of V+. Another climbing group accompanies us to the base of the wall. It seems there’ll be six of us climbing at around the same time, while the rest of the group is split up to give other trails a try. When we reach the wall, we check that it’s dry and that it’s safe to climb. For a moment, we thought it would be more like a waterfall than anything else, but we’ve been lucky. Cristiano puts on his climbing shoes and sets off like a rocket upwards through broken terrain, which doesn’t appear to present much difficulty. Traditional wall climbing requires some coordination, even more so if you’re in a group of three, since you have to know the safety manoeuvres, the pace at which to climb, remove the "gadgets" left behind by your teammate, and not lose time at meeting points, where there is usually an jumble of strings and material. Despite the fact that I haven’t climbed for a year, and that I’m unfamiliar with the terrain, things flow from the beginning. Loes latches onto Cristiano for the first section. As soon as he reaches the top, we head up. The rock is cold, no-one would have said this was the end of summer. The weather seems more akin to winter in Spain than anything else. This is mountaineering! We climb up fast too. The terrain isn’t complicated, but the rock, as expected in these mountain ranges, has been besieged by the harsh winter, and is broken in some sections. It’s important to make sure that what we grab hold of is firm and won’t break, and also to pay attention to where we step, because you can easily hurl stones at those below you, which is exactly what has just happened a few meters above me, when a rock comes flying down and hits me in the shin. It is not the worst I’ve ever had. A short while later, another one comes hurtling past us and just misses the group below us. This is the thing about the mountain, you always have to be on your guard, because things can happen that are beyond your control. The last two sections are the most exciting because of their verticality and the fact that the clouds begin to envelop everything, making us want to reach the top as soon as possible. We reach the base of the last section and find that this morning’s rain has not wet this part of the wall and that we can climb safely. In the middle of the track there is a ledge that requires us to accurately position our feet, taking advantage of the support provided by the dihedral, the name given in climbing to the area between two faces that are more or less at 90 degrees. When the clouds open behind us, and we see the faces which surround us and the trails worm their way towards the valley in z-like shapes, the sensation is difficult to describe. The mountain faces in this area of the Dolomites reach for the sky with a wild verticality. They huddle side by side, creating a feeling of immensity which makes you feel small. The stretch to the top gives us a chance to catch a glimpse of the upper part of Rosetta. Just as we are collecting our materials, the sky breaks and a powerful summer storm begins. We run to the shelter. The rest of the climbing groups with our friends are still on the wall, so everyone who comes to the shelter has a different take on the adventure. We’re all wet but with smiles on our faces. We have managed to scale one of the most emblematic places in Europe.

CLIMBING GROUP: TEAM WORK

If there is something that comes to the fore when you find yourself on rock face or a tall mountain, it’s your relationship with your partner. Generally speaking, climbing groups comprise two climbers and are equals, in other words, they each become as strong as the other. This connection isn’t common in many sports and unites you in a very special way to all those who at some point are connected to you at the other end of the rope. During dinner, one of the great moments of a mountain refuge, because you’re normally starving after climbing for hours without so much as a morsel of food, we listen to Jacek Matuszek. This Polish climber, where many of the toughest mountaineers the Himalayas have ever seen hail from, is the ultimate Salewa icon and takes advantage of the opportunity to tell us about his adventures in the Dolomites, where he spent five years climbing the most difficult of the "big wall" trails. In most of his stories, his relationship with his climbing partners takes centre stage. That feeling of connection is spreading among all the members of the Get Vertical team, who are now laughing as they exchange their adventures on mountains, ice, rocks, and in life. The second day on the walls of San Martino starts badly, and our hopes of climbing one of the nearby high peaks are overshadowed by the storm that forms over the refuge. The team of guides decides to look for a nearby collapsed wall, which remains dry despite the rain, to do some sport climbing. We put on our climbing shoes and harnesses again and put our skills to the test on trails ranging from 6b to 6c +. Jacek meanwhile gives a demanding 8° trail a try, which he manages on the second attempt. It's nice to see the professionals climb. The second part of the day is spent travelling the 9 kilometres that separate us from our next destination, the Pradi – Dali refuge, located at 2,800m. After two hours of climbing and descending along zigzag trails, always surrounded by huge mountain faces, we arrive at a magnetic site, one of those places that stick in your head, and these days in your mobile memory, because you can’t stop taking photos of it. The refuge, which is a big hit with the guides since they party there every night, is at the base of a mountain face which is almost one kilometre high. It looks like a toy next to this huge mountain. Carlos and I spent the whole afternoon thinking about the trails we could tackle if we had good weather, while Cristiano explains to us where each route goes. This face is brutal, there is a direct climbing trail, named "Buhl", after the famous mountaineer. It doesn’t seems like we’re going to give this mammoth climb a try this time, but the landscape surrounding the refuge is unique and it is worth having travelled here just to see it. Salewa's Get Vertical experience ends the next morning with another great hike down to the valley, in light rain, through the forest enveloped in mist. After three days in the company of the winners of the contest and the brand’s team, it’s clear that the environment and the human relationships established are unique. We arrived like strangers and we have returned as climbing companions and friends.