Climbing Monte Pasquale

The decision

Early August, we planned to climb Il Gran Zebru, but due to the relatively high temperature and the condition of the route, the risk of rockfall was too high to our liking.

Since we where in the area anyway, as an alternative, we decided to climb a little know subsidiary peak of Monte Cevedale, Monte Pasquale, seen here from the Cevedale itself.

Glacier or rock?

We planned to start ascending on one of the two glaciers, Pasquale or Cedec, and gain the NW rock ridge at some point, but during the climb we changed our minds and followed the Cedec Glacier all the way up.

Crevasses

There was an interesting section where we had to cross a large crevasse, immediately followed by a short moderately steep ice climb (up to 50 degrees), but apart from that, the ascent was easy.

Being tailed

We were a party of three, including our guide. He wasn't very impressed by another, larger, group that followed our trail. Lower on the mountain, we were going steady but not fast, since our guide was searching for the best route while trying to avoid any hidden crevasses. The other group followed our trail and got closer


After reaching a large crevasse, we wasted no time to decide that it was best tackled on the right, but the group behind us went the other way, which our guide thought wasn't very smart. Since he had already found the best crossing, why try to find a different spot?


Half an our later, they still hadn't crossed the crevasse and we saw them moving to the place where we crossed ourselves. After that, we didn't see them anymore. Perhaps they didn't like the crossing, or the steep ice (up to 50 degrees) right after that and turned around. Our guide thought they had turned back. Or would they have been aiming to climb Cevedale itself via the Cedec Glacier?

Whiteout

During the climb, we got glimpses of the summit. Alas, by the time we got there, we found ourselves in a near whiteout!

Epilogue

Early next day, we had a last look at the mountain. It had been a nice climb, despite the lack of views from the top.

Images

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