BERGELL, SWITZERLAND
PIZ BADILE
THE NORTH-EAST FACE, THE CASSIN ROUTE
«A smooth, straight,
regular wall»: that’s how Gaston Rébuffat described the north-east face of the
Badile, twelve years after the first ascent which had cost the lives of two of the climbers, caught
in a storm.
Six o’clock in the morning. They get through pitch after pitch despite the cold
in their fingers. The sun begins to lick the granite slabs. Riccardo Cassin had figured out
the only way forward at this point. There are no other cracks, no alternative corners as distinct
as the ones that they are climbing right in the centre of the face. How did they do it? No bolts,
no climbing shoes. Just sheer will power and lots of audacity: the will to invent and follow their
route right to the apex of this gigantic funnel.
The Badile is a gift to the present from the climbers
of the thirties. One of the “six north faces of the Alps”. But above all a masterpiece
of modern rock climbing!
KEY INFORMATION
GET
THE WHOLE STORY FROM:
See the Alpine Club topo (in English), «Bernina & Bregaglia Selected Climbs», 1995.
And also Jürg von Känel’s topo (in German), «Schweiz-Italien Plaisir Sud»,
published by Filidor, 2000.
Departure:
Sasc
Fourą refuge (1,904 m), in the Bondasca valley, the Swiss side of the Bergell massif (middle
Alps).
Difficulty:
TD, passages in VI (6a in the «old format»).
Height: 800 metres.
Time of year:
end June to early September.
Time: 6 to 8 hours.
Equipment: belays, pitons in the pitches. Take
a set of nuts and mechanical nuts.