Delagokante: the better plan B
After bailing on Punta Emma, we tacked on the airiest 4+ in the Dolomites on a whim.
Machine-translated from the German original. The German version is the one I actually wrote.
We’d actually spent the day on the Eisenstecken on Punta Emma. Both of us were a bit off, and at some point it was clear it wasn’t going anywhere. So we bailed.
The Delagoturm is right there next door. So we got on it on a whim.
Five short pitches, none longer than thirty metres, 130 metres of climbing in total. Sounds like nothing. It really isn’t. On the second pitch you go left around the arête, and from there there’s nothing underneath you at all. Pretty airy for a 4+.
The protection is relaxed: bolts and chains at the belays, a few pitons at the harder sections. You can still get slings and medium Friends in comfortably.
On the way up we had it entirely to ourselves, which on the most-climbed route in the Dolomites was luck. In exchange, a party of four took forever on the rappels ahead of us. Pick your poison.
All told, plan B beat plan A by some distance.