Shortly after Micha Rinn and Christian Bickel traversed the skyline of the three Cime di Lavaredo, Dani Arnold and Simon Gietl had another “brilliant idea” (in Gietl’s words) in the same area of the Sexten Dolomites. They set out to link three north faces in one ginormous day — Cima Una, Croda dei Toni, and Cima Grande di Lavaredo.
The trifecta involved 4,700m of climbing and rappelling, 75 pitches up to Grade 7, and 28km on foot, all in 17 hours and 34 minutes.
A busy day in the Dolomites
They started at 4 am on August 9, with the Weg der Jugend route up the Cima Una. Arnold, of Switzerland, is a devoted speed climber, and Gietl was born and raised in the Dolomites, where he climbs most of the time. Not surprisingly, they completed the route in 3 hours and 38 minutes, simul-climbing most of its 800m length, Planetmountain reported.
Next, they walked to the Croda dei Toni, where they chose the 700m Schranzhofer route, summiting in two hours and 58 minutes.
They then descended via the normal route and moved to the Cima Grande di Lavaredo. Here, they climbed the Comici-Dimai route in 2 hours and 54 minutes, reaching the summit at 7 pm. They completed the challenge at the Talschluss refuge, located 10km downvalley from the Tre Cime di Lavaredo.
