An ascent of ‘The Fish’ on the South face of the Marmalada, by Paul Platt

1995

In the late summer of 1995 a very good friend of mine, Steve Long and I flew to Italy with a single purpose, to climb a route called The Fish, on The South Face of the Marmalada. The route is 800m long but the difficulties finish at 500m. After about seven easier pitches the difficulties begin and the climbing is sustained somewhere between E3/5C and E6/6b. We were both going well at the time having climbed a number of E5 6a/b’s throughout that summer, however that still meant a little aid on skyhooks would be required. We warmed up on a ‘short’ eleven pitch route, and felt happy to complete it in under guidebook time. It was time to get on the Fish! I was pretty skint at the time so staying at the hut wasn’t an option, meaning we had to walk in from the campsite. I remember the first pitch being hard, and pulling over a roof in the dark I wondered what was I getting myself into? We moved together quite a lot for the first ten pitches which I now barely remember. It’s the part further up where the climbing got harder that really sticks in my mind.

It was really cold, and it was getting late. We were both wearing all our bivi clothing (duvet and hat), and to make matters worse, the forecast for the next day was really not good. So that was it we had to get to the end of the difficulties at 500m in one push or call it a day. The route is named after a fish shaped scope about thirteen pitches up; it’s from this point that I remember every inch! The belay uses the only bolts on the route, three really poor, spinning bolts at that! I left that belay with cold hands and proceeded with no gear, crimping on small holds. I yo-yo’d my way forward, each time retreating to warm up and psyche up. I simply had to pull it out the bag so I lassoed a sky hook into a pocket at full reach. Remarkably it held, I pulled hard to give it a good test then continued. Wide-eyed, I climbed to a good thread and traversed left. By this time my fingers were cold stumps leading to the inevitable… “I’m Off!!!” I screamed at Steve. I hadn’t mentioned the thread, so Steve thought I was going to take a 60 foot, factor 2 fall onto those inadequate bolts that the belay relied on. He took the rope in so quickly that I tensioned off the thread and managed to reach a jug. I then spent the next hour sky-hooking my way to the next belay. Unfortunately it was too late. We attempted the next pitch, but eventually decided to bail. Steve did a fantastic job leading our retreat. 3 hours of abseiling in the dark.

With the next day came a blue sky, and it was warm. Still we decided, it wasn’t going anywhere, and abandoned the attempt.

2009

I think both our wife’s were so sick of ‘Longy’ and I giggling about the Fish, that my wife Anne suggested we go back in 2009. Steve would be fifty and I forty. So in June, a little earlier in the year this time, we found ourselves back on the route. I now had two kids, and wasn’t climbing as well as I did 14 years previous, but boy was I psyched!

Just before the hard climbing began Steve realised he’d left the Sky hooks in the car, and our food was still on the hut table. So we found ourselves freeing a little more than we had expected. We discovered that in place of skyhooks, Metolius nutkeys work reasonably well, and doubled up were actually a little more secure!

I’ll start this time from the Fish bivi as described above. We had led the pitches we followed before so Steve had the sky-hook lassoing pitch. With warm hands Steve dispatched the pitch quickly and very soon I found myself leading the last hard pitch. I was going well after, despite a shaky start. I suppose I had just been nervous starting such a tough, big wall route.

The climbing from the belay was fantastic. Steep rock but with positive holds. Having spoken to a chap who’d soloed the route last year, I knew there was a LONG reach somewhere on this pitch. Anyone that knows me will know I’m really not built for long reaches! I tried and tried to reach the hold but kept falling off, thankfully onto good gear. I tried top stepping the nut key but it kept ripping. I came up with an idea… Over to the left of me was a load of tat attached to a peg. Maybe I could get to that and then climb back to the right? The climbing to the peg was around British 6a. Upon reaching it I took a rest. I now had to get back right but the wall was blank so calling to Steve to crank in the rope I was able to walk on the lead rope, not conventional aid but it worked, slowly I got closer to the hold above the big reach. With my feet on the lead rope and fingers on the hold I yelled slack and cut loose on the hold. Steve was ecstatic, it was in the bag…

…Well not quite. In the now darkness, we ended up retreating the wrong way (well I think I went the wrong way) and spent the night sitting on a long narrow ledge waiting for daylight. We were hungry and cold (we had no bivy kit beyond a light duvet each). The pitch back, though off route was awesome and around E4 5C.

We were at the 500m ledge before 9am, so we decided to top out (another 15 pitches), we were hoping to reach this point in one day and rap the route the same day (hence no bivy gear).  Our topo did not include the easier, but loose, top section and we only had a photo to find the route. So we had to get a move on as the last cable car from the Marmalada summit was at about 4pm if I remember correctly. A topo would have made it easier but by mid-afternoon we were climbing into the cable car exhausted but elated.

We both fell asleep in the cable car after two truly awesome days climbing on one of the best pieces of rock I’ve ascended in over twenty years. If you haven’t climbed on the South Face of the Marmalada get out there. There are easier routes than the Fish and indeed many harder routes.

Have fun!