As it was impossible to find rope partners in my own country, I had to study foreign languages eagerly. I could manage quite well in Swedish and German, which we studied in the High School. Now the French and Italian began to be familiar too. Later on I learned the Spanish and some Russian. I have made climbs with friends from 20 different countries, almost always speaking the native language of my partner. A great opportunity was offered by the French government, which invited foreign mountaineers to a three week long meeting in Chamonix, all costs paid. That happened several times in the sixties.
In Cortina I got many good friends among the ‘Scoiattoli’ climbers and mountain guides. There was Ettore Costantini, who had made the first climb of the extremely difficult Tofana pillar in 1944. He had damaged the other eye, which made him look very wild, like Peter Lorre in the movies. He gave me good advices regarding the pillar route, which became my next target from that day onward. Claudio Zardini and Candido Bellodis, who forged for me special long pitons and cut wooden chocks from ash tree. Some of these may still 40 years later be seen on the Finlandia route of the Torre Grande. With Beniamino Franceschi I made the Miriam route in the Cinque Torri group, which up to now I have made at least five times.
Lino Lacedelli of the K2 fame gave me advices for the use of the step-slings. I did not use them very much, but tried to climb difficult passages ‘freely’, using, if unavoidable, pitons as grips and footholds. Lino told me I should use step-slings instead in order to save strength. With Gualtiero Ghedina we then tried to make the ‘Direttissima Scoiattoli’, the most difficult route of the Cinque Torri. After the problems in the beginning all went quite well until the last legs of the route, when a sudden storm and rain made us descend quickly.
Every summer when I arrived in Cortina my friends wanted to hear the latest news of the North Europe, told me happenings of the Dolomites and invited me to a glass of wine in the nearest bar. As more friends appeared we went to the next bar and they ordered some wine or beer again. It was virtually impossible for me to offer drinks to my friends, they always insisted to pay the bill. If Albino Michielli was along, our evening continued quite late, as he liked the red wine very well. Sometimes we had to show to each other how we had made such and such overhang in the mountains by climbing the nearby walls or the church tower pedestal.
My Italian friends had to work during the summer, and they could only climb during the weekends and not always even then. So I had to look for companions elsewhere. Once I got the word that a lone Belgian climber was staying in the Dibona hut under the Tofana wall. Of course I went there immediately and found the young strong looking guy outside the hut. He wanted to attack the Tofana pillar immediately, but I had just arrived and was short of training. He was not interested in preliminary projects and explained, that he could take care of the leading. As this was not absolutely to my taste, it was obvious that we would not form a cordée.
The young Belgian would have been too strong and dominant rope partner to me, as I found out a couple of years later, when he made one of the most surprising feats ever realised in the Dolomites: he climbed the north faces of Cima Ovest, Cima Grande, Cima Piccola, Punta Frida and the Preuss crack of the Cima Piccolissima – during one day and alone! I hardly have to give his name, so well known he is: Claudio Barbier.
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