In the days before internet webcams provided all the information you could ask for about prevailing snow conditions and weather, two young hopefuls made an optimistic journey on a car ferry across the English Channel . It was May 1994 and we weren`t to know that the Brenta Dolomites would be slithery wet, cold and still very snowed in. A long way to travel to do nothing more than sit in the unheated winter room of the Brentai Hut and hope for clearing weather on the Campanile Basso, which despite three days of waiting never arrived. You win some and you lose some, and this one we definitely lost.
It was a double blow for my climbing partner. We returned to the UK much earlier than planned and arrived at his doorstep at 8 o`clock in the morning, only to find his side of the marital bed occupied by another man! My friend evicted the offender with admirable restraint and I felt very sorry for him. Not only was his trip an uncomfortable and expensive failure but he had to come home to that.
Pending another visit to do something adventurous here, below are a few images shot from a safe, hazy distance.