Luce e Tenebre - light and darkness – First ascent of north face of Punta Pioda
- Saturday 15th March 2025
Between March 6th and 9th Roger Schäli, Filippo Sala and Silvan Schüpbach made the first ascent of an impressive line up the centre of the north face the Punta Pioda in the Alps.
The very steep and compact part of the wall had never been climbed before and offered the team extreme difficulties. Silvan Schüpbach has written an account of the team’s first ascent, Starting with his motivations, the report also contains details of the problems related to the use of the Sciora hut as well as the team’s ascent.
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The north face of Punta Pioda (3237m) towers impressively in the middle of the Bergell Sciora group. It's hard to believe that apart from one route in the right-hand section, no one has ever touched this wall. I've been fascinated by this wall for a few years now, but every time I've tried something has come up. This winter was no exception: In December, I was able to scout the first part with Ines Papert. But at the end of December I broke a bone in my foot and we had to put the project on ice. On March 5, we finally climbed up to the Sciora hut, our rucksacks heavy but our motivation high.
There's a lot to do in the hut, melting snow, digging out the chimney and replenishing the wood supplies. We start early the next morning. In December, we already had to climb some slabby pitches on the first part of the wall, now it's an easy snowfield and we're quickly under the first overhanging step. We only manage 4 pitches on this day. The rock is brittle and sandy, unfortunately we have to climb a lot of artificial. I at least try to climb free on second, which I more or less succeed in doing. We fix our first pitches with ropes and return to the hut. Although we were incredibly slow, we are euphoric because we have achieved our first goal of reaching the big snow gully. The next morning we start our push, now we want to stay in the wall.
The start is hectic and we only tidy up the huts in a makeshift manner - according to the hut book, no one else has been here this winter and we don't expect any other visitors. After a lot of hard work, we reach the end of the fixed ropes at midday with all the equipment for 3 days on the wall. Filippo and Roger continue climbing, I set up the bivouac.
In the afternoon, I watch two climbers approaching the hut. Now of all times, I think to myself, we should have cleaned up better. On the other hand, the excavated chimney, the replenished wood supply and the water on the stove should be compensation for the poor order, I try to reassure myself. But I was wrong: By the time Filippo and Roger get back to the bivouac, we are already being denounced on social media. Of course we feel guilty and know that we've made a mistake. Nobody wants to clean up other people's mess. Nevertheless, we are surprised that these accusations - from a colleague we know well - do not come directly to us, but that we are publicly denounced for our mistake. I try to reach the colleague by phone to apologize, but he is unavailable and so all I can do is apologize via WhatsApp.
A cold night full of doubt follows. Braving the difficulties of this wall is one thing, but being the bad guy at the same time is quite another. The next morning we say to ourselves: "Now more than ever!" In fact, the depression gives way to the need to give it our all and finish this route. Luckily, I get to climb a really nasty, narrow chimney as the first pitch of our third day, the perfect activity to take my mind off things...
Further up, I climb a very steep, diagonal crack, which should take us to the last bivouac spot. With good intentions, I climb freely in the M8 area, sticking cams behind huge loose flakes and letting sand and dirt trickle into my eyes. But my good intentions quickly fade and I switch to artifical climbing, which is very slow but also safer. Later, I'm very happy to leave the lead to Roger, who leads us to the bivouac band in the last light of day.
Poor Filippo would have a rest day today, but in fact he has to jumar and haul overhanging traverses the whole time... and arrives at the bivouac just as tired as the other two of us. The fourth day relieves us from the cold night. I'm pretty exhausted and glad that Filippo takes the initiative. Filippo leads us to the normal route with an abseil and through a gully. He quickly leads us through the combined terrain to the summit and into the sun, finally a bit of warmth!
We will remember this great adventure full of hardship in the wild, unknown mountains of our Alps for a long time to come. It was our first venture together and we worked really well as a team. In future, we hope that all mountaineers will observe the rules for the winter rooms in the huts (including ourselves!) and that conflicts should be resolved in direct conversation and not via social media.