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Re Artu (Spiz de Mondeval formation)

5.10c, Sport, Alpine, 950 ft (288 m), 9 pitches, Grade III,  Avg: 3.9 from 9 votes
FA: Mario Dibona and others
International > Europe > Italy > Dolomites > Averau, Nuvolau… > Lastoni di Formin

Description

A very enjoyable, multipitch sport climb with a couple “hard” moves up a south facing wall. It sits immediately to the left of Love My Dogs – a harder route but one that another in your group might wish to do at the same time.
Pitch 1: Climb the bolt line over a small overhang at the second bolt to an easier ramp to a belay on a ledge with one ring bolt. 5.9 40 meters.
Pitch 2: Climb up and slightly left to another ring bolt belay. 5.10a 35 meters
Pitch 3: Climb the slab above. 5.7 35 meters
Pitch 4: Continue up the slab then up and left (no gear) for some distance around a large block that overhangs. Turn the left side of this block onto a ledge and traverse back right to a large well protected stance. 5.6 35 meters
Pitch 5: Climb up the flake/corner above to just below the roof. Exit right then climb a short overhang and up a face to a two bolt belay on a small ledge. 5.8 35 meters
Pitch 6: A very closely bolted pitch begins with a few hard moves up and right then up the bolt line to a ring bolt. 5.10c/d 45 meters.
Pitch 7: Climb up aiming just left of the big roof the up to the next roof and stepping right to a ledge. 5.10a 20 meters
Pitch 8: A few hard moves out right from the belay then left and up towards the arête the right up a steep flake. 5.10b/c 30 meters
Pitch 9: Climb up the left hand side of the pillar then straight up searching for a single ring bolt in broken terrain. 5.6 35 meters
Pitch 10: Easy moves all the way to the summit. 5.5 40 meters

Location

Parking and approach: Descend the road from Passo Giau until a hairpin turn aims you directly east looking at Lastoni di Formin. 100-200 meters later the road abruptly turns left and there is a dirt parking lot for about 6 cars on the left (West) side of the road. Park here. Across the road is a big cow pasture and at the turn is the alternate start to trail 436 (the other start is at Passo Giau). Hike this trail towards the pass (Forcella Giau) that is visible just to the right of the mountain. (You can also park at Passo Giau and follow trail 436 across the hillside and pick up this same path just prior to its ascent to the Forcella). Hike up to the pass. At the top of the pass looking North East just above you on the left you see the South face of the Spiz de Mondeval sector of Lastoni di Formin. This wall contains the routes Re Artu and Love my Dogs. Hike off the trail up through the boulders and skirt the wall following a faint then good trail through the rocks until it intersects the base of the wall. The route names are painted on the wall here. It is sometime easiest to spot the well bolted second pitch of Love my Dogs that ascend very steep yellow rock to a pillar top. Re Artu is 5 meters to the left of that route and the first bolt is about 15-20 feet up. 50 minute approach.
Descent: Walk right (East) along the edge of the wall towards a gully a few hundred meters over. The side of the gully has red paint that says “3x25” – meaning 3 rappels of 25 meters each. Wear your helmet and Do not do double rope rappels or you may not be able to retrieve your ropes and you will likely chop them with rock fall. Carefully rappel down the gully 3 times being wary each time you pull your rope. At the base it is a short hike on a nice trail back west along the base of the wall to your gear. Another descent option is to just hike all the way back (towards Pelmo) to Forcella Rossa then descend the gully and bend back around hiking back on trail 435 then 436 but this is at least 2 hours compared to the 30 minute rappel descent.

Protection

60 meter rope, 13 quick draws, 0.5 or 0.75 cam.

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

The view behind you as you climb this route
[Hide Photo] The view behind you as you climb this route
Spiz de Mondeval formation
[Hide Photo] Spiz de Mondeval formation
The last pitch- does this look like 5.5?
[Hide Photo] The last pitch- does this look like 5.5?
Pitch 6 crux section, outstanding movement.
[Hide Photo] Pitch 6 crux section, outstanding movement.
Fun pitch 5 corner!  Stemming butt shot, oh well...
[Hide Photo] Fun pitch 5 corner! Stemming butt shot, oh well...
This is what the start looks like - the climber is standing at the base of Re Artu. The pack is at the base of Love my Dogs.
[Hide Photo] This is what the start looks like - the climber is standing at the base of Re Artu. The pack is at the base of Love my Dogs.
Near the summit - rock quality deteriorating
[Hide Photo] Near the summit - rock quality deteriorating
Belay on the top of pitch 4. Pelmo off in the distance.
[Hide Photo] Belay on the top of pitch 4. Pelmo off in the distance.

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

Lynn S
 
[Hide Comment] Did this today and thought it was outstanding. Only not fun section was the last half of pitch 4. Pitch 6 and 8 are by far the best pitches.

Well bolted, minimal choss for the region, good/great belay ledges. Took us about 3.5 hours to climb and just under an hour back to our packs. Sep 17, 2019
Aimee McRae
Bend
  5.11a
[Hide Comment] I don’t want to throw Tim under the bus cause he’s put a lot of good Dolomites beta on here but he must have had a few pints while he was writing the route description and the grades. The last 2 pitches are still legit climbing- at least 5.9. We also found we needed a 70 meter rope for the rappels. And I was able to link pitch 2&3 at about 50m total. Our experience with the pitches was as follows-
P1- 5.10a if you’re tall enough to make the reach. At 5’0” I actually found this to be the hardest move on the whole route.
P2- 10b 30 meters
P3- 10a 25 meters
P4- 5.9
P5- 10a
P6- 11a
P7- 10b
P8- 10c
P9- 10a, maybe 5.9. It’s still super steep. Juggy but pumpy moves
P10- sandbagged at 5.9. There’s no way this pitch is 5.5. Eventually it gets easy but it’s steep and bouldery for quite a while.

We have an Italian topo that reflects these grades as well. Aug 2, 2023
Dave McRae
Bend, OR
[Hide Comment] I’ll second Aimee’s comment of no pitch easier than 5.9.
Otherwise, the original poster does a great job of describing the logistics of this route.
Re Artu is a great route! Varied, plenty of bolts, good anchors ,and several fun and steep sections. Beautiful location.
The rappel/ descent gully is not fun. Aug 5, 2023