A decision on a Nunatak

Shortly before the end point at pitch 9

The ca. 400 meter high south face of Mt. Tae arises practically above the roofs of Cortina d' Ampezzo. Gerry saw this wall already in wintertime and the picture of this impressive wall stayed in his mind until we packed our gear to check it out last monday, July 5th. Gerry Fiegl and I were heading to the base of the cliff on this huge wall, about a kilometer wide, made of perfect limestone. Only 5 routes have been established since 50 years and only two of them have been climbed redpoint. We ask each other, why? Situated so close to Cortina and such a perfect rock with only 5 routes? We got the answer to this question 2 days later. Gerry starts to put up the first pitch, always having our goal in mind to use as few bolts as possible. He took it serious, the first pitch around 7c/up went without using a bolt (except the one on the belay). The direction for our undertaking was pretended. With a lot of effort we worked ourselves through this compact face to reach the final headwall. But in the 9th pitch our drive has been stopped. Far and wide there was not one more hold visible, the wall was smooth on the next 20 meters in each direction. Now we understood, what a Nunatak is - Mt. Tae is a polished piece of rock trough the pressure of glacieres long time ago. Also we understood, why there are only 5 routes on this wall! A little disappointed we decided to retreat. What stays is the memory of a great adventure with the chance to do a big line..