- Piz Badile
Infobox Mountain
Name = Piz Badile
Photo = Badile.jpg
Caption = The north-east face and north ridge of Piz Badile
Elevation = convert|3308|m|ft|0
Location = ITA / SUI
Range =Bregaglia
Prominence =
Type =Granite
latd= 46|latm=17 |lats=41 |latNS=N
longd=9 |longm=35 |longs=10 |longEW=E
pushpin_
Coordinates = coord|46|17|41|N|9|35|10|E|type:mountain_region:CH|display=inline,title
First ascent =W. A. B. Coolidge with guides F. and H. Dévouassoud on27 July 1867
Easiest route = South Ridge (Couloir Route) PDPiz Badile (3,308 m) is a
mountain in the Bregaglia range inSwitzerland andItaly , the border between the two countries running along the summit ridge. Its north-east face is considered one of the sixgreat north faces of the Alps .The
first ascent of Piz Badile was byW. A. B. Coolidge with guides F. and H. Dévouassoud on27 July 1867 by the south ridge. The mountain had first come to the notice of British alpinists from D. W. Freshfield's writings of the 1860s. He gave the name 'the Grey Twins' to Piz Badile andPiz Cengalo , and made the first ascent of Piz Cengalo in 1866.The two classic routes on Piz Badile are the north ridge and the "Cassin Route" on the north-east face. The north ridge – the "Badilekante" – was first prospected solo by the Swiss guide
Christian Klucker in 1892 (Klucker later made the first ascent of the Badile's west-south-west ridge with Anton von Rydzewski and M. Barbaria on14 June 1897 ). After several unsuccessful attempts by Italian parties in 1911, the ridge (IV, one pitch of V-) finally fell to Alfred Zürcher with the guide Walter Risch on4 August 1923 . F. l'Orsa and André Roch found a more direct line on the ridge on the second ascent (18 July 1926 ).The most popular route on the north-east face is the "Cassin Route" (V+/A0 or VI+), so-called after the first ascentionist
Riccardo Cassin , who climbed it with V. Ratti and G. Esposito, together with the Como team of Mario Molteni and Giuseppe Valsecchi on 14–16 July 1937. Molteni and Valsecchi were already on the face when Cassin and his party started out, but the climbers subsequently joined forces. In this famous alpine epic, Molteni died of exhaustion and exposure on the summit, whilst Valsecchi died on the descent by the south ridge just before reaching the hut.The name "Badile" means "spade" or "shovel" (arising from the mountain's appearance when viewed from the
Val Bregaglia ).Huts
*Giannetti hut (2,534 m)
*Sasc Furä hut (1,904 m)
*Sciora hut (2,118 m)References
*Collomb, Robin G., "Bregaglia West", Goring: West Col Productions, 1984
*Engel, Claire, "Mountaineering in the Alps", London: George Allen and Unwin, 1971External links
* [http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock/151179/pizzo-badile.html Piz Badile on SummitPost]
* [http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=306 An account of an ascent of the north-east face of Piz Badile in 1961]
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