Piz Popena

Piz Popena
	View from the Rif. Lorenzi
height	3152 m slm
location	Belluno , Italy
Mountains	Cristallo group , Dolomites
Dominance	0.5 km → Monte Cristallo
Notch height	344 m ↓ Forcella del Cristallo
Coordinates	46 ° 34 '36 " N , 12 ° 12' 28" E Coordinates: 46 ° 34 '36 " N , 12 ° 12' 28" E
rock	Main dolomite
Age of the rock	Upper Triassic
First ascent	Edward R. Whitwell, Santo Siorpaes and Christian Lauener on June 16, 1870
Normal way	East side ( III )

The Piz Popena is a 3152 m slm high mountain in the Dolomites in the Italian province of Belluno . Along with Monte Cristallo and Cima di Mezzo , it is one of the three great peaks of the Cristallo group and was originally thought to be the highest point.

Location and surroundings

The Piz Popena rises as an isolated rock pyramid in the southeastern Cristallo group. It is separated from the main summit (Monte Cristallo) by the Forcella del Cristallo ( 2808 m ), which is cut more than 300 meters and runs south into the Grava de Cerigeres . North of the mountain extends the Circo del Cristallo with the now almost disappeared glacier remains of the Ghiacciaio del Cristallo and the smaller Ghiacciaio de Popena . The ridge runs northeast over the Punta Michele ( 2898 m ) to the Cristallino di Misurina . The Val Popena alta runs parallel to this with the Rio Popena, which drains the mountain range to the Dürrensee . On the other side of this high valley, the Piz Popena is preceded by the Pale di Misurina ( 2300 m ) and the Monte Popena, a popular climbing mountain. On that ridge are the ruins of the Rifugio Popena, which was destroyed in the First World War .

Alpinism

Piz Popena (center) and Monte Cristallo from the north, the Cristallo glacier in the center of the picture (1890s)

Monte Cristallo and Piz Popena from the south, in between the Forcella del Cristallo with the Grava de Cerigeres

The Piz Popena was first climbed on June 16, 1870 by the Englishman Edward R. Whitwell with the Swiss Christian Lauener and the local mountain guide Santo Siorpaes . The German geographer Gottfried Merzbacher later spoke in connection with the mountain of "its inaccessibility because of its notorious summit".

When the first land survey was made, the Popena was measured at 3260 m and estimated to be almost 30 meters higher than the Cristallo main summit. The well-known alpinist Paul Grohmann doubted the value in the special card in his work Walks in the Dolomites in 1877 with the knowledge that one could look over the summit of Piz Popena from the “top of Monte Cristallo”. He concluded that the two card values could have been swapped. Merzbacher agreed with this opinion and judged a difference in altitude of 25 to 30 meters in favor of the main summit - in fact, Monte Cristallo is 69 meters higher. The first reasonably accurate measurement succeeded 1886 W. Eckerth, the help of his aneroid an altitude of 3150 m postulated.

The Via Inglese over the south ridge ( UIAA grade IV ), which is still popular today, was built on August 4, 1898 by the British JS Phillimore and AGS Raynor with the guides Antonio Dimai, Michael Innerkofler jr. and Zaccaria Pompanin opened up. Emilio Comici made the first winter ascent of the mountain in 1932 .

In 1981, some members of the CAI Cortina section recovered a historical summit book from 1910 in which illustrious names such as Angelo Dibona , Emilio Comici and Ettore Castiglioni have entered. The booklet, which has only been partially preserved, can now be found in the section archive in Cortina.

Ascent

An ascent of the Piz Popena is not only technically demanding (at least III ), but above all it is physically demanding. From the most popular starting points of Passo Tre Croci or Misurina , a total of around 10 hours can be expected, and more than 1300 meters of altitude must be overcome. Remnants of old snow and steep gullies are not uncommon and require crampons to be taken with you . On the SAC high tour scale , the tour is rated ZS- ( quite difficult ). There are no bases on the way.

Web links

Commons : Cristallo - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b W. Eckerth: The mountain group of Monte Cristallo. A contribution to the knowledge of the South Tyrolean Dolomite Alps. Second, expanded and revised edition. Published by H. Dominicus, Prague 1891, pp. 90 ff. [1]
^ Nomi illustri e curiosità in vetta al Piz Popena. Ramecrodes, March 23, 2012, accessed April 16, 2016 (Italian).

[Eckerth-1] W. Eckerth: The mountain group of Monte Cristallo. A contribution to the knowledge of the South Tyrolean Dolomite Alps. Second, expanded and revised edition. Published by H. Dominicus, Prague 1891, pp. 90 ff. [1]

[2] Nomi illustri e curiosità in vetta al Piz Popena. Ramecrodes, March 23, 2012, accessed April 16, 2016 (Italian).