Presanella

Presanella
Presanella seen from Lake Ercavallo near Ponte di Legno
Highest point
Elevation	3,558 m (11,673 ft)[1]
Prominence	1,676 m (5,499 ft)[1]
Parent peak	Piz Bernina
Listing	Ultra Alpine mountains above 3000 m
Coordinates	46°13′12″N 10°39′50″E[1]
Geography
Presanella Alps
Location	Trentino, Italy
Parent range	Adamello-Presanella
Climbing
First ascent	August 27, 1864 by François Devouassoud, Bortolo Delpero, Melville Beachcroft, James D. Walker, and Douglas William Freshfield

Presanella is a mountain in the Adamello-Presanella range of the Italian Alps of northern Italy. Presanella has an elevation of 3,558 meters and is located in the Adamello Brenta National Park within the Trentino province of Italy.

Climbing history

Presanella may have first been climbed by surveyors in 1854. Eduard Pechmann's 1865 Notizen zur Höhen- und Profilkarte has Presanella's height with two digits precision (1878.26 Viennese Klaster or 3,562.1 m), which in this list indicated that a measurement was taken from the summit during the trigonometric survey, which for Presanella was done in 1854. This possible ascent is otherwise unrecorded.^[2]

In 1862, the Viennese jurist de:Anton von Ruthner and the guides Kuenz from Martell and Delpero^[3] from Vermiglio ascended the 3043 m Passo di Cercen to the West of Presanella. They attempted the western summit (Cima di Vermiglio, 3458 m), then considered the highest by the people from Vermiglio, but failed to reach the summit, partly because Delpero did not have glacier experience.^[2][4] The first well-recorded ascent was two years later by François Devouassoud accompanied by Delpero and guiding the English gentlemen R. Melville Beachcroft, James Douglas Walker, and Douglas William Freshfield.^[5] Like Ruthner, the party approached Presanella from Vermiglio from the North to the Passo di Cercen and then crossed to the 3375 m pass now known as “Sella di Freshfield”^[6] and via the upper part of the Vedretta di Nardis over the west slope to the summit.^[7] Only three weeks later, on 17 September 1864, the Austrian explorer Julius Payer and his guide Girolamo Botteri stood on the summit, finding there to their surprise and disappointment a cairn built by Freshfield's party. Payer, Botteri and a second guide (either one Bertoldi or Giovanni Caturani, who gave up before the summit) had approached the mountain from the opposite side, starting in the Rocchetta valley, and climbing the Southeast ridge in a storm.^[2]

The first people to ascend Presanella over the steep North side were Johann “Kederbacher” Grill and Bonifacio Nicolussi guiding Bruno Wagner and Edward Kratky. On 4 August 1881, over a period of 13 hours, they climbed over the Presanella glacier to the Bocca di Presanella and ascended the Northeast ridge.^[2][8] The first ascent over the 550 m North face was by the Aostan climbers Emilio Brocherel, Ugo Croux and P. Arici in 1906.^[9][10]

See also

• List of mountains of the Alps
• List of Alpine peaks by prominence

References

1. "Europe Ultra-Prominences". Peaklist.org. Retrieved 2012-10-31.
2. Karl Schulz, Die Adamello Gruppe in Die Erschliessung der Ostalpen, Volume 2, Deutscher und Österreichischer Alpenverein, 1894, pp. 234-237.
3. Named Bortolo or Bortolameo Delpero in some sources "History". Archived from the original on May 26, 2015. Retrieved June 18, 2014. [1] Schulz called him “an Italian from Vermiglio (Del Pero?)” and Freshfield doesn’t give a name, but mentions that they hired a "porter" from Vermiglio who had guided a “German professor” in his attempt two years earlier and could lead them to the foot of the mountain.
4. Riffugio Stavel F. Denza Archived May 26, 2015, at the Wayback Machine website
5. Freshfield did not mention the first names of his companions in his book. Often H.A. Beachcroft and Horace Walker are suggested instead, but the latter is specifically mentioned as having crossed a pass several weeks before Freshfield's party did (page 12). The chosen names are as described in 1949 by Ronald William Clark in The Early Alpine Guides (page 180) and in current Italian articles commemorating the 150th year of the ascent (e.g. [2])
6. Karl Schulz proposed this name in 1894 in op. cit.
7. Douglas William Freshfield, Across country from Thonon to Trent: rambles and scrambles in Switzerland and Tyrol, Spottiswoode, 1865, chapter Ascent of the Presanella, pp. 93-102.
8. Trip report in the Alpine Journal
9. Cima Presanella at summitpost.org
10. Classic climbs in Presanella

External links

• "Cima Presanella, Italy" on Peakbagger