Friday morning on the 16th April 2004 saw two Czech mountaineers Marek Holubec and Pavel Pospíšil successfully completing the free descent of Pallavicini coulouir in the north face of Grossglockner (3798 m.).

Difficult snow conditions where most of the higher parts of the couloir were covered with glass ice and the only way down was through a ramp wide between 5 to 10 metres made the descent more difficult. Some od the couiloir parameters are (based on the guidebook) angle of 50 to 60 degrees and vertical length 600 metres.




Classic route was used on ascent and two days were spent in the Glockner bivouac (3200 m.) waiting for the weather to improve. The fog coming from the valley in contrast to clear skies was creating  impenetrable void known as diffusion.
  After 3 hours long ascent on Friday the two skiers began demanding descent via the above mentioned snow ramp. Beautiful scenery together with difficult conditions transferred this descent into unrepeatable dimensions.




Another unforgettable part was to come at the end where the snow was only 5 metres wide but slightly less than 100 metres long and Pavel Pospíšil enjoyed a little drop at the end.




The couloir was covered with 0.5 metre of good powder snow with the middle 50 metres being critical due to ice. This part was skied using short jumped turns.




More details will appear in future Montana issue. I would appreciate any information on other descents of this couloir. The book of ascents on the top only talks about the Slovak success from May 2003. We would like to know how many descents were done before us.



Translated by lezec.cz