Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

August 4, 2025

2753m

Friuli-Venezia-Giulia Region, Italy

The rugged massif of Jôf di Montasio is the “Ultra prominent peak” in the Italian side of the Julian Alps and therefore one of the major objectives in this trip. The standard route is not very physically demanding but involves some Grade B/C ferrata and in particular, there’s one full 60-m pitch of wobbling ladder which I was completely unaware until arriving at the base of it. This is the easiest route up the mountain but is still quite committing, and I have to admit that I underestimated the difficulty, especially as someone coming from North America with absolutely zero via ferrata experience. I didn’t even bother to bring a harness and I definitely would have if I had the right equipment.

In any case Adam and I got to a “reasonably decent” camping area within a few minutes of driving from the trail-head by midnight and slept right away. Due to the concern of afternoon thunderstorms we got up at some ungodly hour and drove the rest of the way to the trail-head. We timed ourselves so that we didn’t have to use head-lamps on this day, so it wasn’t that early after all. I decided in situ to drive us farther towards Rifugio Giacomo di Brazza labelled on the Gaia map, as the road wasn’t gated. There were some prohibitive signs but there’s no reception and we couldn’t read Italian. I even consulted with another group that was gearing up at the correct trail-head, but they weren’t Italian neither. The road was quite steep but wasn’t too rough, that I drove the rental 2WD to the absolute drivable end without issues. We parked at one of the only two spots above the hut and decided to risk it. We knew it was definitely not “right” to drive up here but we were dumb international tourists so what could they do. On the return someone had parked a pick-up truck right in front of our vehicle but with some skillful turns I was able to drive the vehicle out, encountering no issues. The outcome could be a lot worse with hefty fines or the car being towed, so I wouldn’t recommend future parties taking our way. If not because of the intense day-after-day itinerary I also wouldn’t bother to drive higher.

There’s a trail labelled on the Gaia map heading out of the rifugio towards the standard route and we took this one in. It was definitely not as “great” as the standard trail but made do. In short time we were grunting steeply up towards the imposing south face of Jôf di Montasio and then traversed climber’s right to the start of the scramble. The approach was quite “short” for us coming from Canada and U.S. After ditching some unnecessary gears and food we charged up the route, directed by the painted markers on the wall as well as chains, cables and artificial hand holds. The scrambling was quite straightforward and the cables could be entirely avoided by experienced scramblers. After the route turned climber’s left we briefly went off-route and the punishment was scrambling on compact choss, which was not my kind of favourate. I decided to find the correct way down but I didn’t inform Adam that we were actually off route.

And then there came the crux wall which started by a short (15 m) pitch of fixed ladder. The ladder was not even touching the wall so the terrain was completely overhanging. This was downright intimidating but I spotted another way scrambling/climbing around on climber’s right using some iron rings bolted into the rock. Adam went up the ladder using a static alpine draw as self-belay (which was not “correct”). Adam also did this climb without a helmet, whereas I had the helmet but didn’t bring the harness. A fall anywhere on this route would mean instant death so the helmet was basically there for show. The climbing was trickier than I thought with several low 5th class moves (even by using the artificial holds) but I did get up the first pitch quicker than Adam. And then there came the 60-m wobbling ladder. My legs were shaking quite badly which made the ladders shaking even worse. I had to stop and talk to myself to cool down and stay focused, and after about 20 m up the ladder I was getting used to the moves. The rest wasn’t too bad but the exposure was some of the most severe I’ve done without any safety backups. The route continued up the wall with at least half a dozen more pitches of via ferrata. There were several vertical sections with 5th class moves here and there, but nothing too sustained. This essentially turned into a fixed-gear-assisted scramble/climb which I was quite comfortable with, so made my way up to the summit ridge fairly quickly.

Adam was taking his time belaying himself using the static line (which also wouldn’t hold if he fell for more than a meter or two), but at least it helped significantly mentally. At this point I had basically decided to purchase a via ferrata kit as soon as we had some free time in the cities, but more on that later. The traverse across the summit ridge was also not trivial with lots of route-finding and a few steps of via-ferrata, but this type of terrain was no problem for me. I even scrambled to the next high point for fun. Unfortunately the clouds were coming in obscuring some views, and given the afternoon thunderstorms in the forecast we couldn’t be lingering too long up there.

We quickly made our way back across the summit ridge and then dropped into the ferrata lines. By this point I was already quite used to the “thing” and did the down-climb fluently and efficiently even though I had no safety backups. I also down-climbed that 60-m ladder without hesitating too much. It was shaking a lot but my legs weren’t shaking much this time. By this point another group of climbers had arrived and they gave me some advices about where to find/buy the via ferrata kits. I then down-climbed that fixed ladder which was quite easy actually. This one was not wobbling and that’s the most important. The rest of the descent was uneventful until arriving at the parking lot discovering our vehicle being blocked. I was honestly not surprised, but I took my time looking around and planned an exit route. I executed the plan and got us out without having to pay any fine, feeling just as accomplished as having climbed my first ever via ferrata route. We then drove past hordes of hikers walking on the road. The day was still young so Adam went onto his Peakbagger app again, and found a bonus P1000m objective.