Cima Undici - Elferkofel
Peak · 3090 m · Dolomites
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Jagged pinnacles, spires and towers stack into one steep ridge running north to south, cut through by narrow gaps. Men fought for these towers in the winter of 1916, fixing ropes and cutting shelters into the rock by night because daylight on that face meant death.
Guide Michel Innerkofler made the first ascent of the south summit in 1878; his brother Hans and Baron Roland von Eötvös turned back just short of the top. Alpini of the Cadore and Fenestrelle battalions occupied the mountain from January to April 1916, working only at night or in bad weather to fix ropes and cut small shelters into the rock while snow and avalanches paralyzed the front. About thirty of the battalions' most capable climbers, nicknamed the Mascabroni, prepared the descent from these heights in complete secrecy; the operation was so quiet that the Austrians did not discover the pass had fallen for three hours. Sala received the Silver Medal for Military Valor for it, and Italo Lunelli, who led the encircling party, the Gold.
What you see
A steep ridge of jagged pinnacles, spires and towers running north to south, cut through by narrow gaps.
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