sexten-dolo-extrem

SextenDoloExtrem – South-Tyrolean Salewa athlete Simon Gietl and Swiss climber Dani Arnold successful on Sexten Dolomites project

September 1874:

The two brothers Michl and Hans Innerkofler from Sexten shake hands on the summit of the 3,094-metre Zwölferkofel. They have just made the first ascent of the most striking summit in the Sesto Sundial.

August 2024:

150 year later, the ‘Zwölfer’ is at the heart of another alpine project, this time by the climbers Simon Gietl (IT) and Dani Arnold (CH).

Bolzano // 22 August 2024

The great north faces of the Alps have always fascinated Ahrntal-climber Simon Gietl. For his SextenDoloExtrem project together with Swiss alpinist Dani Arnold, Gietl is in the Sexten Dolomites to climb the north face of the Einserkofel (2,698 metres), the north face of the Zwölferkofel (3,096 metres) and the north face of the Cima Grande (2,999 metres) – all in under 24 hours and travelling only on foot. “It’s an amazing alpine project right on my doorstep in the Sexten Dolomites. My fellow mountain guide Toni Obojes suggested the idea and I’m really up for doing it with Dani,” said Simon shortly before setting out. Gietl and Arnold started climbing at 04:00 on the first pitches of the north face of the Einserkofel. They took 3 hours and 38 minutes to climb the 800-metre route Weg der Jugend. After descending the normal route, the two alpinists hiked to the north face of the Zwölfer, where they climbed the 700-metre Schranzhofer route in what could be a record time of 2 hours and 58 minutes. To descend, they climbed back down via the normal route and then hiked to stand at the foot of the Tre Cime. Here, Gietl and Arnold climbed the 550-metre Comici in 2 hours, 54 minutes to stand on the summit of the Cima Grande where they finished their project and stopped the clock. It was just 19:00. This meant that Gietl and Arnold had completed their SextenDoloExtrem tour considerably faster than expected. Spontaneously, they decided to keep on going. Descending the Cima Grande down the normal route, they headed via the Forcella Lavaredo to the Tre Cime Hut and back down into the Sexten valley, where – after a further 10.5 kilometres or 2 hours and 56 minutes, friends were waiting with a warm welcome. All in all, they covered nearly 30 kilometres, ascended and descended 4,700 vertical metres and climbed 75 pitches rated up to VII. “For me this was a really cool project, it’s my first time climbing together with Simon, and I always love exploring new routes, new mountains and new areas,” said a happy Dani Arnold.

Gietl and Arnold in the Bergsteigermeile

People who have achieved great things are often immortalized in special places. This is the same the world over. In July 2024, as part of its anniversary programme to commemorate the first ascent of the Zwölfer, the village of Sexten opened a Bergsteigermeile – a theme trail and mountaineering hall of fame. All the featured alpinists have one thing in common. They were and are pioneers in the Sexten Dolomites, who have made their mark and left their name on previously untouched rock faces. Around its Haus der Berge (house of the mountains) the Sexten tourism association has painted a red climbing rope on the ground to mark the route. Along the trail are early ascensionists, such as Paul Grohmann or Franz Innerkofler, the ‘King of the Dolomites’ Michl Innerkofler, Saxon climber Reiner Kauschke and Sexten climber Hannes Pfeifhofer. The trail also includes the mountaineers who made the first ascents of the three north faces climbed in the project – Hans Steger and Paula Wiesinger, the Schranzhofer brothers and Emilio Comici – and now after their ‘SextenDoloExtrem’, it also includes Simon Gietl and Dani Arnold.

Extreme product testing

Simon Gietl has been working with mountain sports brand Salewa for many years. As a Salewa athlete and Salewa People team member, he’s constantly involved in developing and testing new products and collections. For his SextenDoloExtrem project, Gietl used innovative products from the new Salewa NXT Spring/Summer 2025 collection and put them through an extreme product test. “The fabrics and equipment definitely contributed to the success of the whole thing. The new collection offers the ideal combination of functionality and comfort. I was really glad to have it with me on the project,” said Gietl about his ‘product test’.