Campanile Alto

The Campanile Alto reaches 2,937 metres and is a powerful, elegant tower that rises in isolation in the central part of the Dolomiti di Brenta, between the Busa degli Sfulmini to the east and the upper val Brenta to the west. It stands immediately north of the Campanile Basso, from which it is sharply divided by the bocchetta del Campanile Alto and, a little higher up, a gravelly terrace with the sharp spur of the Sentinella; further north, beyond the narrow notch of the Bocchetta bassa degli Sfulmini, rise the four great gendarmes of the Sfulmini.

It has not one summit but two, separated by a marked cleft: the higher one is the south summit. From the north summit the long, sharp west ridge descends to the scree of the val Brenta, dividing the two steep faces, south and north-west. To the east a high wall drops towards the Busa degli Sfulmini, cut across its upper part by the stretch of the Bocchette Centrali.

The first ascent was made on 27 July 1885 by the Bavarian Gottfried Merzbacher with the guide Bonifacio Nicolussi of Molveno, by the north-east side: Molveno provided more than one guide for the first ascents in the Brenta, because the Crozzon and the Torre di Brenta bear the name of Matteo Nicolussi. The route of the first climbers follows the so-called camino gigante nord-est, one hundred and fifty metres of grade II and III.