Crozzon di Brenta

The Crozzon di Brenta reaches 3,122 metres and is one of the most recognisable peaks of the Dolomiti di Brenta. Its shape is extremely simple: just two vertical walls, facing north-east and west, which meet to form the north edge, nine hundred metres high and looming over the upper val Brenta. It can be seen clearly from the road between Pinzolo and Madonna di Campiglio.

From an orographic point of view the Crozzon is no more than a shoulder of the Cima Tosa, to which it is joined on the south by a long, jagged ridge without great changes in height. The imposing nature of its forms and the weight it has in the history of mountaineering have nevertheless given it a greater individuality than that of the highest peak. Interest is concentrated on the north-east face, which stands opposite the rifugio Brentei.

The first ascent succeeded, after several attempts, on 8 August 1884: it was made by Karl Schulz of Leipzig with the guide Matteo Nicolussi of Molveno, traversing along the ridge from the Cima Tosa. On the summit stands the bivouac named after Ettore Castiglioni, mountaineer and writer, who wrote the first mountaineering guide to the Brenta group.