Vial (by zach.stone)

Anyone who has dossed about the Bondasca knows the Vial. When you are standing at the Sciora hut, eating dinner, post warm-up route, and looking west towards the Badile, west towards the Sasc Fura Hut, seeing your self on the N. Ridge or NE face the next day, looking across the Bondasca glacier, the first obstacle is the Vial. The trail from Sciora to Sasc Fura winds down from Sciora to the Bondasca glacier which one must cross with no small amount of trepidation. You can’t tell from the picture, but just to the right of the rock Rob is on is a blast zone. The gray scree field above the green moraine wall is daily bombarded the east face of Cengalo, which is actually falling down. House size blocks of rock and ice come off it hourly, especially in the morning and evening during freeze/thaw cycles. After the glacier is crossed, and the moraine wall safely gained, one confronts the Vial, which looks to have no weakness conquerable sans rope. But if one keeps the faith, as one must do on these cunning Swiss trails, the path pops round a curve to reveal a chimney replete with cables which allows one to gain access to the Vial. Once at the Vial one is confronted with the true enormity of the N Face of the Badile and the realization that by 5am the next morning you will have passed the Vial on the way up, up, up, up. 

fyi the peaks from R-L are Sciore Dente, Ago di Sciora, Pioda di Sciora, then across the scree field Torre Innominata.