John Ball was one of the earliest foreign trailblazers in the Dolomites, arriving in 1857, years before Tuckett (1860) and Grohmann (1862). Yet despite his early lead, Ball failed to claim the ‘crown’ of the Queen of the Dolomites. This is the story of how, and why, he missed it.
Was John Ball Really the First to Climb Monte Pelmo?
John Ball’s 1857 ascent of Monte Pelmo is usually presented as a clean historical milestone: the first successful climb of the mountain, achieved by a determined Victorian alpinist and recorded in his classic writings.