Three thirty. In the morning. I’m late... again. Yes, this is supposed to be a holiday – you know, doing stuff you enjoy, voluntarily, normally after a lie in – but there’s more than a touch of the hairshirt about it.Let me explain: many of the best things you can do in the South Tirol in Italy’s north eastern corner, bordering Austria, involve getting up well before the crack of dawn, whether you’re mounting an attack on the region’s highest summit or having breakfast at sunrise on one of a thousand other peaks, admiring views into Switzerland, Austria, across to the Dolomites and south over Italy, before embarking on the most beautiful walk in the world, gently downhill all the way. How good is that? Worth losing a bit of sleep over, certainly. But just as non-swimmers should probably give whitewater rafting a miss, people who ‘don’t do sunrise’ should think twice before coming here. Everyone else should get over here sharp-ish – Ryanair to Bergamo, head towards Venice, then left at Verona. It really is that easy.

The Ortler, at 3,905m, the South Tirol’s highest peak, is capped by a vast ice-field and defended on all sides by steep rock walls. Its forbidding north face was first climbed in 1966 by Reinhold Messner, local hero and, as it happens, the world’s greatest mountaineer. Now I’m having a crack, by a slightly easier route, but without supplementary oxygen, carrying all my own gear and trying not to rely too much on the rope of my local guide Gert, with me for the day. I’m certainly up against it. None of the big names who’ve been before me had the acclimatisation disadvantage of hitting the top within 24 hours of leaving London, five metres above sea level. This might not be the Himalayas, but the altitude can still get you. Nor has anyone before completed the first section, up to the 3,000m Payerhütte, in the company of a wheezing gaggle of British journalists who chose to keep themselves dry en route – through a high altitude thunderstorm – with colourful lightning conductors otherwise known as umbrellas. It’s a wonder headlines were not made that afternoon: ‘British hack fried at ten thousand feet... Shocking, say stunned and weeping colleagues, after witnessing a strike so powerful it left only a charred pair of bootsoles and a smouldering notebook containing a collection of restaurant receipts, and what is thought to be the remains of a substantial Südtirol press pack’.

They displayed better judgement the following morning by having a lie-in while Gert and I climbed by pre-dawn light over rocky ridges above airy drops, then onto the lower reaches of the ice-cap – the massive glacier that crowns the Ortler – before negotiating gaping crevasses and a steep, snowy section up to the final schlepp across the gently inclined snow-field to the summit. We raced up to beat the crowds – on a fine day there will be a hut-full up there, all of them shaking each other by the hand and saying ‘Berg Heil!’ which might mean ‘Congratulations on having made it to the top’ or just possibly, ‘How do you get down?’. The views, the thin air, the genuine big drop beneath your feet to the south, all add up to a very real mountain climb, not just one marked ‘for English people’ back in the guide’s office. Though we’re aiming to beat the sun’s heat, which rapidly turns good-going ice and snow into soggy rivers of slush, there is time to feel pleased with ourselves, then to wolf some food chased down by schnapps and finally to remember that the top is precisely half-way, and that the sketchy rock section at the start of your day might just be our demise as we descend. That rope of Gert’s never looked so good.

Back at Sulden, the little village I left less than 24 hours before, it’s time for a celebratory late lunch in the Yak & Yeti, and the chance to plan the rest of your week. There’s mountain biking, via ferrata – climbing routes with built-in protection which can be used with a minimum of equipment – and endless walks. You could spend your entire summer hoofing around the valleys and peaks. Tough and steep, or lower-level ambles – think of them as restaurant enchainments – moving seamlessly from one refuge to the next, troubled by nothing more than menu-related decisions while keeping Miss Piggy’s dictum firmly in mind: ‘Never eat more than you can lift’.But now it’s time for bed. Tomorrow, after all, is bound to start later today and tax our legs, stomach, or possibly both, to the limit.Sweet dreams.


Reinhold Messner and his museums

The world’s greatest living climber – and probably the best of all time – Reinhold Messner is best known for being the first man, with climbing partner Peter Habeler, to climb Everest without supplementary oxygen in 1978, and then in 1980 for climbing the mountain solo, also without supplementary oxygen. He made a series of exceptional 8000m Himalayan ascents, becoming the first person to climb all 14; he applied a strict ‘alpine’ rule of fair play to his climbs – fast and light, embodied by the Himalayan climb he considers his greatest, the traverse between Gasherbrum I and II with HansKammerlander in 1984. He has also made polar and desert crossings.His latest exploit is the creation of a series of Messner Mountain Museums (MMM). These are more than just a useful way of housing the extensive collection of mountain art and artefacts he has amassed, or of spectacularly spending the money he has made from his adventures. ‘I like to tell stories and I can do it through a book, but also this is a way,’ says Messner of his latest museum (the fourth of five he has planned) the MMM Firmian, a vast castle above the city of Bolzano, the capital of South Tirol. It brings together the mysticism of mountain cultures around the world as well as a poignantly personal view on mountaineering, with exhibits such as the boot of Gunther Messner, the brother Reinhold lost in an avalanche while descending Nanga Parbat on their first Himalayan expedition.


Getting there
You can fly Ryanair ( www.ryanair.com ) to Bergamo.

Accommodation
Hotel Bellavista, ( www.bellavista-suedtirol.com ) Prices start from £34 per person, staying in the Panorama room on a half-board basis.

Activities
Half Board at the Payerhütte costs £24 per person. Alpine Guides do not usually accompany you to the Payerhütte unless you intend to scale Ortler, but the service is available for families at £121 (Payerhütte not included).For those ascending the Ortler guide costs are as follows: one person – £199, two people – £133 per person, three people – £118 per person

Museums
MMM Ortles - www.ortlergebiet.it
MMM Firmian -  www.suedtirols-sueden.info/en/culture.html   and www.provinz.bz.it/Museenfuehrer/index_e.htm
Prices: £5 adults, EUR 6 groups (15 or more), students, elderly, £4 children (6-14 years), £2 families

More info
For further information on South Tirol visit www.suedtirol.info