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came to mountain climbing in a roundabout way. As the son of an enthusiastic chamois hunter, he was familiar with the quirks of the Sexten Dolomites from early childhood. This explains why his employer and hunting friend, an innkeeper in Carbonin, sent him out at the side of his guests as an experienced mountain guide. It was the time when ever more alpinists were visiting the Dolomite region – naturally with the aim of famously conquering the as yet virgin summits. But Michl was faster! Together with his brother, Hans Innerkofler, known as the “Gamatzmandl” (or Chamois Man), this expert climber succeeded in achieving a spectacular range of first ascents. These included Croda dei Toni (twelve in the Sexten Sundial), where previously a number of famous mountaineers had failed miserably. The “King of the Dolomites” celebrated other successful conquests of the remaining mountains of the Sexten Sundial: Croda Rossa (Dieci, ten), Cima Undici (eleven) and Cima Una (one). And he completed the famous triptych by climbing the Cima Ovest (western) and Cima Piccola (little) peaks in the Tre Cime di Lavaredo too. The latter, of all mountains, should never be judged by its name. It is an extremely technical climb and by some distance the most difficult mountain in the Sexten Dolomites. “It is not possible for a mountain to be wilder than the little peak. The little one is a devil!” its conqueror himself was once heard to say. Nobody could have suspected that this gifted climber would be undone by Monte Cristallo, a mountain that he had scaled around 300 times.